XBOX 360 802.11ac issues

[amilwain]

I have no way in my current house of running cables anywhere so everything is wireless.
I setup the whole house about a year ago a 2.4 Ghz 802.11n wireless network for laptops, phones, iPads etc and a separate 802.11n 5Ghz wireless network for xbox360 extender streaming, it worked pretty well but wasn't as fast as I wanted and had issues with some large video files, the other issue is my media centre was connected over power line 200Mbits connection that is very slow due to our house wiring making internet streaming almost impossible and trying to connect the media center wirelessly as well made the xbox streaming even worse. I decided to try moving to 802.11ac AC1750 Dlink gear.

The issue I am having with the new network is that the xbox360 gets an ip address, starts to connect to the media centre, begins the downloading status, then locks up.

Anyone have any ideas? Listed below is my old and new setup

My old setup was
Living Room
Media Centre x86 Windows 7 Ultimate Media Center
Connected to western digital powerline 200mb 4 port adapter
Connected to the western digital was a Netgear WNHDE111 802.11n 5 GHz setup as an access point
Study
Biliion 802.11n ADSL 2+ Modem Router
Connected to Western Digital Powerline
Kitchen
xbox 360 extender connected via ethernet to dlink dap-1522 802.11n 5Ghz in bridge mode
Bedroom
Linksys DMA2200 connected via in built 802.11n 5Ghz wireless
Kid's Room
xbox360 extender connected via ethernet to dlink dap-1522 802.11n 5Ghz in bridge mode

New Setup
Living Room
Media Centre x86 Windows 7 Ultimate Media Center
Connected via Dlink DWA-182 802.11ac (1200) USB adapter 5Ghz
Study
Dlink DSL-2890AL 802.11ac (1750) ADSL 2+ Modem Router 5Ghz for 802.11ac extender and media centre network, 2.4Ghz for laptops etc
Kitchen
xbox 360 extender connected via ethernet to dlink dir865l 802.11ac (1750) router in bridge mode 5Ghz

The new setup was supposed to provide fast internet connection for the Media Center PC and faster wireless network for the extenders, the plan was to buy more DIR-865L routers for the other 360 and get another 360 and router to replace the old Linksys DMA2200 but I can't get even one to work so far. I have also turn off all the old 5Ghz gear to ensure it wasn't causing the problem.

Any ideas? I have logged something with DLink support.

This is a duplicate post from the networking section is case some extender expert had an idea

[barnabas1969]

It's difficult to believe that there is no way to run wires. There is almost always a way.

Wired Ethernet is the best option.
MoCa is the next best.
Powerline is next, but can be unreliable, and may not work at all in some installations.
Wireless is your last, worst choice.

[glugglug]

Like barnabas said, wireless is what you use if you have absolutely no other option. Although I suspect a good 802.11ac router that lets you adjust signal strength like the Asus rt-ac66u would probably fare better than powerline.

On top of that, though, to say that 5GHz is overrated is a pretty big understatement. 5GHz has absolutely terrible penetration. If you are going through ANY walls at all, you are better off using 2.4GHz, even with interference from 15+ neighbors. And if you aren't going through any walls (aka in the same room), why not just run a cable?

[barnabas1969]

@glugglug: I always laugh when I see claims that higher frequency equipment (whether it's wireless networking, wireless phones, or whatever) penetrates walls better. As you say, the opposite is true. Lower frequencies are better at penetrating objects, and when you get down low enough (like VHF TV channels), the signal can actually bend around some objects (like trees) whereas higher frequencies (like UHF TV channels) can't.

The higher the frequency, the more "line of sight" matters. I don't know if they still do, but the US Navy used to use Very Low Frequency (VLF) and Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) transmissions to communicate with submarines around the world, because the signal could actually bend around the globe and penetrate the water.

[RogerX]

It's difficult to believe that there is no way to run wires. There is almost always a way.

I agree with this very much. I've tried many wireless access points at various distances from my xbox 360s, and there's always some sort of periodic hiccup. It also makes troubleshooting difficult by adding the uncertainty of your link quality to the actual issue.

Since running ethernet to all three consoles... no issue.

[barnabas1969]

Worst case scenario, if you absolutely positively cannot pull wires down your walls, through your attic/basement, etc... you can run them along your baseboards (and paint them to match the baseboard) or even run them along the corner between the wall and ceiling (and paint them to match your wall/ceiling).

In one case, because I was lazy and didn't want to crawl in the attic, I drilled a hole in the wall just above the closet where my network switch is located... and ran a white (maybe light gray?) wire in the corner between the wall/ceiling about 12 feet down the hallway to a wireless access point that is mounted on the ceiling. I could have crawled in the attic to do it, but I was being lazy... it was hot when I put up that access point! Here are a couple of pictures...

I used clear caulk to hold the wire in place... and clear caulk to fill the hole I drilled to push the wire through (the wire had a connector already on it, so I drilled a pretty large hole to push it through). I never bothered to paint the hole/wire because I've just been too lazy, and it's not very noticeable way up by the ceiling anyway. The picture makes the caulk in the hole look much darker than it looks in real life. I could paint the whole thing the same color as the wall or ceiling, and it would be barely noticeable... but nobody ever looks up anyway.

Here are the pix:

[barnabas1969]

Why did I use clear caulk, you ask? Because that's what I happened to have laying around.

You can never have too much caulk.

Couldn't help myself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiPkYt09awo