Will 4k TV Player work with 3rd party Router?

[Pbali]

I recently upgraded to Fiber+ 1.5Gig with the new White Blue Curve Modem and 4k Tv players. Cat6  is run to various rooms throughout all 3 floors (Basement, Main, Upper ) of my home. The 4k Players require Shaw internet to work. I want to be able to use a mesh wifi system like Orbi, Deco or Zenwifi utilizing the network cables run throughout my home. I believe that's called Wired Backhaul?

Will the players work via this 3rd party network? The source for the network would still be "Shaw".   

Or is there a way I can have 2 networks? I for just my TV players and another for everything else. 

I don't want to use Wireless extenders like the Shaw Pods when I have a wired infrastructure available in my home. Maybe if one of the 2 ethernet ports on the pods could be used to wired back into the modem they would be useful.  

[FKing]

In a nut-shell, yes it will work. I have similar set up with bluecurve 1gb internet and 4k wireless tv players.  The key is to take advantage of your cat 6 connections.  I spent a few days and have tested various set-ups and the following is the step-by-step procedure.  Don't bother contact shaw support as using bluecurve on bridge mode is not supoorted.

1. sign into shaw gateway: 10.0.0.1 and enable bridge mode.

2. use a cat6 cable to connect from 1 of the wan ports on shaw bluecurve to your router's internet port. use another cat6 cable to connect from your router to your network.  in my case, it is a managed switch (to my network).

3. you don't need wireless function of 4k tv wireless tv player if you have cat6 network.  If you are using cat6 or 5e cable connection, all you need to do is to connect your tv player to your network by a network cable (cat6 or 5e) or wifi network of your router if you don't have a cabled network.  You will then connect your 4k tv player to your tv via the supplied HDMI cable.

4. plug everthing in, turn the tv on the correct hdmi input of the tv, follow the instruction on the tv to set up your bluecurve tv player.

5. if you have a stereo-system controled with an advanced AVR  and mutiple speakers (5.1 or 7.1) like me, you would plug your bluecurve tv player to one of the avr hdmi ports.  you can then watch tv with your stero system sound, rather than flat tv speakers.

This should work.

My only problem is that I have encoutered slower wifi signals.  My interent is 1gb and i can get that on my cat6 network but wifi varies from 50 mbp to 300 and sometimes it drops even below 1 mbp.  I even bought a Asus GT-AC11000 router without improved wifi.  I played around with various routers and settings and have concluded the origin is most likely from shaw's bluecurve modem/router. 

[mdk]

@FKing -- 2. use a cat6 cable to connect from 1 of the wan ports on shaw bluecurve 

I think that you meant to type "LAN" port. The only "WAN" connection is for the coaxial cable.

> ... have concluded the origin is most likely from Shaw's Bluecurve modem/router. 

I disagree. The number (and construction materials) of the walls between your BlueCurve and your WiFi device is the cause of where the signal-strength is diminished. Also, do you have any nearby neighbours with a BlueCurve, with its own WiFi "cloud" that may be overlapping, and interfering, with your BlueCurve's "cloud" ? Similarly, if you have your own WiFi-capable router, its "cloud" could overlap your neighbours' "cloud".

At times when you notice a drop in WiFi speed, take your WiFi-enabled computer into the same room as the BlueCurve, and measure the WiFi speed, via the Shaw Speed Test. It should be very good.

I agree that you should avoid "CAT 5" cables, because they max-out at only 100 Mbps; "CAT 5e" maxes-out at 1000 Mbps, and "CAT 6" is even faster.

[mdk]

@Pbali -- is there a way I can have 2 networks?

If the BlueCurve is not bridged, it will supply a WiFi network to the Shaw players, and it will provide a "private" IP-address, something like "10.0.0.nnn",  to the WAN port on your router. Your router can then offer its own WiFi network, handing-out "private" IP-addresses like "192.168.xx.yy" to your computers & devices that choose to connect to the SSID supplied by your router.

[Pbali]

Thank you @FKing and @mdk for your replies.

Its funny because Shaw says 4K Tv Players will not connect via 3rd party wifi even though plenty of articles here say they do. 

They also say MOCA setting in the router can not be used for Ethernet over Coaxial even that many articles on here of people doing exactly that. 

I have some Cat6 and Coaxial outlets on my home that I would love to be able to use. 

[mdk]

@Pbali -- They also say MOCA setting in the router can not be used for Ethernet over Coaxial

It may depend on which PVR that you have. Certainly, Shaw advertises that the older "Arris Gateway" uses MoCA, but I have no experience with using MoCA with a BlueCurve.

> Shaw says 4K Tv Players will not connect via 3rd party WiFi

It is my impression that those Players connect via "hidden" SSIDs that the BlueCurve offers. Probably, if you have a "WiFi repeater" between the Player and the BlueCurve, you'll get connected.

[Pbali]

I appreciate all the help with this @mdk . 

The perfect scenario for me is I have my XB7 in bridge mode pumping my 1.5GB  into my AX Mesh system with wired backhaul and my 4k TV players work.  I'm just researching to to see if I can do this before I spend the money on said AX System. 

[mdk]

@Pbali -- The perfect scenario for me is I have my XB7 in bridge mode pumping my 1.5GB  into my AX Mesh system 

I don't know if the XB7 has any LAN port that is over 1.0 Gbits/second.

I don't know which routers have a WAN port that is over 1.0 Gbits/second.

Any "CAT 5e" cable between the XB7 and your router will max-out at 1.0 Gbits/second -- you will need a "CAT 6" cable to go any faster.

So, you may have "bottle-necks".  Do your research.  🙂

[FKing]

The latest Bluecurve gateway, XB6-SI, has 2 LAN ports and 2 "WAN/LAN" ports in addition to coaxial connector to connect to Shaw signal.  What I meant was to use the yellow colored LAN/Wan port to connect to the 3rd part router.

In terms of wifi signal loss in my particular case, it was way more complicated than simply the distance and physical barriers.  I spent days testing in various setup, distances.  Even next to the router, signals could change dramatically. Obviously, radio waves (wifi) travel with limitations, hence distances and physical barriers matter.  I had a Shaw Cisco modem DPC3825 for over a decade before switching to the gateway.  It was at the exact same location and connected to Cat6 LAN network.  Even though I was only on a 75 mbs plan, both my wifi and LAN exceeded that. After the upgrade, my LAN network receives close to the stated 1 gbs, but my wifi varies.  Sometimes it's over 500 mbs, and other time it went below 1 mbs.  I had a dual-band D-Link AC router with mesh.  I changed that to a latest tri-band Asus GT-AX11000.  Guess what, the wifi signals got worse, even standing right next to the router. I think the real reason for such degradation of radio waves must be the interference where the waves cancel each other resulting signal loss. The fact that a tri-band AX router did worse than a dual-band AC router is an indirect proof as this would meant more collisions/interferences.  I think even in "bridge" mode, Bluecurve gateway still emits interfering radio waves cause significant wifi signal degradation. 

I found a way around this.  I returned the $500 AX router and use my old AC mesh router.  Even though wifi still only tops at 200 in most part of my house, it hardly matters as I use wireless access point instead.  The one works really well is TP-Link EAP245 V3.  It gets me 600 mbs stable wifi on the floor where the AP is plugged into my network.  Because it is POE AP, and my switch is a POE switch, there's no need for a power source. 

[FKing]

Please read my other replies.  Based on my testing, you better save your money on an AX router.  It didn't worked out for me due to radio waves interference with Bluecurve gateway.  You better off get a few good access points, like EAP245 V3 from TP-Link, and set them up in your house where you need your signals.