Use Apple TV First Gen as a wifi extender

appletvethernetNetworkwifi

I have my router on one end of the house and my xbox on the total opposite side. My mom won't let me run an ethernet cord down stairs and won't let me reposition the router in the middle of the house. All i have is a first gen apple tv and since it has wifi and an ethernet port, I thought I could use it in some way to get the wifi signal and repeat it through the ethernet to my xbox. I have seen people put leopard on the first gen aTV and I thought maybe I should do that as a last resort (the sharing internet option). I come to this amazing community for help incase there's an alternative to my last resort.

Thank you!!

Best Answer

It should work if you do as you suggest - hack your Apple TV to install OS X on it, you should be able to use Internet Sharing to share the wifi signal. There are many resources on how to do this, but this blog post should be a good starting point.

Two caveats:

  • I haven't tried this, so no promises.
  • Because of how Internet Sharing works (it's using NAT), whatever is on the wifi side of the network may have limited access to the rest of your network. Internet access should work okay, but things like iTunes Home Sharing and the like won't be accessible.
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