I was able, thanks to the helpful tips on this forum, to get my wireless connection established between my Mac (both the desktop and the Macbook Pro) but the transfer speed for a 482.5 MB MP4 from the Macbook to the HDD was so slow (3 hours estimated) that I gave up. I've been trying to connect the Macbook via ethernet via the Wired LAN setup but am not having luck. I get a message that says that the connection is On*: DHCP Not ready!

Is the DNS server IP address, the address of the PlayON or the IP address for my Mac? Can someone walk me through the steps of setting up the wired ethernet connection so the PlayON HDD will appear as an icon on my finder so I can drag and drop folders into the HDD at a speed that should be faster than 3 hours (esp. since the 482.5 MB file is smaller than other files I want to add to my HDD)?

BTW, I prefer to just go straight from the laptop to the PlayON via ethernet since my router is in a different room--way too far away for an ethernet connection.

Thanks.

Do you use a router ?

Yes, I have a router, but as I noted it is in another room, so I can't connect the router directly to the PlayOn box. As I noted, I was able to get a wireless connection but the transfer speed was so slow that there is no way I will use it. Oddly, after I posted I was able to get a USB connection from my laptop to the PlayOn without using any of the downloads recommended in the other threads. My connection for the download was very fast, but then it stopped and hasn't started again.

But back to the point at hand, I should be able to connect the Ethernet directly to from my laptop to the PlayOn and the PlayOn should show up as an icon on my desktop/in the finder, but when I go through the set up process, I get a message that says that the connection is On*: DHCP Not ready! So, can you walk me through the steps so a wired connection will work (i.e., a PlayON icon will appear and I can drag folders to the HDD through the ethernet connection)?

Also, just to be clear, I do not want to stream video from my Mac to the PlayOn. I want to transfer files from the Mac to the PlayOn HDD so I can just watch from the HDD. Why have an HDD if I can't get any files there.

The only way to get it work in your situation is wired or wireless connected to a router.

Actually, im pretty sure its possible, what you need to do is share your internet connection via Ethernet.
[Edit: This is not necessary, see post further below]
First, make sure the Playon is both connected to the computer via Ethernet and in standby mode.

Assuming you're on Leopard or later, go to System Preferences -> Sharing. Look near the bottom of the list for Internet Sharing.

Here most likely Airport is already selected as "Share your connection from" and all you have to do is tick the box next to Ethernet. Next turn on your Playon and let it boot. Now when you look at Network settings your playon should have an IP that it got from your Macbook. If you wish to access your playon from your macbook just hit Command-K and enter "smb://<ip.of.playon>".

You won't get great speeds via Ethernet however, most likely around 45 mbits.

For the highest speed you should connect via USB, but you can't use the Playon while in this mode.

Good Luck and please tell us how it went!

Thanks, Krille.

I haven't been back to the forum in a bit, so I will test with your advice. How would I find the IP address for the HDD in my PlayOn?

As I just noted, I just saw your message, but oddly enough I have actually been able to connect via ethernet. I plug in the ethernet cable in my laptop and the PlayOn and then start the PlayOn. When I go to Network>PPOE on the PlayOn, I have a login and password (I don't know what I would put here) so I just hit Run Test or whatever the option is on the screen. I get a message saying first test (or something like that) and it just keeps running as if the window is frozen. I hit various buttons on the remote, including the home button, and then the PlayOn HDD icon appears in my finder on the laptop. Transfer speeds are about 5 minutes for 1.5GB MKV files. This is much slower than the transfer speed from my laptop to my desktop via ethernet on my router or from my LaCie drive to my laptop, but certainly faster than using wireless. The problem with this, though, is that the window is frozen on the PlayOn and disconnecting the ethernet doesn't solve the problem. I have to unplug the PlayON every time I do this, and that can't be good for the unit.

Would USB be faster? The problem with USB is that I need to purchase an NTFS program, whereas ethernet is free.

So, back to my original question, plus two more: (1) how do I find the IP address for the HDD in my PlayOn and (2) is there a way to use this PPOE setting without it freezing (would I set the login and password on my laptop)? (3) Is there another option besides unplugging if the PlayOn freezes?

Thanks again.

Actually NTFS-3G is free.When using my suggestion above, it will appear in the Network menu under DHCP.Have to say don't know to both of these, i've only ever run my playon as a DHCP client. It's possibly your MacBook is already set up to share its internet via Ethernet. Supposedly you are able to press and hold the power button to make it forcibly power off, but it seems this doesn't work in those situations(or indeed ever?).

Did you get this to work?

I think that it is bad that you have to use the IP address as this changes due to DHCP !!!

I think I'll try the Apple TV 2 instead.

L

I'm currently using my POHD in a router-less wired lan and it works extremely well. The key is to assign manual IPs in different network ranges for the devices connected to the LAN.

Example:

Macbook connects to router via wireless, uses DHCP, gets an IP 192.168.0.199 (for example).

We connect a patch cable between the pohd and the macbook. Configure the pohd for "FIX IP", which means manual setting. For example:

IP: 172.22.0.55
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
All other fields can be left blank.

On the macbook, under System Preferences->Network we make sure sure the service order is set with wireless above wired. Select wired and enter:
IP: 172.22.0.44
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
All other fields can be left blank.

I didn't need to restart after doing this, only wait a few seconds and the pohd appears in the sidebar. Also you know the IP since you input it yourself.

In the future, if you decide to get a NAS for example, buy a cheap switch and connect the macbook to that. Assign static IP to the NAS and it too will work very well and with very high speed(assuming decent NAS).

The pohd is primarily a streamer, and as such it has slow speeds even through wired. Not a whole lot you can do about this. Fill up the HD asap and start looking for a nice (and fast) NAS.

Try using FTP. I'm getting pretty good speeds wirelessly from my MBP to the PlayonHD using FTP.

Kevin