Just upgraded to a 1080p flat screen and added a PC for the makeshift HTPC. Now I want to stream videos from my office PC just down the hall about 30' to the living room HTPC. I currently have Linksys WRT54GS wired to my PC and the wife's PC and don't want to run wire for the one up front (gotta crawl under the house for that).
Hmmmm you might be in better shape than most of us poor saps here wandering the forum for solutions.
Wireless G is almost, BUT NOT QUIET, enough to give you streaming 1080 video. I know this from experience. 95% of the time your g stream will be fine but that other 5 percent will give you a few seconds to a full minute of blotchy frames. It'll look just like SAT TV does on a heavey rain day. So Your choices are:
(1) GO BUY THAT 50, 75 or 100 FT CAT cable and use it to connect to the HTPC. since 54M (thats 54G) is ALMOST enough, your 100M wired LAN will cover all bases just fine. (I'm assuming both HTPC and router have 100M ports)
or
(2) you replace the linksys 54G router with an N router (like the DLink 655) AND ALSO you buy a wireless N NIC for your HTPC. PERFERABLEY a PCI NIC with a extendable antennae. EVEN IF your HTPC has an included wireless G setup - replace it or shut it off and use an N NIC. (or again back to choice 1). Normal N (108M) is more than enough. 150N or 300N is overkill for your needs.
I would go with choice (1). its a mechanical pain in the rear but easy enough to do. and by far the cheapest.
WHAT YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want to do is the 3rd choice: buy a 2nd router to use with the first or a extender or a AP or a bridge. its money and time you will waste.
Hope I have helped and not confused.
The DOS man