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In my setup, I have the Thomson's TG580v2 router/modem, my PC connected to it via cable, and AppleTV, iPad and iPhone connected wirelessly.

First issue: AppleTV can't find my PC unless it is connected via wifi instead of cable. I tried EVERYTHING (port forwarding, etc etc) with no success. Can anyone confirm that Bonjour (Apple's network discovery protocol) only works between wifi devices?

Second issue: When I switch from 802.11g to 802.11n (hoping for a increase in range and speed) I notice that my AppleTV gets extremely slow when streaming video wirelessly from my PC. My PC upload rate goes down from 1.4MB/s (in 802.11g, which plays fine on AppleTV) to 150kB/s (in 802.11n). Is there anything I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for the help. (hoping Spiff will show up!)

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In answer to your first question, No, Bonjour works across entire multicast/broadcast domains, so if you have a Wi-Fi router that bridges between WLAN and LAN ports (as most do), then Bonjour will work between WLAN and LAN. Check to see if your Thomson device has the ability to bridge between those ports. It sounds like it currently is treating them as two separate NATted subnets. It would be interesting to know what IP addresses it assigns out via DHCP on the two interfaces. I'm guessing from your description that they'll have two different NAT private subnets, one for LAN, one for WLAN.

In answer to your second question, No, you're probably not doing anything wrong, the Thomson box probably has a bug. I've see some older or cheaper 2x2:2 (300mbps) 802.11n APs have problems dealing with 1x1:1 clients, like the Apple TV. I don't know for sure. But troubleshooting 802.11 protocol-level interop problems like this often involves running a lot of different careful tests and taking lots of 802.11 monitor-mode packet traces, and poring over the results for hours.

My snap judgment advice for you is to just buy a better Wi-Fi router. I'm pretty partial to the mid-2011 rev of the Apple AirPort Extreme, but similar simultaneous dual-band, 3x3:3 APs from Linksys (E4200?) and Netgear (3700?) are good choices as well.

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  • based on this screenshot of my wired and wireless connections, can you say they have the sabe NATted subnets? thank you. img138.imageshack.us/img138/1282/networkinfo.png
    – user117313
    Commented Feb 16, 2012 at 12:10
  • @user117313 Yes, that looks like the same subnet, which makes it even stranger that the Thomson box wouldn't be bridging multicasts between WLAN and LAN.
    – Spiff
    Commented Feb 16, 2012 at 18:07
  • @user117313 I also note that Thomson was only able to get the TG580 Wi-Fi certified for B/G, but not N. So I would presume its N implementation has serious flaws, as the Wi-Fi Alliance's certification requirements set a pretty low bar, so if Thomson's implementation can't even pass that, then it's probably trash. Also it appears to be a 1x1:1 (read: non-MIMO, "N in name only") implementation. I think you'll be a lot happier with a no-frills DSL modem and buy a real, modern, good-quality home gateway AP like one of the ones I listed in my Answer.
    – Spiff
    Commented Feb 16, 2012 at 18:22
  • I already bought an AirPort Extreme and I'm currently getting my ass kicked while setting this TG580v2 garbage in bridge mode! Thanks.
    – user117313
    Commented Feb 16, 2012 at 18:27
  • I have configured my AirPort Extreme and damn, this thing is fast. With that crappy TG580v2 I used to have internal wifi xfer speed at 900kb/s~1.4mb/s now it is 4.4mb/s! And now Bonjour works across cabled/wireless devices!
    – user117313
    Commented Feb 23, 2012 at 18:41

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