Vivid Wireless - Home Gateway Options

[bowlen]

I am moving house soon and unfortunately going to be in an ADSL2 dead zone. The good news is that Vivid wireless can get like 7mbps around that area (which is a step down from my current 20 mbps but it will have to do).

The question I have though, is if I still want to have a usual network setup with media centres sharing videos from my desktop etc, will a Home Gateway device actully support that? Does it have any ethernet ports?

[aliali]

Unfortunately http://www.vividwireless.com.au/wireless-b...ms/home-gateway does not mention the number of ethernet ports but a quick check of the Vivid forums seems to suggest it has two built in.
Even if it only has one as it is a gateway with routing and NAT all you would need to do is connect a switch up to one ethernet port to expand the number of wired devices it will support.
You really need to ask Vivid about any limitations of the device and connection, or ask on their forums.
http://forum.vividwireless.com.au/

[bowlen]

Unfortunately http://www.vividwireless.com.au/wireless-b...ms/home-gateway does not mention the number of ethernet ports but a quick check of the Vivid forums seems to suggest it has two built in.
Even if it only has one as it is a gateway with routing and NAT all you would need to do is connect a switch up to one ethernet port to expand the number of wired devices it will support.
You really need to ask Vivid about any limitations of the device and connection, or ask on their forums.
http://forum.vividwireless.com.au/

Yeah well as long as it has one, then everything will be fine! I have emailed Vivid so hopefully they will clear it all up.
Cheers

[Caelum]

Ask Russell mate, he probably knows.

[bowlen]

Ask Russell mate, he probably knows.

Cheers mate, yeah I think Roland also may have one

Reply from Vivid was the following;

The home gateway is a WiMAX modem and router containing 2 integrated Omni antennae. It features 2 built-in Ethernet ports to allow wired connections, and a Wi-Fi network using 802.11b/g/n to allow up to 5 wireless devices to connect simultaneously. The Wi-Fi comes secured with WPA2-PSK, and an internal firewall further protects your network. A phone port on the home gateway gives you the ability to use a phone service without the need for a phone line.

[justo316]

Yep, can confirm the home gateway has 2 ethernet ports.

Not sure how it limits you to 5 wifi devices, but in theory, you can add another wireless router to it to act as an access point for more wifi devices. I did this at a workplace the other day, though they didnt have more than 5 wifi devices to confirm.

Essentially, I turned off dhcp on the extra (cisco) wifi router. Plugged an ethernet cable from the vivid router to the cisco which gave me an extra 3 ethernet ports to work with. I did connect via wifi to the cisco, and got net and could access network shares to printers/computers connected to the vivid wifi connection.

[bowlen]

Yep, can confirm the home gateway has 2 ethernet ports.

Not sure how it limits you to 5 wifi devices, but in theory, you can add another wireless router to it to act as an access point for more wifi devices. I did this at a workplace the other day, though they didnt have more than 5 wifi devices to confirm.

Essentially, I turned off dhcp on the extra (cisco) wifi router. Plugged an ethernet cable from the vivid router to the cisco which gave me an extra 3 ethernet ports to work with. I did connect via wifi to the cisco, and got net and could access network shares to printers/computers connected to the vivid wifi connection.

Ah cool, so in theory, I can connect a switch up to the Home Gateway and have everything run off ethernet (don't need much that is wireless)??

[justo316]

Yep, can confirm the home gateway has 2 ethernet ports.

Not sure how it limits you to 5 wifi devices, but in theory, you can add another wireless router to it to act as an access point for more wifi devices. I did this at a workplace the other day, though they didnt have more than 5 wifi devices to confirm.

Essentially, I turned off dhcp on the extra (cisco) wifi router. Plugged an ethernet cable from the vivid router to the cisco which gave me an extra 3 ethernet ports to work with. I did connect via wifi to the cisco, and got net and could access network shares to printers/computers connected to the vivid wifi connection.

Ah cool, so in theory, I can connect a switch up to the Home Gateway and have everything run off ethernet (don't need much that is wireless)??

Yeppers, that's essentially what I did :)

[bowlen]

Brilliant! I guess I will check it out tomorrow when the hardware arrives!

[Jeruselem]

Noticed they shape your connection once the cap gets hit instead of smacking you in the head with per MB charge.

[bowlen]

Well I have just set up Vivid and it is working pretty damn well at the moment. I haven't started using the switch yet, but so far am getting 10mbit down.

[justo316]

Well I have just set up Vivid and it is working pretty damn well at the moment. I haven't started using the switch yet, but so far am getting 10mbit down.

Yeah I was surprised with the connection my client had. I was expecting the worst thinking "you can't run a business with mobile internet (essentially)", but he was getting decent speeds. Nowhere near 10Mb (he's in a crap area), but I think it was more like 3-4Mb which was acceptable.

[bowlen]

So I plugged in the switch and hooked everything up and it is all working brilliantly! Very happy with it

[ninjacatfish]

How is the latency out of interest? Would a Vivid connection be suitable for playing online games which require a low ping/latency?

[bowlen]

How is the latency out of interest? Would a Vivid connection be suitable for playing online games which require a low ping/latency?

Um, last time I did a speed test, I think it was ˜50ms