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D-Link promises enough bandwidth for HD video and online Call of Duty 4 multi-player action

Many of the devices sitting in your entertainment center today need Ethernet connections to get all the functionality they offer. Many TiVO DVRs, satellite TV boxes, game consoles, and electronics devices today are Ethernet ready. The problem in many homes is that Wi-Fi signals from room to room can be weak making for dropped connections and the inability to connect devices wirelessly.

The alternative to Wi-Fi is wiring the whole home with CAT 5 Ethernet cable, which can work in new construction but in existing home installing network cable is not always practical. D-Link launched a new product today that addresses the problems many home owners and renters face when trying to set up a home network. The product is called the D-Link Coax Ethernet Adapter Kit DXN-221.

Two different products are available including a DXN-221 kit that includes two adapters; each of which has an Ethernet port and a coaxial F-type connector. Separate DXN-220 adapters can also be purchased for extending the system.

D-Link says that a typical installation will have one of the adapters connected to a router in one room and a coax cable. In another room an additional adapter will be connected to a coax cable and a device with an Ethernet port. If you have multiple devices that need connectivity the single Ethernet port on the adapter can be connected to a hub or switch to provide connectivity to multiple devices.

AJ Wang, CTO for D-Link said in a statement, “With simplified user setup, coaxial networking support, the ability to coexist with other coaxial devices, and fast networking speeds, our Coax Ethernet Adapter Kit delivers a simplified networking solution that makes it easy for consumers to enjoy the benefits of a digital home designed for high-definition media streaming, online gaming and other emerging applications. The technology is fast and a natural complement to our popular networking solutions for moving data into areas of a home where it may be difficult to run a cable or achieve a strong Wi-Fi signal."

The bandwidth provided by coax and the D-Link Ethernet-to-Coax kit is enough according to D-Link for sending HD video and music as well as playing multiplayer online video games around the home without interfering with cable or satellite broadcasts using the same coax cable. The D-Link DXN-221 kit will retail for $199.99 and the individual DXN-220 adapters will retail for $109.99. The products will be available in Q3 2008 according to D-Link.


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Why?
By mjcutri on 5/28/2008 11:37:49 AM , Rating: 2
For $200, why wouldn't i just stick with my wireless router and adapters? This might be a solution for some people in certain circumstances, but wireless is already well established and is less expensive. I just don't see this grabbing much market share. Just my 2 cents.




RE: Why?
By rudy on 5/28/2008 11:54:45 AM , Rating: 5
cause wireless is not good for gaming and other applications where a consistent quality connection is needed. It is also less secure. That stuff may not be important to you but I go through extra work to run wires even though I have a wireless router.


RE: Why?
By Polynikes on 5/28/2008 12:44:15 PM , Rating: 5
I hate wireless, it's too spotty. I'd rather have a wired connection any day.


RE: Why?
By daftrok on 5/28/2008 4:30:06 PM , Rating: 2
N wireless is a different story. Right now with G wireless I can enjoy playing Battlefield 2 online with 64 players. With N, I can do that with pretty much no jitters and download speeds are nearly identical with the wired connection. I think in this day and age we have reached a point where wired connections are slowly being replaced with wireless.


RE: Why?
By spluurfg on 5/28/2008 4:39:53 PM , Rating: 2
I hope N is better. I used to run a home network using phone lines to connect ethernet and wireless networks. 802.11b wouldn't make it half a floor in my old house. My new place has concrete walls and floors, so the only way my G network works reliably in the corners of the upstairs is by using a router with ddr-wrt as a network card.


RE: Why?
By TomZ on 5/28/2008 6:37:05 PM , Rating: 3
I agree. I recently upgraded from pre-N to a D-Link N router, and I find the connection quality to be quite improved. In remote areas of my home where I got spotty connections before, the new router provides continuous high-speed connections.

In addition, I am able to do large (multi-GB) file copy operations across wireless which would always fail with my pre-N.


RE: Why?
By rudy on 5/29/2008 12:21:33 AM , Rating: 2
G was that good for me too, when no one else was using it, when every house around you has it though and phones and other items are running on the same frequency it changes. You get interference and the same problems creep up. Also still does not solve the security issue. Wireless is replacing wired in fact in most homes probably already has but like I said people who are serious about security or quality are going to be looking for a hard connection for years to come.


RE: Why?
By dagamer34 on 5/28/2008 12:03:28 PM , Rating: 4
Because when you live in a dense area with 10 other WiFi networks, interference is a bitch.


RE: Why?
By JAB on 5/28/2008 12:38:34 PM , Rating: 2
Yup Wireless only works so well in busy areas especially when it has to go through concrete. I hope this is fast amd trouble free I will get it. Laying cat5 is not really an option. One thing to think about is that D-link often has a nice discount under the suggested price. At 120 to 130 it would be well worth the extra speed and convenence over wifi.


RE: Why?
By arazok on 5/28/2008 12:26:53 PM , Rating: 1
I don't see it grabbing much market share either, but it may become a successful niche product.

This is not a product for a person who views a router as the thing that lets you connect many PC's to the internet. This is a product for the person who wants to stream HDTV from their PC to their LCD TV. Wireless cannot do this reliably, and running CAT5 is a daunting task.

