I’m looking for recommendations for a wifi router for an install. Besides handling OSC type control data, I want to use it for screen sharing between a headless Mac to setup my main .toe while walking around the venue. I tried GL.iNet GL-AXT1800 - and it screwed up big time! I highly suggest to AVOID this router.
Screen sharing was almost unusable, and OSC (UDP) barely going through i.e press a button 10 times on my TouchOSC interface, and 5/10 presses would go through. And this was during SETUP - not even during the event - barely 10-15 people in an empty room 40x40 ft. I’m quite disappointed, as this was recommended by the VJ community.
So I’m wondering what other people use, that would work for richer media (i.e screen sharing, I’m using the default Mac app btw, but have also tried NoMachine). Do people use those monstrosities with 50 antennas or.. CAT5 the shit out of everything? (would want to avoid)
Hello,
I prefer to use well known brand for wifi router : Netgear, Cisco, TP-link
For a project with intensive OSC and video sharing in two rooms, we use a mesh system from TP-link and it works well.
I would argue GL.iNet is also a well known brand, the company has been around for a while and they have many products. I have that exact same router (and one or two others from GL.iNet) and it has worked fine for me before. Problem is almost always the configuration and settings between the router and clients connected to it.
There’s so many different iterations of settings you could tweak on both the router and client side, it’s a little reductive to just say that the router is the problem when it doesn’t sound like you spent much time investigating how networking and WiFi works and how to best use them and the tools at hand.
Edit: and for the love of god yes CAT5 ( or CAT6! ( or OM3!!! ) ) the shit out of everything. You could use a monstrosity with 500 antennas and it wouldn’t get any better. There are certainly more robust wireless systems out there, but the WiFi protocol / RF spectrum range is SO over-utilized / complicated that once you get into an environment with lots of devices / audience, you could have the best WiFi access points on the planet with the best networking technicians ever and there’s STILL no guarantee that it will work.
WiFi is never used in large / live event production critical-use scenarios and almost always fails when people try to. Read the horror stories (especially the poor audio engineers trying to keep wireless mics from going extinct) and learn about wired networking / static IP addressing. Also for remote access I use https://rustdesk.com with the LAN / direct IP method of connecting - and running my own self-hosted ID server.
I have used that exact router for several years now with very few issues…that said, it is a comparatively cheap travel router and has limitations that need to be considered.
It was primarilly designed to be used as a PAN in hotel rooms & conference facilities, where all connected devices are typically in close proximity, so WiFi range is limited and I would not expect it to be capable of a high-res, low latency remote desktop connection at a distance.
To answer one of your questions; Yes, CAT5 is used extensively, especially if you absolutely need a reliable fast connection.
In fact the main reason I bought this specific router was because it has 3x GbE ports, which I use for all video feeds & essential control data…only using the WiFi for unimportant things like casual monitoring of reduced resolution feeds.