[OSX-Users] Does a Netgear Extender act as a Router?

[Hugh Glaser]

Yes - this is mac related, as it involves mirroring :-)

So, mirroring to an AppleTV…

The Modem/router is in a room two walls away from the Apple TV.
The Apple TV sort of works OKish in normal Youtube mode, etc., but actually fails when mirroring an external web site video from a mac or IoS device (just freezes, or is very jumpy).
iStumbler showed that the connection was poor but useable (not surprisingly).
So we installed an extender in the room between, and that has improved things considerably, but it is not quite 100% reliable.

So the question:
If I move the router nearer to the Apple TV and mirroring device, will it improve the effective bandwidth?

Reasoning:
In order to mirror, the data needs to travel the network 3 times - once to the mirroring device, and then from the device to the router and then to the Apple TV. And of course the Apple TV can’t buffer, because it is mirroring.
The first of those involves both the router and extender.
The second and third are only between the device and the Apple TV, so don’t *need* to involve the router.
A sensible extender will just route the packets without needing the router route, and I assume that Netgear are reasonably sensible?
So, I have a feeling that, since the TV can work on its own without the extender, if I make the extender a bit nearer to the TV than the router (unlike the description in the manual) we will get a more optimal use of the network.
I’ll still be getting incoming improvement because of the extender, and much more improvement on the second two routes.

Anyone know anything before I start pissing about?

Cheers
--
Hugh
023 8061 5652