RE: Networking Issue - Where's my bottleneck/limitation?
#1
So I am trying to play videos with my HTPC through a home network but the videos are not able to play without stuttering/buffer-like playback - it plays smooth for a couple of seconds then stops for a couple seconds then starts playing again and keeps repeating. I tested multiple videos and it seems to only do this with large HD files or in scenes with a high bitrate, which leads me to believe there is some bottleneck in the network.

I have never done this before and everything is still in the building stage, but I just wanted to test this out since it will eventually be my end-game, yet I'm running into problems which have me puzzled. Here is the setup: HTPC is connected to a router by cat5 and is trying to play a video off of an external hard drive connected to a laptop that is connected to the router via cat5 which is sharing the external's files with Windows' homegroup feature - hopefully that makes sense. What puzzles me is I thought this problem would only be caused if the computers were to be shared wirelessly, this is not the case though, everything is wired. Next thing I thought of was a limitation of the router since, from what I have been hearing, it needs to be a gigabit one. I looked up the router I have, which I am renting from my ISP, this one here Actiontec/Qwest Q1000 Wireless N VDSL Modem Router, noting in the description, "gigabit switch", so I believe that is what's I'm looking for. Now I am out of ideas. Does anyone know what may be the cause of this issue?

Let me know if any additional details are required. Appreciate any help. Thanks.
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#2
1. We need the specs of the HTPC and the laptop? W7? both

2. Does the HD files play smoothly if you plug the external drive into the HTPC directly?

3. Im assuming its using the USB 2.0 on the Laptop?

4. Test your Network speed. Drag and copy the HD file from your folder on the external drive to your desktop on the HTPC. Click the drop down in the transfer window to see the speed of the transfer (you dont have complete the transfer just not the speed) Whats the speed?

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#3
1.
HTPC
CPU: Intel Celeron G540
GPU: Radeon HD 6570
MOBO: Asrock H77M
OS: Windows 7

Laptop
Model: Dell Inspiron 1520
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
OS: Windows 7

2. Yes, all the files play fine when played from the external hard drive directly.
3. Yes, USB 2.0 on the laptop
4. 1-2 MB/second....so it seems like that's my problem - why is this so slow?
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#4
Not sure but your rental router is suspect. Or one one of the nics drivers maybe. Did you mess with any settings on it?
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#5
yes, a gigabit router helps but is your NIC's gigabit capable as well? Also, there are usually green or amber indicator lights on the router that will tell you if you have a working gigabit connection. Check the router's manual to see if those lights are available which can tell you a little bit more about where to start diagnosing.
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#6
It should work fine on a 100Mbit router. So I would say you need to find the problem first. Swapping the router for a gb ones might not solve it. On the other hand it may be the router and swapping it does solve it.
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#7
(2012-09-08, 05:38)snowboarder33 Wrote: 4. 1-2 MB/second....so it seems like that's my problem - why is this so slow?

My first guess would be the laptop nic. Its an older system updated to W 7. May not have an appropriate driver installed for the Lan. But your just goin to have to test everything. You should have 30 MB/s to 100MB/s

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#8
(2012-09-08, 10:51)Jetster Wrote:
(2012-09-08, 05:38)snowboarder33 Wrote: 4. 1-2 MB/second....so it seems like that's my problem - why is this so slow?
My first guess would be the laptop nic. Its an older system updated to W 7. May not have an appropriate driver installed for the Lan. But your just goin to have to test everything. You should have 30 MB/s to 100MB/s

If he has a 10/100 router and is connected directly to this. The best theoretical speed he could hope for would be 12.5Mbps.
If he had a 10/100/1000 (gigabit) router or switch. The best theoretical transfer speed he could hope for would be 125Mbps

These are theoretical speeds, you will never achieve these once you take the overheads out.
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#9
Looked at the router's manual and I didn't see anything regarding notification of a gigabit confirmation, only that the device is capable.

The NIC on the HTPC is a Realtek 8111E with the capability of 10/100/1000Mbps. NIC on the laptop is the Broadcomm 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller - it doesn't seem to be gigabit.

So since the laptop's NIC is only 100Mbps, that is the limitation of any transfer speeds being run through it? Based on what charlie0440 said, if the network is limited to 10/100, then the best speed I can hope for is 12.5Mbps or about 1.5MB/s, which are the speed I'm about getting. So then there may not be anything wrong with the network necessarily, only that the network is limited to 10/100. That would make sense because 1080p movies seem to run at around 10-20Mbps, so especially in high bitrate scenes or even just movies with high bitrate content, I could see where it would be maxing out the transfer speeds.

Also, much thanks for all the replies!
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#10
I would expect to see around 10Mbps, 1.5 is far too slow!

Note a capital M means megabyte, a small m means megabit

Just noted I should have been capitalising the B not the M, this is true to my previous post too
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#11
I think that train of thought is correct, because 720p movies or even when content remains under like 10Mbps, the video can be played smoothly. Shoot! Why do I store all my movies as 1080p? That's fine though, like I said this is a work in progress so this isn't exactly how I plan to play movies in the end. Once I build my media server, then, hopefully, I can experience gigabit transfer speeds. Good to know the source of the problem.
(2012-09-08, 14:33)charlie0440 Wrote: I would expect to see around 10Mbps, 1.5 is far too slow!

Note a capital M means megabyte, a small m means megabit

Wait. 10Mbps = 1.25 MB/s, is that not correct?
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#12
Read my edited post, I screwed up my messages damn phone predictive text you should be expecting around 10MB megabytes on a 100mbit connection. 12megabytes being the limit. I had been capitilising the M but not the B for megabytes. Sorry about the confusion:

12 megabytes limit on standard network
125 megabyte limit on gigabit network
Guide to building an all in one Ubuntu Server - TV(vdr),File,Music,Web

Server Fractal Designs Define XL, Asus P5QL/EPU, Dual Core E5200, 4gb, L4M-Twin S2 v6.2, Supermicro AOC-USAS-L8I, 1*SSD & 13*HDD drives (24TB total) - Ubuntu Server
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XBMC 2 Revo 3700 - OpenElec frodo
XBMC 3 Raspb Pi
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#13
Ahh alright. Well then I'm back to square one.

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#14
While it sounds like a hardware issue, try the tweak here, which are Windows friendly:

http://www.speedguide.net/articles/lan-tweaking-1607

Using cat6 will help a bit, too.

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#15
i tried the same option you're trying to use the usb port of the router to share files,
what i've heard the so called smb it makes to share the drive with the rest of the computers is just to slow for 1080p streaming.
get a decent NAS or a HP Microserver and your problems will be solved.
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RE: Networking Issue - Where's my bottleneck/limitation?0