Microsoft Windows 7 offers new applications that will be very entertaining to its users. And one of these applications is the Windows Media Center which offers services that are related to photos, music, movies and videos. Using this application would entail you to connect an extender. With the use of an extender, you can view and watch movies, photos and videos and listen to music even when you are in a different room. This can be made possible by setting up a network in your home.
A single computer using the Windows 7 can use up to five extenders. This means that with one computer and six rooms all in all, you can place the computer in one room have the extenders in the other five rooms. Even if you are in any of these five rooms, you may be able to navigate the Windows Media Center through the use of the media center remote.
But having more than one extender would also entail of having to make sure that your computer has the high and suitable speed for the streaming. The hardware and the processor of your computer should be improved so that you have a high quality streaming to all the five extenders that you have set up. You should also need to consider the speed of your processor and the memory of your computer in this case. Moreover, a wired gigabit network is also recommended for these situations.
If you want to have this kind of network for your computer, your minimum requirement is that of a CPU core and memory of just one gigabyte for every Windows Media Center Extender that you plan to have (4 gigabytes of memory and quad core for 4 extenders)
Setting up your extenders could be done in varied ways depending on several factors such as the type of extenders that you are going to use and where you are planning to connect it. There are three options for which you could use. You could connect an extender either to a wired or a wireless network. Moreover you could also use XBOX or for that matter another device for an extender.
If you are planning to have your extenders connected through a wired network, you could make use of an Ethernet cable. A wired network is said to be more reliable and has faster connection when compared to wireless network. To set this up, connect the cable to the hub, router or switch then to your extender. Power cord should be plugged in the extender and it should have a light network activity.
Connecting to a wireless network is way different than the wired network. There are security measures that are needed to be followed. Though it connects automatically, WEP key and WPA password are prerequisites. You can switch from wired network to wireless by detaching the Ethernet cable then restarting the media center extender device. After restarting, it will automatically connect to a wireless network then just follow the instruction provided on the screen.
