Slow Transfer

[Bob Ross]

I am running a wireless network in my house with a router (802.11b).
I want to be able to watch videos across the network with out transfering them (streaming them instead almost). I know 802.11b is not very fast but it should be able to transmit 170mb episode in 40minutes (i.e. fast enough to stream it).
Any one know why this may not be able to?

What also puzzles me is the other day I transfered about 400mb between two machines both running 802.11g cards (but will be lmited by the 802.11b router) and it took about 40mins. But I downloaded the 500mb service pack for MS Visual Studio in around 15mins. How can the internet be faster than a local network?

Any advise would be appreciated!

[Cyberdyne]

Great Question, I have seen this happen. I think there is a limitation in hardware/software for how fast things get uploaded, also if it says you are running 54 mbs on the wireless it might be wrong, depending on the distance. Also microsoft servers have some of the highest upload on the net. I will look into this some more and get back to you, but streaming video on a wireless is a no no unless you have the new 240 + mb wireless router.

Regards, Cyber.

[Banfa]

but streaming video on a wireless is a no no unless you have the new 240 + mb wireless routers.

That doesn't sound right Cyber.

Using MPEG2 you should be able to get a good quality TV image with sound using only 6 MBit/s. You can get a multiplex carrying several good streams into 50 MBit/s (at least we could when I was working on digital television receivers).

MPEG4 should provide even better compression and require less band width.

[Motoma]

I think an important question to ask here is what format, and what tools, are you using to stream?

[Bob Ross]

Okay. The file formats are either AVI or MPG(2 or 4).
And I am just using Media Player Classic to play them.
Have also tried Winamp, VLC, WMP etc...
All the usual media players.

[santybanty20]

if you want to play a large varities of file having a single player in ur computer then u can try

kmp player...


it works really nice...you can get it from rapidshare.com


if someone really want it then you can ask me for the link...bye

regards,
[e-mail] (please no e-mails here or you will be a victim of spam) thanks, Cyber.

[Motoma]

Okay. The file formats are either AVI or MPG(2 or 4).
And I am just using Media Player Classic to play them.
Have also tried Winamp, VLC, WMP etc...
All the usual media players.

And how are you streaming them?

[Bob Ross]

By simply opening the network path to them (i.e. \\MyComputerName\Videos\SouthPark.avi).
Or draging or dropping into whatever media player.

[Motoma]

By simply opening the network path to them (i.e. \\MyComputerName\Videos\SouthPark.avi).
Or draging or dropping into whatever media player.

That is not necessarily the same as streaming them.
Streaming a video usually involve a level of buffering on your client to ensure that playback is continuous. When opening it from a network share, your player may treat it the same as if it were opening from a local drive, when in fact transfer speeds are much slower and a larger read-ahead buffer is needed.

I found this great page on Engadget's website about using VLC to stream almost anything.

Following that technique, you should have no issues watching videos, regardless of their size.

[Bob Ross]

I couldn't get VLC to work (I think because of the coomputer I was using). But I managed to do it with TVersity (TVersity.com). A very good piece of free software that sets up a video server. You can even browse n pick what you want easily.

But that still leaves the question. If TVersity can transfer 200mb in 30mins why does it take windows an hour? Why is windows so bad a transfering files on a network. And is there any apps you can get to share network fiiles better.

[Motoma]

I couldn't get VLC to work (I think because of the coomputer I was using). But I managed to do it with TVersity (TVersity.com). A very good piece of free software that sets up a video server. You can even browse n pick what you want easily.

But that still leaves the question. If TVersity can transfer 200mb in 30mins why does it take windows an hour? Why is windows so bad a transfering files on a network. And is there any apps you can get to share network fiiles better.

Because when you use a network share, to the applications using the files, it looks like just another hard drive. The reason for this is so that every application doesn't need to code in network topology and protocols. All a program needs to do is say, "I need a file" and Windows will provide it.
As such, a program (a video player perhaps) may not perform as much read ahead caching. For instance, normally, a video player will grab chunks of a file at a time. So it will grab the first fifty megs of video when it opens up, and once it is down to a meg of video left, it will grab the next fifty megs. If this is all happening on a hard drive, grabbing fifty meg chunks happens much faster than the player can play a meg of video. However, if that file is on a network share, the amount of time to download the next fifty meg chunk will be considerably longer, possibly extending well past the last meg of video still cached.

[Bob Ross]

You seem to be missing my point slightly. I understand the concept of caching but the way I am doing it now will not change the cahche a great deal.

But my point is.... how come tversity can transfer a file in 10mins (at its fasest, but never much more) and windows takes 50mins every time?

Why is windows so slow at network transfers???

[bartonc]

Is it posible that this is caused by virus scan software? I am currently facing delay/speed issues due to Norton AV. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[bartonc]

You seem to be missing my point slightly. I understand the concept of caching but the way I am doing it now will not change the cahche a great deal.

But my point is.... how come tversity can transfer a file in 10mins (at its fasest, but never much more) and windows takes 50mins every time?

Why is windows so slow at network transfers???

Check out this link. It looks promising. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...treamserv.aspx

[Cyberdyne]

might be the fact that you are only allowed 10 concurrent tcpip connection under SP2 and the other systems are unlimited. Might be your wireless hardware like I said, range is not necessarily performance and if you want something fast try some of the new netgear routers. I had skipping problems with my dlink but now that I am running 240mb wireless there is no delays whatsoever.!

best luck, Cyber