|
I moved recently and suddenly my HTPC is having issues streaming content from my PC with XBMC (a 900MB movie buffers every 15 seconds or something). The HTPC is wired to my RT-N16 and my pc is about 15' away across mostly open space (there's a set of open pocket doors so not a complete wall). Running speedtest.net on the HTPC I've gotten 22Mb up ~ 3Mb down which is consistent with what I pay for, but running it on my PC which has a USB 2.0 300mbs N adapter yeilds only about 3Mbs down and a paltry (and sort of spotty) 0.8Mb up. I used to get almost wired speeds via wireless in my old apartment with the same equipment and with MUCH worse line-of-sight to the router (up a flight of stairs, through a hall around a corner). I have 2 theories that maybe you guys could debunk? First of all, the air in my new building is CROWDED, like probably 25 or 30 ssids popping up on inSSIDer, and probably 5 with strength above -60dB, is that enough to cause the insane performance drop? Second, in my old apartment we just had a small modem that comcast provided that had no wireless routing capabilities. When they installed the internet in my new apartment they brought along a giant beast that is a modem/wireless router all-in-one. I'm not using the modem as a wireless router, but I don't have the wireless radio on the modem turned off. Could that be screwing things up? Should I have them swap out the modem/router for one that is just a modem? himajinga fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Sep 25, 2012 |
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 17:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 19:46 |
|
|
Turn off the radio on the modem, and have you changed the channel that your network is running on to a less crowded one, at least one that isn't conflicting with the higher signal strength channels?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 17:53
|
|
|
Seems like the right(ish) thread, so here goes: bought a new house, tons of coax already run, no idea which goes where. Good cheap testing tool? Second, anyone have a reliable, cheap source of bulk smurf tube?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 18:50
|
|
|
So I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post. I work for a small department at a university; IT here is very busy. We want to run our own server and two networks, one for staff and one for students in the department. The server will be on the staff network. I'm thinking two routers; undecided on which. I want it to be very user friendly, as we won't always have someone who can handle these problems. My thought process is; Apple Airport Extreme for the students, that way it's easy to configure and can also print-serve. I guess the staff can go with airport extreme as well, but i'm not sure. I'm thinking Windows Server to store files and potentially a database. Not sure if this is the best way to approach this problem, especially since we're working within university confines.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 21:04
|
|
|
Kalix posted:So I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post. Yeah, IT departments tend to be verrrry wary of people attaching random equipment to the network. At best, it could be a security problem, at worst, it might hijack DHCP requests and take the entire network down and then they will come and kill you. Have you asked them about this?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 21:26
|
|
|
So, my seven year old WRT54G died earlier this year and I was low on cash and replaced it with a refurbed E2000. Three months later, that thing is having lots of issues as well. Primarily heat related, it seems. The room it's in is cool, and it's dust free. Reading its page on the DD-WRT wiki, I saw some suggestions for lowering the heat levels and reduced the TX power and underclocked the cpu back to 300mhz (I guess the manufacturer overclocks it to 354mhz out of the box). It still overheats like crazy whenenver I play an online game like Guild Wars 2. I've tried propping it up to give it plenty of clearance underneath, and even turning it upside down, nothing works. At this point, I'm just writing the drat thing off, and considering buying refurbished a huge mistake, but I need help for picking a replacement. The OP recommends the Netgear WNR3500L (http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-RangeMax-Wireless-N300-Gigabit-WNR3500L/dp/B002RYYZZS/) for the price range I'm looking at, the D-Link DIR-655 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127215) is $5 cheaper for what seems like the same feature set, and then there's the Rosewill RNX-N4PS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166039) which is super cheap. None of those are DD-WRT compatible and the Netgear has an experimental tomato build I'd be afraid of installing. I'm okay with letting go with custom firmware if the regular firmware is good enough. I'm not a power user and I never really used DD-WRT much for anything other than the better port forwarding management and the bandwidth graphs. So, what are the pros and cons of those three? I can't really tell the difference between any of them. Is the Rosewill a piece of poo poo, as the price may suggest? Which has the best out-of-box firmware? Is there any other router in the ~$50-60 price range I should look at instead?
