Alternatives to Proprietary USB wireless LAN Adapters

Question

Hope

So I've picked up a Sony BDP-S270 Blu-ray player advertised as being "wireless LAN ready". I figure this is no problem for a guy that hooked up his second PC to the wireless LAN in the house. I have an extra USB wireless LAN adapter ready to go.

Disappointment

When I plug it into the device, I get a message saying "USB adapter is not compatible with this device." I do some digging into the manual and find that I've been hit by a marketing gimmick. The flashy print on the outside of the box was not accompanied by the small print in the manual that says you have to use a Sony adapter (Sony recommends the UWA-BR100).

What I should do is return the player and get my money back and vote with my dollars (a friend got a competing brand's player and it came with the USB adapter so he didn't have to go buy an overpriced proprietary one).

Hope again?

Has anyone found a wireless alternative to proprietary requirements like this? If I choose to keep the player my best options so far appear to be:

• Buying Sony's adapter
• Finding some way to use the wired Ethernet connection on the player

But are there other ways to use third party equipment with the player?

UPDATE

Thanks for the answers. I've upvoted everyone that gave me good ideas. To David: thank you, and it's nice to know I wasn't the only one perturbed by this cheap marketing tactic. To David and Ignacio both: using a stand-alone wireless access point is something I hadn't done before, but a quick check shows that some reliable consumer-oriented units are available for half the cost of the Sony wireless USB dongle. In addition, they include several Ethernet ports on the back in case I ever get other devices (gaming system, TV, media player) that I could hook up with easily found and inexpensive Ethernet cables.

Answer 1

If the player has an ethernet socket you could try find a wireless AP+switch that can play nicely in bridged mode with your main AP. I doubt it will be as fussy about what you plug into a ethernet port as is with the USB port. This will cost more than a generic USB wireless NIC, but perhaps less than the Sony brand wireless adaptor, and will be a larger device with its own wall-wart power supply so will be a lot less physically convenient.

There is probably little you can do in the USB side of things other than buy one of the relevant Sony products. This sort of irritation is one of the reasons why I refuse to buy equipment from certain manufacturers. You may be able to take it back as "not fit for intended purpose", though if the place you bought it from is savvy enough they might refuse an exchange based on the fact that it is wireless ready (as claimed) in the same way some games consoles have USB or SD card ports but will only accept certain specific devices rather than any theoretically compatible device.

Answer 2

Get a wireless Ethernet bridge. Most devices don't care what brand it is.

Answer 3

May be is a little late for this but there is a tutorial for build an alternative to this issue. Basically you use a OpenWRT compatible mini-router like the TP-LINK MR3020 (around USD25) and install the firmware in there. Below, I've pasted the wiki link were you can download the firmware and configure the router. Once you have it installed, you will be able to install the relayd package which allows you to create a bridge between LAN and Wifi network. In simple words you use a wifi connection as a WAN for the mini-router. In this way your TV can use your WIFI from your home avoiding the LAN cable.

This solution not only applies to Sony TV, instead it works for all "smart devices" which don't have a wifi device inside.

Here are some resources:

OpenWRT Wiki

Configuring OpenWRT in TP-LINK

Answer 4

Less a solution as others have provided the practical ones, but an explanation. The way Sony and other vendors typically handle this is through checking for USB VID/PID pairs, the 4 digit Vendor and Product ID numbers that are supposed to be unique to every USB product. Some products are generic and use the same id's, often based on the chipset used inside.

It could be that Sony bought and paid for a unique pair for their custom device, or that they took a off the shelf Ralink wifi module and rebranded it. In that case you can find a compatible module and use it directly. This happens often.

In the former, it also happens to be rebranded, but the chipset allows you to rewrite the usb pair used via special software.

A final option requires a device with open or modded firmware, where you add your VID/PID pair to the driver so it recognize it the same.

All if these are common in consumer electronics, including Sony TVs, and Vizio tvs, Wii Ethernet and wifi adapters, etc.

Answer 5

Easier Solution: TP-LINK TL-PA4010KIT AV500 Nano Powerline Adapters

Plug one unit into an outlet by the the router and connect to router with an ethernet cable.

Plug the other unit into an outlet (or powerstrip) by the TV and connect an ethernet cable from this unit to the TV.

No running ethernet from your router through the house to your TV. Use your electrical outlets to send the signal. Your TV is plugged into an outlet so there should be power already there.