I know that some people have their Receivers hooked up to 802.11b wireless ethernet.

Does anyone have an online store where I can get a reasonably priced Ethernet -> 802.11b adapter from?

I've finally got around to buying a wireless AP, so I want to give the Rio a go over wireless now.

Cheers,

Paul.

Two options;
1) The Avaya ORiNOCO Ethernet Converter £185inc VAT, but you also need to buy a PCMCIA Wireless ethernet card, cheapest approx £60.
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=OR_848333423
2) The better (or cheaper option) £148.04 for the Linksys WAP11. I haven't proven this yet but apparently via a Firmware upgrade you can turn it into an Ethernet bridge.
http://www.insight.com/cgi-bin/bp/948139012/uk/result.html?t=A&a=s&f=p&d=WAP11
http://www.linksys.com/download/vertxt/wap11_fw_ver.txt

Dobbs

Thanks for the reply.

Interestingly I already have the WAP11, it's my current 802.11b hub.

The Orinoco is outrageously priced. Over twice the price of the Rio dammit....

I'm going to have to think about this again, there's no way I'm spending that on a eth. converter.

Cheers,

Paul.

I am addressing the problem by getting a NetGear 802.11b Wireless Access Point (100 quid + VAT) and plugging the Receiver into that. Then getting a PCI 802.11b card for my server and letting it do the routing to my main Ethernet network.

Kind of a strange way of approaching it, but it is much cheaper that an Ethernet- 802.11b converter, which is silly because the access point is probably more complex...

That works fine with one Receiver, but will it scale to two or three ?

I don't know. I suspect not though, it depends if you can get the access point to run in peer to peer mode or as a client.

Actually reading docs on the NetGear website it appears that you might be able to use several access points on a single wireless network. If this really is the case then their 100 quid ME102 is a very cheap wireless-Ethernet bridge...

Sounds interesting. Anybody done this yet ?

It is indeed a shed load of money for the Ethernet Converter ( cheapest I have paid is £150+shipping ), but the solution is small and neat and works just fine. There does not appear to be much ( any ) development on the Ethernet Converter, and I keep hoping someone has huge stocks and sell them off cheap. Its the same dream I have about Empegs for £140 and HSX / Receivers being available in the UK though.

Thanks Rod for the reply,

I just can't bring myself to pay that sort of money for such a simple piece of kit.. Its just a bunch of wires in the end....

I remember paying a similar amount for a KVM switch a long time ago and being amazed when I opened the box to find pretty much nothing.

Anyway, I'll keep searching...

Cheers,

Paul.

Likewise I will shout if I see them cheap anywhere.

Although if anyone else is interested in a bulk purchase, I would be interested to hear from them, as I could do with at least two more.

This might be an acceptable and cheaper wireless solution for some, but (a) It's not tested, and (b) It's not 802.11b, but it is cheap.

Netgear sells a wireless multimedia system that uses the Whitecap technology - it's 11mbps but not 802.11b. Supposedly it is better for multimedia applications that require a constant bandwidth, and is being used in the forthcoming 802.11e standard. Some background info here:

http://www.sharewave.com/Products/WhiteCap/whitecap.html

Anyway, the kit consists of a PCI card and an ethernet bridge. The original price (e.g. on Amazon) was $300 but the Netgear store is selling them for $70 (or individually for $40 and $30 for the bridge, and PCI card respectively).

http://www.netgear.com/product_view.asp?xrp=11&yrp=31&zrp=103

Netgear also seems to be selling them directly on eBay e.g. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1325765821

I emailed Netgear techsupport to ask if there was any way to just have two bridges (i.e. on on the Rio and one on a router) and they said no, but they say it should be fine with the PCI card in your PC and the bridge on the Rio. I should point out that I haven't done this myself, so if it doesn't work, please don't come crying to me (and also, if you have reason to believe that it wouldn't work well with the Rio Receiver, please say something).

The manuals are available on the Netgear site as downloadable .pdf's.

Not sure about availability in the UK - the UK Netgear site seems to link to the US store.

Of course, what would be really cool would be an adapter between either the ethernet or HomePNA port and the new Homeplug mains-based system, which seems more elegant than wireless for anything besides truly mobile devices.

Hope this is of use to someone.

- Gary