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 22:03
|
|
|
UndyingShadow posted:Yeah, IT departments tend to be verrrry wary of people attaching random equipment to the network. At best, it could be a security problem, at worst, it might hijack DHCP requests and take the entire network down and then they will come and kill you. I haven't bugged IT too much -- that will be the next step. The issue has been that IT is swamped and doesn't seem to want departments even have routers. We have had to have one because the wi-fi is so spotty in our area, and they haven't complied with requests to fix it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 22:21
|
|
|
Kalix posted:The issue has been that IT...doesn't seem to want departments even have routers. Of course they don't want access points added to their network, it's a huge security concern. Your first step with interfacing with IT is to learn that what you want is not a router (regardless of what the box says), it's an access point. Even then they're not going to give it to you. They need to add their own access points in your space to improve your signal. Whether or not they will help with that, the answer will never be to add home networking equipment to a university network.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 22:39
|
|
|
Erwin posted:Of course they don't want access points added to their network, it's a huge security concern. Your first step with interfacing with IT is to learn that what you want is not a router (regardless of what the box says), it's an access point. Even then they're not going to give it to you. They need to add their own access points in your space to improve your signal. Whether or not they will help with that, the answer will never be to add home networking equipment to a university network. Right, they tried to add an access point where we are but it didn't help much. I guess I was thinking router so that we can have our own network -- would that not be the way to go? You both have definitely convinced me to coordinate with IT and figure out the real situation.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 23:01
|
|
|
St. Blaize posted:Is it a bad idea to run a torrent client on my router following the directions here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Transmission_daemon Set this up and it is working beautifully so far. It is smart enough at default settings to prioritize the non-torrent traffic so the effect on bandwidth is minimal. Good stuff.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2012 23:13
|
|
|
kalicki posted:Turn off the radio on the modem, and have you changed the channel that your network is running on to a less crowded one, at least one that isn't conflicting with the higher signal strength channels? Tried this, worked like a charm! Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2012 19:40
|
|
|
I figured this was the best place to ask this... I noticed my web browsing has slowed down a lot so I ran a speed test (speedtest.net) and I got unusual results. My ping was very high, 112MS which is high for me, but my download and upload speeds are fine. Anyone know what could cause that in a home network. I know there are a lot of other factors (spyware, etc etc) that can cause quirky things like this to happen but I am addressing that myself. I was just wondering if these results clue any network guru as to what could be wrong if it is even the network that is the problem. EDIT: Speedtest was run in Firefox, just ran it again in chrome and chrome gets 33MS, same D/l and U/L results. Guess after all these years Firefox is getting the boot (although there probably is an underlying problem because it never used to be this slow but it's a good excuse to switch over). Mindisgone fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Sep 27, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 00:10
|
|
|
I didn't see a recommendation for a wireless card/USB adapter in this or the parts picking thread. Is there a particular one preferred? I may need to upgrade soon after a move, but the Monoprice router has worked fine for what I've needed it for so far, wired to one computer and G wireless to another. I've not needed anything more demanding from it, though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 14:50
|
|
|
Okay, so I bought 4 3TB Hitachi UltraStars in prep for a new NAS setup. I assumed I was buying this: http://www.hgst.com/ultrastar-7k3000 However, I found out that what I actually got was an HP OEM version of this drive. I'm really confused about this, but I guess it explains why I got such a deal on the drives. But apparently HP buys up the Hitachi drives (which were recently purchased by WD) and then makes them worse. The big difference is that the Hitachi branded drives are speced are SATA III 6 Gbps. However, the ones I received are labeled as 3 Gbps. So, I ask you: Is this a big deal? I want to have a high quality RAID 5 NAS. I assumed SATA III would be the way to go. Am I going to notice a performance hit? Are these drives less reliable than their real Hitachi counterparts? And, shot in the dark, is there anyway to just flash off the HP firmware and magic in the Hitachi's? Bea Nanner fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Sep 27, 2012 |
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 18:43
|
|
|
You'll be limited by other factors than SATA speed when streaming from the NAS, so I wouldn't worry about it too much (unless the drives have reliability issues).
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 19:01
|
|
|
himajinga posted:Tried this, worked like a charm! Thanks! Ok, didn't work. Worked one night, back to crappy the next. Thoughts?
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 19:23
|
|
|
himajinga posted:Ok, didn't work. Worked one night, back to crappy the next. Thoughts? You could try killing all your neighbors and turning off their wireless. Probably your only other option is going to be switching to 5 ghz or else buying a 25' ethernet cable.
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 20:17
|
|
|
Cream_Filling posted:You could try killing all your neighbors and turning off their wireless. So I think what I'm going to try is to use the combo as the broadcaster and wire my rt-n16 halfway across the house and disable DHCP on it, running my wireless from the modem and using the router as an access point or bridge (not sure which this would count as). Sound feasible?
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 22:07
|
|
|
I need to pickup a new router is the ASUS RT-N66U the best one to go with right now? My wife works from home now and our current router is dropping wifi and its making her job extremely difficult(if she loses her connection she has to re-login to about 5 different things, its hell). All of my routers in the past 7 years have been DD-WRT compatible so I'd like this one to be also. Any suggestions would be awesome!
|
|
#
?
