Video Lag

[bentobaku]

Ok lets set the stage first

Dell Inspiron 530 rebirthed in Alienware gaming case
8g RAM
Nvidia GeForce 9600gt 512mb GFX
Windows 7 Ultimate

I am a computer repair tech, but am very limited on networking knowledge.

Ok the problem:

I have multiple computers networked together with windows. I spend my evenings playing World of Warcraft and watching videos. The problem I am having is when watching videos on seperate pc i am getting network lag on the media box from streaming over the network.

Dell Inspiron 530: Storage PC and Gaming PC
Dell Dimension 8600: Media Box

Streaming Video from Inspiron to Dimension Every 3-5 min lag spikes cause video to stall.

Sry for such a lengthy and complex post just tryn to make sure situation is understood. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? TY in advanced.

 

[CntdwnToExtn]

What is your network speed? 100Mbit, 1000Mbit?
Are these high def videos?
When they video stalls, are you doing anything else on your network? You mentioned playing WoW, does it only happen when playing WoW and watching...

I'll wait to post anything else, it might be network speed or it might be a PC issue.

 

[bentobaku]

I am not sure my network speed... It happens anytime I stream video, but it didn't used to. I have a westell modem from Frontier Communication (used to be Verizon). where can i find my speed? As far as my pc goes the only thing that has changed on it in the last 6mths is i went from 6 - 8g ram (which should only help). No the most of the videos are not high def, most are simple xvid for divx format around 700 - 1200mb. My wow has hang-up sometimes too as if the router is full, but the only computers hooked up at the moment is media box and my gaming pc (both only doing main function).

 

[colson1985]

He is referring to your router speed. Not the speed of your internet. Routers come in many different flavors and the cheaper routers are not going to have a very high data transfer rate. They come 10/100/1000Mbps. If you google your router it will tell you. If it is on the cheaper side it probably only has 100Mbps transfer rate. This may be a bottle neck.

 

[bentobaku]

Ok the problem is i am using a frontier gateway. Its an Westell Versalink 7500 Gateway. I used to have the Verizon version (same exact model, just said verizon on front instead of Frontier) and i had no problems. Could it be just a bad router? if so wtf this is the 3rd router I have gotten since frontier took over less than a year ago, all of which where faulty in someway.

 

[Peter.Cort]

the port is 10/100. It could be that you're trying to push too much data through it. Call them up say it's broken and ask for a gigabit router. Or get a gigabit switch and have the computers connected to that and the switch connected to your router.

 

[bentobaku]

Hmmm odd i didnt used to have this problem at all. Well this is the only thing they will give me and i dont have money for new equipment. just figured i would see if there was settings or something i could change since the problem kinda randomly started. I will try cleaning the media pc maybe something is gumming up stuff there. We used to be able run 3 computers on that gateway at a time all playing wow with no problem. Hmmmmm.

Is it possible my router isnt cleaning itself enough? I have noticed rebooting the router seems to help for a while. So i am wondering if it is clearing its cache often enough? Again not networker just goin by what I know with like OSs and stuff like that.

 

[Peter.Cort]

the router doesn't really store any information. What you could do to see where the issue lies is run some network monitoring programs, you could do it as simply as running Task Manager and watching the network tab and see how much data is being transmitted over the network from each computer. Also check for tasks that are using up a lot of network bandwidth on either computer.

What all do you have running on your network, both wired and wireless devices?

if it looks like it's taking up quite a bit then grab one of these guys Newegg.com - LevelOne GSW-0507 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Switch 5 x RJ45 1K MAC Address Table 832k bits Buffer Memory only $20.

 

[bentobaku]

Interesting Gaming pc uses 3%, the media pc is using .5%... but both shoot to over 50% at the same exact time for the same exact intervals. Both link speeds are 100mbps. Would it matter to get a faster switch if both net cars are only 10/100?

 

[Peter.Cort]

well if the router is indeed your problem then yeah it would fix it because it would allow for higher throughput.