Ok I’m clearly doing so,thing wrong here… now it’s coming out at 1.49gb!!!
I ran Wireshark on my network for 60 seconds, just to establish a metric for you. (I expected you’d want a sanity check).
1 minute = 400 KB of pcap output. This includes 2 PMS servers running, Chrome, and email running.
It’s starting to sound like you have a wiring loop causing a ‘broadcast storm’ (it’s unfortunately far to easy to do).
I would like to suggest you start and trace the paths. I use my main switch as the ‘backbone’. Everything is a “Star” configuration with the switch being the center. The Internet coming tinto the switch is ‘just another port’.
If you needed to use a second switch, This is where broadcast storms commonly happen. (two patch cables (one from each switch) to the same 3rd piece of hardware or back to the backbone) It is the network equivalent of the Grandfather Paradox. The the first broadcast from the lower level takes out everything above it.
Just to give some background I am using power line adapters on my network. Not sure if that would cause any issues?
Do you mean start and trace the paths in Wireshark?
that changes a great deal. you can have all kinds of data loss and retransmission.
Oh this sounds terminal! I’m moving house soon so shall we wait until then before looking into networking issues further? I am planning to replace my powerline set up with a mesh WiFi network (looking at Google WiFi)
I’m going to do some additional testing tonight. I have a beefy Mac Pro sat next to my PMS so I’ll set up a new PMS on that with the same files I’ve been trying to watch and see if they work from there.
Additionally I’ll try those same files using Plex Cloud.
At least this way we can rule out network/hardware issues.
You can try one simple test (assuming you have enough wire to do it with… Don’t use the house wiring for networking.
House wire networking has one inherent problem most aren’t aware of. 220 VAC (In the US) is 2 phases of power. IF you’re lucky enough with good power-line units to establish a link across power phases (which by the way have no physical connection to each other), you’re actually transmitting your data out to the pole transformer, through it, phasing it, and having it come back. Measure that wire length. Now consider the exposure being unshielded wire and the amplitude difference of a network signal compared to 120 VAC.
See where this can go sideways in a real hurry? (I think they call that a boat-load of hurt)
@ChuckPA So I tried a file on my Apple TV (wired but through Powerline) and it conked out after 18 minutes and again at 42 minutes. This was streaming from my Mac Pro, not my Mini and the error was about speed issues so it would have been OK otherwise.
I also tried one on my iPad using Plex Cloud and that went perfectly. No dropout, no issues (other than the server not waking up using the client - had to go to the web app to wake it up).
My Apple TV is literally touching my router - would it be wise to complete another test on the ATV but using WiFi?
Historically I’ve never had any Powerline issues with anything, but I could look to moving my Mini and drives so they’re not sending over PL. I also don’t have the bandwidth to switch to Cloud!
Yes, I would try a 5 GHz wifi test. 2.4 Ghz wifi can be just as noisy. Also, we must account for wifi being half-duplex (only one device can transmit at a time). There should be no ‘retransmission’ tagged packets in your pcap output. This is bothering me a great deal. When we can rule out whether a factor or not, I will be much more comfortable with more exotic steps next.
As for the server waking up the client, I cannot speak to this. My client is already ‘awake’ (device on) and the Plex client app active. PMS itself doesn’t send out a WOL magic packet.
OK I’ll give the WiFi test a go and also see if moving them fixes the issue. Like I say I’m moving house soon and will have a stronger focus on networking etc in the new place.
I’ll report back…!
@danverbiest said:
Just to give some background I am using power line adapters on my network. Not sure if that would cause any issues?
Do you mean start and trace the paths in Wireshark?
For what it’s worth, I have the identical problem over “powerline” networking as well as direct to my router (cat 5/6).
Both connections playback fine on my Xbox 360, but the identical content can not play back for longer than 2 minutes (720p + content).
PMS says both are playing back the content via direct play, however, the audio seems to be remixed for the Xbox.