Sep 27, 2012 22:19
|
|
|
himajinga posted:So I think what I'm going to try is to use the combo as the broadcaster and wire my rt-n16 halfway across the house and disable DHCP on it, running my wireless from the modem and using the router as an access point or bridge (not sure which this would count as). Sound feasible? You could try that, I suppose, since it won't cost you any money to try it out, but it really sounds like your problem is interference, not range, so it probably won't help much if there's really 30+ SSIDs you see in your place. If or when that doesn't work, 15' is not very far, so using a wire and running it along the baseboard/ceiling is a pretty easy and cheap solution, assuming it's possible in the space. Otherwise, it sounds like you're in a pretty classic situation where 5 ghz is useful.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2012 04:15
|
|
|
Cream_Filling posted:You could try that, I suppose, since it won't cost you any money to try it out, but it really sounds like your problem is interference, not range, so it probably won't help much if there's really 30+ SSIDs you see in your place. What's the longest a run of cat5e can be before there's dropoff? The computer is probably 15' away from the router as the crow flies, but to run it in an aesthetically pleasing way would probably take 40' or 50' of cabling, is that ok?
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2012 18:18
|
|
|
himajinga posted:What's the longest a run of cat5e can be before there's dropoff? The computer is probably 15' away from the router as the crow flies, but to run it in an aesthetically pleasing way would probably take 40' or 50' of cabling, is that ok? I have always been told that 100' is where a slight drop is, I have multiple 50' runs in my condo with 0 issues.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2012 18:26
|
|
|
Space Cadet posted:I have always been told that 100' is where a slight drop is, I have multiple 50' runs in my condo with 0 issues. I think the general rule is 100 meters, not feet.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2012 18:34
|
|
|
Ok cool, thanks guys, I'll just get a long run off monoprice and wire up my computer.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2012 18:44
|
|
|
The_Franz posted:I think the general rule is 100 meters, not feet. Correct. 328' or 100m of ethernet cabling per segment. You can then stick a hub in there to regenerate and repeat the signal to add another segment giving you 200m or 656 feet of ethernet. This is the maximum according to the spec, people do crazy stupid things all the time that aren't to spec and have mixed results because of that. Like the dudes who ran a 500' run of ethernet that actually worked for years. Too bad the switch that magically kept this limping along *melted* one day and after that, it was time to look into a proper run that was broken up at the appropriate spots.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2012 18:55
|
|
|
Once when I was a kid I joined two cat3 phone cables to make a 150m cat5 run, worked fine at 100mbit!
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2012 23:54
|
|
|
The_Franz posted:I think the general rule is 100 meters, not feet. The curse of the Canadians strikes again, it seems that I have friends who seem to use meters/feet as the same thing. I figured 100 feet seemed short but considering I am a nurse and not an IT guy I just took them at their word when running the cable at our place.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2012 04:26
|
|
|
I have a few questions for my network. My current setup is FiOS router -> E2000, mainly because the Verizon one really sucks and I just recently found out that the FiOS connection has a ethernet connection. I will be running a cable in the near future to my E2000. I am currently running an OpenVPN server on my small NAS (Netgear DUO) but it can't really handle the requests to it. I read somewhere that the E2000 would be able to act as a server, with everything behind not needing to run the actual software itself. From what I am able to gather this is possible with dd-wrt but reading their website is just as bad as XDA. Is dd-wrt the only option or are there other firmwares I could try? Since I have the nice upload from the FiOS, and recently lost an external HDD, I was going to use the OpenVPN as a way to access my music on my laptop. Stupid or is there a better way?
