Wifi vs hardwired for streaming

Wifi when setup correctly can be rock solid. For example, turn down your radio transmission power (Tx) so you don’t have your neighbors clogging up your radio channels. Did you ever wonder why you see so many networks with funny names or the default provider ones that many people never change(SSID's) when you go to setup a new device in your place?

Distance will suffer but if in close proximity to your devices, not a problem. I run my Wifi at 50% (or 12 dBm of 24 dBm).

I wrote about this in another thread but the above is a summary and can be researched for more detail online.

@easystreamer Reducing your transmit power so you limit your Wifi to only your home/property is solid security advice, and it makes you a good neighbor.  Unfortunately it doesn't reduce your neighbor's transmit power so AFAIK you will see the same amount of channel congestion.

Implied in your approach is the use of a Wifi analyzer for your laptop or phone, which is also solid advice.  Knowing your signal strength and what channels are free is a great way to maximize your throughput. 

@erik_squires if your power is low so that your neighbors will not see your SSID, then they are not clogging up your radio channels.

If your neighbor has full transmit power such that you see their SSID, you are causing congestion on their network, even if not logged on. That is just how the Wifi protocol works. That is on them :)

When you see all your neighbor SSIDs, that is just a demonstration of how congested the Wifi landscape can be when everyone in your domain is on full throttle with their Tx.

@larseand The T8 has an SFP, use it. A long runs of optical is your best choice. 

Is there any advantage to putting a Wifi mesh point next to my equipment and using ethernet into it over using the streamer's built-in WiFi? I'm getting good signal into everything using the built-in WiFi.

@asahitoro  There are many here who’ve used Mesh or Wi-Fi extenders who’ve experienced significant improvements so I’d say it’s certainly worth trying, and in the scheme of things it needn’t be all that expensive to at least try.  From a common sense perspective when you use Wi-Fi you have the added step of the signal having to go through the streamer’s Wi-Fi receiver (of who knows what quality), and the additional processing that requires almost certainly generates some noise and noise is the enemy of better streaming quality.  So given that, the relatively low cost of entry, and the potential for significant improvements it’s kind of a no brainer in my book.  Plus you’d be less susceptible to Wi-Fi issues/dropouts in the future, which is nice.  Just my $0.02 FWIW.