Disklavier

Steve,

Welcome!  And, nice post.  This method hasn't been described before.  I'm sure someone will benefit from it...

I have a computer next to the piano which also required a network connection...Since I only wired the room with a single gigabit port, I needed a switch.  I found a very nice shelf under my piano right above the rear-most leg.  My tiny 4 port switch sits in there quite nicely...no zip-ties required.  :-)

-Kevin



----- Original Message ----
From: Steve Jenkins <yahoo@...>
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 5:15:05 AM
Subject: [disklavier] Another method to connect the Mark IV to your LAN wirelessly


As of two weeks ago, I'm a new Mark IV owner (I used to own a DC5 
Mark II, and now I have a DC7 Mark IV). I'm a long-time hacker, so 
the online-capable elements of the Mark IV intrigue me.

Like many of you, I have a wireless LAN broadcasting throughout my 
house, and decided that today would be the day that I finally get my 
piano connected to it... and the Internet. I thought the easiest way 
would be to simply get a Linksys game adapter (WGA54G) and connect it 
that way. WRONG!

The store (Fry's Electronics) only had the WGA54G Version 1, which 
(as I found out once I got home) doesn't support WPA encryption, 
which is what I use on my home network. Version 2 of Linksys' game 
adapter (which does support WPA) would have worked nicely, but the 
store didn't have any in stock. So, I took the old one back, and 
browsed around for something that would work. The idea occured to me 
to simply build my own Ethernet client bridge, using a Linksys WRT54G 
wireless router (which can be found for around $50 retail, sometimes 
less). I brought the unit home and re-flashed the stock firmware with 
DD-WRT (www.dd-wrt. com), a free open-source replacement firmware for 
Linksys (and other Broadcom-based) routers. One of the additional 
modes enabled by this firmware is "Client Bridge," which allows the 
router to have its own IP address on the wireless LAN (so I can 
configure and monitor it wirelessly from any web browser on my 
network) and also connect up to four additional Ethernet devices - 
each of which get their own IP address from any DHCP server on the 
network (including the Client Bridge, if I so choose).

Believe it or not, everything worked on the first try! So I zip-tied 
the router to the underside of my piano, where it sits happily out of 
sight. And, as an added bonus, I get three additional ethernet ports 
near my piano, just in case I ever need to plug anything else in.

I'm new to this Yahoo group, so I apologize if this method has been 
previously addressed (I searched through the archives and could only 
find mention of game adapters and dedicated ethernet bridges). This 
might be a good alternative for anyone who has an old Linksys 
wireless router lying around, or who wants to use a device that could 
be re-purposed later if you upgrade to something else. :)

Please feel free to post any questions about this method. It really 
was quite simple, only cost me $50, and took less than 15 minutes to 
get up and running.

Regards,

Steve