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2012 00:02
|
|
|
calandryll posted:I have a few questions for my network. My current setup is FiOS router -> E2000, mainly because the Verizon one really sucks and I just recently found out that the FiOS connection has a ethernet connection. I will be running a cable in the near future to my E2000. I am currently running an OpenVPN server on my small NAS (Netgear DUO) but it can't really handle the requests to it. I read somewhere that the E2000 would be able to act as a server, with everything behind not needing to run the actual software itself. Going directly from the fios box would be nice assuming there are no specific settings in their supplied router. I've never worked with fios boxes to know how ISPs have things configured. You could get the E2000 running OpenVPN with the correct Tomato build. It will most likely work better than getting your NAS to do the job. I'm not sure what the performance would be like in terms of speed though. There is other linux based software that can be used to provide an external web interface to your connection. However I'm testing and breaking a lot of the software at the moment. My non-OpenVPN hobby project isn't working so well at the moment.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2012 00:35
|
|
|
When building my house, I naively thought that two Ethernet ports would be enough for my entertainment unit. At the moment I have my WDTV Live and Xbox 360 plugged in. But I’m about to buy a home theatre system, so I’ll need to network the receiver and possibly the TV too. What’s my best option here, an inexpensive four-port switch? Can anyone recommend one? I have a Cat6 network ending in a 1Gb HP switch (1410 series, I think) in my server room (closet). All the wiring’s in my wall and I don’t feel like ripping holes and putting in another drop.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2012 05:22
|
|
|
modeski posted:When building my house, I naively thought that two Ethernet ports would be enough for my entertainment unit. At the moment I have my WDTV Live and Xbox 360 plugged in. But I’m about to buy a home theatre system, so I’ll need to network the receiver and possibly the TV too. What’s my best option here, an inexpensive four-port switch? Can anyone recommend one? I have a Cat6 network ending in a 1Gb HP switch (1410 series, I think) in my server room (closet). All the wiring’s in my wall and I don’t feel like ripping holes and putting in another drop. Basic Netgear Gigabit switch should do the trick.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2012 05:43
|
|
|
Agreed. I have two GS105s doing drat near exactly what you are looking for. I also have two TRENDnet TEG-S50Gs as well that I am happy with, if you want lights in front and ports in back. However, the Netgears are much more suited to bashing someone's head in. Tapedump fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Oct 2, 2012 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2012 07:10
|
|
|
Tapedump posted:Agreed. I have two GS105s doing drat near exactly what you are looking for. Thanks. I seen the Trendnet one is 'green' - what's the difference in power consumption between that and the Netgear? I'm guessing it's negligible, but reports of the Netgear running hot give me pause.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2012 09:40
|
|
|
This may be a silly question but I'm about to buy my first landline phone in many years. I also have an Airport Express (one of the new ones) for my WiFi. If I wanted a cordless phone, should I avoid (or gravitate) to any particular types to make sure to avoid any interference? Is that even a thing anymore? [edit] While I have you... I just ordered some of those 500Mbps Powerline Ethernet dealies for my new place... Are they good? Mainly I'm going to use it in a manner that keeps my iMac and my PS3 "wired" so that I can stream/transcode HD. Feenix fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Oct 3, 2012 |
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2012 00:52
|
|
|
For cordless phones look for ones labelled as wifi friendly. Typically these operate at 1.8 GHz (if my memory is correct) rather 2.4 GHz where most wireless sits. At home I have a wireless phone which is on 2.4 GHz but it doesn't cause any apparent problems as I'm hardly ever on the phone. Powerline adapters are as good as the quality of the wiring in your home. Newer the wiring the better typically. YMMV. I've streamed media to my PS3 wirelessly without any issues (yes in HD). HD doesn't take up as much bandwidth as people think but I have a good connection as the PS3 is only a few meters from the wireless router.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2012 01:04
|
|
|
Devian666 posted:For cordless phones look for ones labelled as wifi friendly. Typically these operate at 1.8 GHz (if my memory is correct) rather 2.4 GHz where most wireless sits. At home I have a wireless phone which is on 2.4 GHz but it doesn't cause any apparent problems as I'm hardly ever on the phone. Well good news then. I'm moving into a space-age new condo literally finished being built in July. Yay. I tend to have issues when going wireless with my Mac & PS3 because I stream and Transcode. *shrug*
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2012 01:09
|
|
|
Any transcoding I have going on happens over wired connection. It's usually only the stream directed at the PS3 that involves wireless. I've moved on to using an ATV instead and that has better wireless performance than the PS3 anyway.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2012 01:20
|
|
|
Devian666 posted:Any transcoding I have going on happens over wired connection. It's usually only the stream directed at the PS3 that involves wireless. I've moved on to using an ATV instead and that has better wireless performance than the PS3 anyway. So if you consume a lot of videos or whatnot, and they tend to be in MKV, do you have an app that can transcode+stream to the ATV2 or are you converting by hand? I love the idea of using my ATV2... but I haven't found an "easy" way to do it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2012 02:38
|
|
|
I use Air Video on my ipad. It costs money but it's the best app I've bought. You need a computer running air video server which will serve files, including MKV, and will do live transcoding. Originally I bought it just to watch movies on the ipad and then airplay turned up, so I bought an ATV. This is not the only app that has this functionality so you could check out the ATV thread in the Inspect Your Gadgets subforum. Some are design to work with xmbc on jailbroken ATV 2.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2012 02:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 19:46 |
|
|
Saucer Crab posted:I didn't see a recommendation for a wireless card/USB adapter in this or the parts picking thread. Is there a particular one preferred? I use a USB TP-Link TL-WN722N on my HTPC. I had no issues once I configured windows to stop turning it off to save energy/resources. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WBX9C6/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2012 06:42
|
|
