Does Wired Really beat Wireless?

General Discussion
1

Hi all,

 Longtime forum lurker - first time poster and 1 day old TabloTV owner (I Love it!)

I was wondering about the great wired vs wireless debate (seems wired always wins). If I have a strong Wifi Network and am using Roku 3’s and Android over wifi - why would a hardwired Ethernet connection be better than a wireless connection to the Tablo device?

Seems to me that the Roku devices will still be pulling the content from the tablo over WiFi regardless, and the Tablo doesn’t need the wireless network for much else (save for some Guide information to be pulled from the internet) since the OTA signal is being delivered via Coax.

Am I missing something here or is this a case of practice trumping theory?

Thanks to all of the posters on here - you’ve made an amazing community of owners and I am thrilled that Tablo cares enough to listen to its owners and participate in these sorts of conversations. It benefits EVERYONE.

 

2
  1. Is all depends on how good your WiFi signal is, if it’s strong you won’t have any problems.
  2. What is the make and model of your router that runs the wireless network?
  3. Most recommendations are you hard wire the Tablo to your router and then use WiFi clients such as Roku to watch. This avoids the latency with “double WiFi”. But some people have their Tablo on WiFi and it works just fine. You just need a good router.

The main reason for wired connections is to use the 1080p recording quality. The higher bitrate at this quality is sometimes not streamed well via WiFi. But do some testing and if WiFi works grear for you then you have nothing to be concerned about.

3

I'm not a pro, but I think everyone talking about the benefits of wired are speaking of an entirely wired system (Roku 3's included).  With everything wired, the Roku would be speaking directly to the Tablo via the native app.

4
Seems to me that the Roku devices will still be pulling the content from the tablo over WiFi regardless 

 

If everything is wired it will be pulling over your wired Local Area Network not WiFi. I have everything wired and have tried hard to make sure there are no choke points. Router with 10/100/1000 LAN ports and switches with 10/100/1000 LAN ports and all good quality Cat6 cabling.


I have no streaming issues except SlingTV (a different issue) and I can stream 1080p HD 15 GB files over my LAN with not a single hick up. I even have a couple 25 GB files I have streamed with no issues.
5

I found the stability of things much better going to all wired and only having mobile devices wireless… the speed is better too.

6

I also use router reserved IP addresses so they don’t float allover the place.

7

@ericgus Is that the same as static IP address? What is the advantage?

8

@roraniel

Static IP is where you set the IP on the device manually, it is configured on the device. DHCP reservation is where the router assigns the same IP to said device, it is configured on the router.

End result is the same. It is useful when forwarding ports to a device because you know the IP of the device will never change and break your forwarded ports, say for Tablo Connect. It is also useful for those who have connection problems, but those with a decent router generally don’t need to do it.

Your new super router likely will not need DHCP reservation enabled.

9

LOL. I LOVE me new super router!!!

10

I'm not a pro, but I think everyone talking about the benefits of wired are speaking of an entirely wired system (Roku 3's included).  With everything wired, the Roku would be speaking directly to the Tablo via the native app.

No not in the slightest! If you have everything wi-fi, then it’s tablo to router, wireless, router to say PC wireless, then PC to Chromecast or whatever, wireless. You are tripling up the wi-fi traffic there.

If you wire tablo to the router, then use wi-fi for the other devices you have cut the traffic on the airwaves quite a bit. There’s a difference, for example, even if the FireTV is Wi-Fi because it’s tablo to router wired, router to FTV Wi-Fi, only half the traffic is Wi-Fi and I don’t care how good your Wi-Fi is, wired trumps it unless your wi-fi is perfect. Especially if your Wi-Fi has to go through even 1 wall. Paint causes issues, metal i the walls, AC wiring, etc. i used to support Wi-Fi at work - we pulled all 8 access points and had the building wired. In our only other office that used to be Wi-Fi, we wired that building, too. Wi-Fi is great for convenience, but even wiring just the Tablo to the router helps.  My equipment is new, all in the same room, and I run n300 notebook to router and I still could tell a difference when I wired my Tablo.
11

But there are some potential benefits to having a wired Roku 3 as well… perhaps best to say that one should strive to at least have the TabloTV device wired (?).

12

With wired ethernet the speeds are full-duplex and in megabytes. WiFi speeds are half-duplex and in megabits. Each packet received requires a ACK response.  WiFi radio alternates between send and receive and thus the 802.11n with pair bonding to overcome that latency.

You can get up in the morning and have just two neighbors WiFi invading your house. By 5PM the atmospherics has changed and you now have 10. Thus interfering with your bandwidth.

13

Only one of my Roku 3 is wired the rest are via wifi. They all work great I was having issues with two but after upgrading my router that problem went away. We have 5 Roku and they can stream Tablo live and recordings with no problems. 

14

@Eli_Neris

What’s your new router?

15

@zippy, actually wired is Mbits as well.   So 10/100 (old) switch would be 10Mbit or 100Mbit (for example).   And many people will now have a 1Gbit capable switch (though often the router supplied by an ISP will be limited to 100Mbit even today).

There are lots of variables with WiFI… so it’s more common to have problems there (where the specs on the 'box" don’t match actual in use performance for many different reasons).

16
@zippy, actually wired is Mbits as well.   So 10/100 (old) switch would be 10Mbit or 100Mbit (for example).   And many people will now have a 1Gbit capable switch (though often the router supplied by an ISP will be limited to 100Mbit even today).

There are lots of variables with WiFI... so it's more common to have problems there (where the specs on the 'box" don't match actual in use performance for many different reasons).

If you have neighbors close by and/or people using the wifi frequencies for other things it can really degrade your wifi performance … none of these things impact wired connections…


for what its worth I also use those homelink/powerlink/powerline adaptors aka Ethernet over power … to help connect the more remote devices in my home without having to resort to using wifi … i just set up one adaptor where the router is … then plug in the matched unit where I need an rj45 wired port… (which in this case is my below ground family room which due to being mostly below ground always got horrible wifi performance … not to mention severe interference when the microwave was on)
17

Yes, wired beats wireless.  Maybe if the WiFi is great, you won’t notice a difference.  Still, the wired will be more reliable.

18

I have a crappy router (only 2.4) that won’t even allow me to do DHCP reservations.  In the evening, presumably caused by my neighbours getting home,  my wifi throughput plummets.  My roku is wireless and has no problems with 720p recording quality to the wired Tablo.  But if I try to watch the ipad at the same time in the evening, the wifi doesn’t have enough bandwidth and things start stuttering.


I have router envy.
19

This the Router I got @hwyguy There’s a link to a review tablo posted on their FB page regarding routers and this one was rated as one of the best for the price. I actually bought it before I read the review. 



http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Archer-C7-Wireless-1300Mbps/dp/B00BUSDVBQ

20

I have my router in my living room toward the front end of my home on the 1st floor. My Roku 1 in the basement on the back side of my home works just fine with Tablo. It does a load again 2-3 sec after it starts to play but my wired roku does that sometimes too. However after that initial load it doesn’t do it again. I use plex as well with no issues. I do have my tablo set to 720 Roku/Chromecast setting I can probably do higher but it looks fine to me and the files are smaller that way.