# putting it all together



## Nsidious9 (Jul 15, 2011)

Hey guys, so far you all have been a wonderous amount of knowledge that has gotten me through this, and I thank you.

Now, I am putting it all together, and am a little unsure about the best setup.

I converted my entire living room into a theater. I took sheetrock, painted them black and covered the windows, I bought AMAZINGLY inexpensive 108x108 black out curtains and lined the wall with the stairs going up... and subsequently blocking out all that light. My living room has 0 light now, unless I turn on my theater lighting. 

I have my epson 8350 mounted at 11.5'. my seating at 12' and a chair on the side (along the now boarded up windows) at 8'. My AVR, 7.2 surround sound (see my details) setup and calibrated.

I have a sheet of sheetrock, 4x9 hanging on the wall as my fixed screen. Its painted black. I know, it sounds like a WTF moment, but hot it looks GREAT! Although it isn't as crisp as I want it, the gf loves it. She prefers the darks. My next project will be to get the gray screen material I found and build my screen. But for now, this works well.

Now, here's my question. I have a HTPC that I built, and a windows home server that I built. One function of the home server is of course, media management. the other will be home automation and everything else I can use it for. 
My latest purchase for this build is the Netgear N750 dual band router. According to this article I read on Maximum PC, "Netgear's WNDR 4000 dual-band router is ideal for home theater configurations because you can use the 5GHz channel for streaming media and the 2.4GHz channel for data transmission." 

Now here's where my confusion sets in... if I set the media stuff (my AVR, Blu-ray, htpc, home server) on the 5GHz channel, and the home pcs on the 2.4GHz channel, will they work together or would they be on 2 different networks?


----------



## Nsidious9 (Jul 15, 2011)

Here are some of the references I am using, but they're pretty vague in some regard:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_it_convert_your_home_office_ultimate_home_theatre

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_build_ultimate_3d_home_theater_pc

http://www.decorinnovation.com/Solid_Blackout_Curtains_p/solid-108.htm
I need to get another set of these just to finish out that wall.


----------



## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Pictures please


----------



## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

As to your question, did you router come with a manual, perhaps on disc or online? That should tell you how to set the dual bands to separate networks, if it is possible.


----------



## Nsidious9 (Jul 15, 2011)

yes, of course it came with manuals. as being in IT for 17 years, I am pretty much a "ask for help only when all other resources are exhausted" type of fella. But the instructions are pretty vague. 

Pictures are coming up shortly.


----------



## Nsidious9 (Jul 15, 2011)

https://picasaweb.google.com/nsidious9/HomeTheaterTesting?authkey=Gv1sRgCLzfvOfn-Oic9AE These are the pics! I am still not finished. I still need to hang my posters, get the rest of the collectables down there to dress it up, and I want to get another curtain or 2 to finish up the wall.


----------



## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

I'm afraid your question falls outside the typical bounds of home theater setup, but we may have a member here with a similar setup who has done this sort of thing before. Otherwise, there's always "try it and see what happens".

At the end of the day, bandwidth shouldn't be a huge issue unless you are running multiple streams concurrently. You'd know more about this then I, being in IT for 17 years, but aren't there cases with the new technology that devices running on G or B can bring down the speeds of N? Isn't this why separate bands exist in the same router, so you can separate your slow devices from your fast ones? Do you have N, G, and B devices sharing your network?


----------



## Nsidious9 (Jul 15, 2011)

well, that's the thing. I don't plan on using the wireless portions. All of the home theater equipment will be wired. I guess I was just hoping that someone here was more familiar with this router than I am.


----------

