DECA Internet Connection Question

I have given up on using the 4-port wireless bridge near my main receiver to do the internet connection for the Whole Home. I was going to have to keep it around anyway, because it also connects my TV, blu-ray player, and Squeezebox receiver.

Then it occurred to me to ask this: Suppose I install the Whole Home internet kit with a new coax+DECA to my router (nowhere near the receiver), which seems to be the preferred. Can I then add more ports to the area where the bridge is now by connecting the receiver's DECA module, via ethernet, to a 5-port network switch, and then running connections from the switch back to the receiver and other devices?

It seems like it ought to if the if the ethernet port on the receiver's DECA module is just like any other wired connection to my router. If this would work, I could eleminate the bridges all together.

Bingo.  If you connect the router using DECA as discussed, you can install a Ethernet switch between the DECA module and the Ethernet port on any of the receivers/DVR's and connect your ancillary equipment there.  You'd then have a rock solid hard wired network and eliminate any inherent problems that wireless has on occasion.

By the way, Directv will install the network DECA, coax, power supply etc for $74. It is listed as TV Internet connection and is located on your account page under the My Equipment tab.  If your system was installed by Directv they should have installed the router module.

Thanks DCD for the info. I'm up and running.

You're welcome, always glad to hear success stories, enjoy.

SWM  is a great system for directv and their installers and a pretty good thing for most of their customers.  Relief from running a separate cable from each lmb to the multiswitch and then at least two runs to each dvr was expensive and cumbersome at best.  Using the existing coax and daisy chaining the receivers together is easy.  Running media through coax, however(media share,multiroom dvr) is a very usefull but ultimately shorter term solution as the speed is limited to about 200mbps not close to gigabit twisted pair.(However this can be kept serarate from the customers network issues and greatly decreases truck runs).  My dream system and what may be predominant when high quality home networks are common would be SWM for directv input and control but still twisted pair for multiroom anything. Thus I hope they continue to have this capability available for those of us that have and are able to support our networks. Never the less SWM  and media over coax was a pretty slick move that some of friends worked on design.

Good points but aren't all of the current Directv IRD's limited to 10/100 Ethernet ports thus unable to utilize twisted pair gig capability?  If that be the case then the coax DECA solution is actually faster than my Cat5 cable wired network, no?  Of course newer IRD's could have gig ports.  From a current standpoint my three networked DVR's can download On Demand, play media share and use Directv2PC pretty much concurrently. 

I can't claim to completely understand what is happening behind the DECA/SWM network, but I think MRV is achieved from the ethernet 10/100 port not through the coax SAT connections. If this is the case the IRDs connect to the DECA at 100Mb/s and the DECA's interconnect at 200Mb/s. On a dedicated Cat5e network with gigabit ethernet the IRDs connect to the gigabit ethernet switch(s) at 100Mb/s and interconnect at either 1Gb/s (if multiple switches are used) or the backplane speed of the switch (usually > 1Gb/s). There is potentially more backbone capacity on a dedicated gigabit ethernet switched network than on the DECA/SWM network even though the IRDs interface on both networks at 100Mb/s. 

Other than the obvious support issues I wonder why Directv doesn't support wired gigabit ethernet networks for MRV? I'm running my HR21-100's on a wired gigabit network and everything works fine.

what I'm curious about is the resolution achieved of images transmitted from my PC to my TV through MRV with coax.(deca) No cat 5 connection.  What I would like to do is have less boxes.  My current media player will display images at much higher resolution than Media share directv.  Anyone know?

Media Share will send the exact same resolution via either a conventional Cat5 Ethernet to Ethernet connection or a DECA Ethernet to Coax the Ethernet connection.  Either is capable of far more resoultion that Media Share is capable of.