Can I connect my PS4 and Laptop together via ethernet cable to increase the stability of the connection? I’ve only been using Plex for a week or so now and I have the same issue as I had with Netflix, constant pauses… I integrated a Wifi Range Extender but still has iffy connection, due to there being alot of devices on the network… would a direct connection between laptop and PS4 help?
It could BUT that is not the way networking generally works. Better and more standard would be connecting both to your router via Ethernet cabling. That is how networking is designed to work. You would also have to assure that both devices are configured to use the wired connection and not the wireless.
In general clients can be wireless BUT it almost always a mistake to have your server connected wirelessly. Wired is always better and more stable and the server just has to do too much to use wireless well.
I believe your laptop is your server and it should be connected via an Ethernet wired connection to your router.
Note: Just connecting a cable is not enough you must tell your laptop to use wired rather than wireless connection.
Keep also in mind that:
- after switching network connections, your server has now a different local IP address. If you have created port forwardings in the router, you need to adapt those.
- Always close plex server and restart it after switching network connections
Currently Im using my laptop as the server and it’s nowhere close to the router, it’s actually in a completely different structure… would it be better to just build a server tower, for just this use? I have a gaming Desktop and my every day use laptop, but I have more than enough parts to build a pretty powerful server tower…
If you want a server which deserves it’s name, yes. If you get the remote access going, you will like it to have everything available which wouldn’t fit into the laptop when you’re out and about.
In general for Plex:
- Servers should NEVER be wireless
- Servers should never have other duties except those that support Plex
- Servers should be powerful enough to support three or four times the planed usage
- Servers should be powered by a UPS system
- Servers should have access to at least twice the needed storage. (Data grows to fill available space.)
- Server storage should be easily expandable.
- Backups, at least redundancy, should be seamless.
I use a simple PC (Pretty powerful) with a bunch of USB drives pooled using Stablebit’s DrivePool for my server. I have somewhat over 53tb of drives for media storage and I use DrivePool’s duplication feature for redundancy. There is also a true backup using media I store off site.
Adding drives to my system is simply a matter of plugging in a new drive and adding it to the pool.
There are people that use a much more complex systems and/or ones that are “neater.” My system is a bit of a mess of wires (all those USB cables and the wall warts to power those drive makes a bit of a cluttered appearance) but the whole system lives in a back room and is out of sight.
I also have my networking system on that same rack.
Whatever you choose to do for your server be sure to over-design it. It is much easier if you have more than what you need than it is to add “power” after the fact.
wired connections are always better than wireless, also depending on your server you may want to look at forcing the audio/video streams to high quality I found that forcing the streams in some apps actually works perfect vs using the “auto” modes.
WIfi, really depends on which band your using 2.4ghz lots of things can interfere even a microwave oven an cause signal problems. 5ghz usually works alot better and less interference. I assume your laptop is the plex server? If it is what is your network card is gigabit or just 10/100 ? its its 10/100 you may want to checkout a USB gigabit adapter, I had an old laptop that I was using as test server and it made a huge difference. I have also seen issues with cables if you have a 10/100 cable but all gigabit gear you will have slower speeds due to that cable being limiter on network. Also if you have gigibit router you may want to look at Gigabit SWITCH, switches process traffic differently and also don’t share speed across controller chips like routers do.
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