I'm moving to a new house in June, and was planning on wiring with Cat6 so I could do just this. I'd like to wire up a Windows Home Server and XBOX to my TV and watch all the downloaded content I can find.

I'll seriously consider this new product for my network - although I have a hunch I'll put in the extra effort and just snake cable through my walls. If I run into trouble I'm relieved to know there may be an alternative.


I'll stick with CAT6
By FITCamaro on 5/28/2008 12:21:08 PM , Rating: 2
I'd rather rewire my house with CAT6 to every room. Probably more reliable and not terribly more expensive with a basic system costing $300. Electricians aren't $100 an hour.

When I get a home, I plan to have a 1Gb Cisco router in a closet with every room networked to it. I'll have a coax cable going into the closet as well for the modem. For rooms where I need more than one port, I'll have access points. And I'll probably have a wireless access point at each end of the house.




RE: I'll stick with CAT6
By FITCamaro on 5/28/2008 12:21:33 PM , Rating: 2
Oh and I'll do fiber if I can afford it.


RE: I'll stick with CAT6
By sc3252 on 5/28/2008 12:39:05 PM , Rating: 2
This is exactly what I am thinking of doing. My mom wants me to move in with her, so my demand will be being able to rewire the entire house with cat 6, and a file server running either solaris 10 or debian stable in the basement.


RE: I'll stick with CAT6
By SammyJr on 5/28/2008 1:44:16 PM , Rating: 2
Sometimes its easy to wire a house, sometimes it isn't. I bought my house too late in the building process, so I wasn't able to get the wiring done. Now, to do the wiring right, I'd be punching through walls just to run the wire and with the vaulted ceiling (no attic) in the Master Bedroom, new wiring probably won't ever happen in there.

I'm going to use the Motorola NIM100s I got off eBay and am looking forward to these (hopefully) faster D-Links. I hope D-Link releases a model with more than one Ethernet port. I could see having a few devices at one location (HTPC, PS3, etc.) and it would be nice to not need another box and brick.


RE: I'll stick with CAT6
By Shane McGlaun (blog) on 5/28/2008 1:24:21 PM , Rating: 3
Rewiring is easier to do in some areas than others. The difficulty depends on local building codes in my experience. My home is new and building codes in this part of Texas with the tendency for tornadoes means there are lots of horizontal beams in the walls between the studs making running cable of any sort after the build is complete a nightmare and in many instances simply impossible. Just ask my DirectTV guy who spent 4 hours trying to fish a single coax cable from the attic only to give up and run it down the brick on the side of the house.


RE: I'll stick with CAT6
By michael67 on 5/28/2008 5:21:32 PM , Rating: 3
I did it a bid different as almost all houses in Holland are build from concrete skelton and brick outer wall, running cables thru walls is impossible.

But i put Laminate true the hole house and under need you have to put soft-board for dampening the sound of walking

In the soft-board i carved trenches to run all my cables thru this worked very well and was about 2 hours extra work for the hole house and i have a shit load of cables running everywhere (see link)
http://img02.picoodle.com/img/img02/4/2/14/f_fnetw...


RE: I'll stick with CAT6
By TomZ on 5/28/2008 6:39:03 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe you got downrated because people are jealous of the 50MB Internet connection shown in your network diagram. :o)


RE: I'll stick with CAT6
By grampaw on 5/28/2008 2:36:17 PM , Rating: 2
About a year ago I did just this - wired ethernet to every room. My theory is bits/bytes for device internet connection is no different than electrons for appliance electrical connection - you want lots of convenient outlets in each room.

So, I climbed up in the attic and methodically dropped wires down through walls (not as easy as it sounds!). Now all rooms, except bathrooms, have a 5 port switch, which feeds back to the router in the computer room, which connected to the cable modem.

So my completely wired LAN now has several computers, 2 networked printers, 2 simple NAS devices (500 Gigs each), 2 PS3s, and even an obsolete HD-DVD player. If the Netflix Roku box ever arrives, that'll be another device.


Dedicated
By djc208 on 5/28/2008 11:40:45 AM , Rating: 2
So does this need a dedicated coax line or can this be tied into the same one bringing your cable channels into the house? It's usability drastically suffers if the second is true. Might as well run cat 5e or cat 6 if you have to run a coax line or repurpose one to something else.

If it shares the line I would think it could be very prone to interference since it sounds like most cable companies are getting close to filling their available bandwith between SD, HD, Digital, On-Demand, Internet, Phone, and PPV.




RE: Dedicated
By kkwst2 on 5/28/2008 12:02:25 PM , Rating: 2
Read the link. It coexists on the same line. I assume it's using different frequencies.

Sounds like a good idea to me. I'd probably use this if I hadn't already run CAT5 through my basement.


RE: Dedicated
By kkwst2 on 5/28/2008 12:04:31 PM , Rating: 4
From the article...which specifies the frequencies.

quote:
The D-Link Coax Ethernet Adapter Kit is Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) certified and therefore designed to coexist with other technologies already being distributed in the home. MoCA certified products are able to seamlessly deliver HDTV and DVD quality digital entertainment and high-speed data without interference or latency. The device operates in the 800-1500MHz range, so there is no interference with other products such as cable TV transmissions.