Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: FUBAR-BDHR on April 25, 2008, 11:54:03 pm
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I have WiFi setup on my LAN using a router behind a router setup. Basically the wirless router is connected to one of my hubs and is setup for DHCP with an address range that is not used by one of my 2 main routers. One of the main routers does not have DHCP enabled. When I take my laptop outside I am well within range (about 25 feet) from the wireless router. I connect fine and can access the internet as well as my local servers. I checked and doubled checked and the IP address assigned to the router is valid and is the address it is using to connect to my local server. Now for the fun part. Internet access works just fine but trying to play MP3's from my local server results in skippy playback if the file is bigger than about 3 or 4 meg. Small MP3's play fine. It's an 866mhz laptop with decent ram so it should play the files just fine. The only thing is they are on a Novell server so they are being accessed using Novell Netware client (latest version). I'm starting to wonder it the wireless adapter has problems with the Netware Client. It's a cheap usb adapter. The Router is a decent linksys.
Any ideas on settings that might help or should I just by a better wireless adapter? Large transfers from the internet seem to work fine. It's just large files accessed from the Novell servers that seem to have the issue.
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Hmm, max speed on highest-rate (aka "Excellent") Wireless G are 54mbps, or megabits per second. Translated, divide it by 8. So, 6.75 megabytes per second... EDIT: actually, only 19 Mbit/s of that is throughput... 2.375 megabytes/sec; so, no probs there. Now, what speed are you actually connecting at? Is that the problem, or is it something else? If you're connecting at "very low signal strength", that might be it. How much signal are you getting? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless-G
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just increase the cache size for your audio player. and if you have a playback delay option you might want use that too. that way the file has time to move over the network before being played.
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I am connecting at 54mbps and signal is good and the strength is always over 66%. Usually in the high 70's low 80's. It doesn't appear to be related to that since I can grab large files off the internet. Also I put the meter up and the stuttering doesn't correspond to any drop in signal strength. For instance I just downloaded all the windows patches for the last 6 months and didn't notice any slowdowns in transfers. NOAA weather radar loop runs at about 90% of what I would expect but it is Java and an older machine so that is probably the cause of that.
I only have WMP on it and I set it to buffer the max 60 seconds. No help.
I did notice that when it happens WMP temporarily goes into program not responding but I don't know if that is the cause or just a symptom of the problem.
Oh I do have the same problem if I try to run Firfox. While it is installed on my laptop my profile is on a mapped drive on the Novell server. Takes forever to load the profile and browsing pages with video or large pictures (the weather radar for instance) also exhibits the "stuttering". IE works at normal speed but it's all on the laptop.
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theres youre problem, windows media player sucks.
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Yea but that's all I have on the laptop. It's not just WMP thought it seems to be all transfers of any size from the Novell server.
Guess I'll just have to get that computer setup in the garage and run some speakers outside. Have all the stuff to do it just never the time.
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Novell Netware client
There's your problem. Can't you just use Samba/CIFS instead?
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Never heard of it. The server is running Netware 6 not the newer Linux based versions. Other that the Windows client for Netware (piece of crap) Netware Client is the only other way I know of to connect to the server.
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I checked into it and Netware isn't listed for Samba.
I tried some reverse psychology and set the buffer to 1 second and it didn't change a thing so it's not the media player buffer. I think it's just the Netware client not getting along with the wireless card. Think I'll just drill a hole through the wall and run a cat 5 out there. Should take longer to find my cable ends and crimper then to do the run.
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Definitely upgrade firmware where possible on your devices as well.
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Have you considered the fact that wireless connections of any type are horribly unreliable, and likely a good half the data you send/receive is faulty, even if you have an excellent rated connection? Netware further complicates the issue.
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Yea but that's all I have on the laptop. It's not just WMP thought it seems to be all transfers of any size from the Novell server.
Guess I'll just have to get that computer setup in the garage and run some speakers outside. Have all the stuff to do it just never the time.
Use The KMPlayer (http://imgcdn.pandora.tv/pan_img/KMP/Download/kmp.exe) - like Winamp, the way it used to be.
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There's also audacious