Possible problem with network card

[LarryJB]

I finally got around to testing the streaming from my Dell GX280, and the results were unacceptable
The streams take forever to start and then when they do start there are skips, pauses and jumps. I have streamed from my windows computer perfectly. I suspect it could be either a network cabling issue or maybe the on-board NIC in the computer. I would like some opinions before I go out and buy some stuff.
Presently the computer sits down in my workshop, which is a separate building about 120 ft from the house. I have a cat-5 cable running underground between the house and the shop. I was thinking that that might be the cause of the slowness. Is that a possibility? I suppose the easiest way to test that would be to move the computer back up to the house and hook it up to see if that will solve my problem.
The other possibility I see is that maybe the on-board NIC is a piece of junk and I need to get a new network card. I know those are cheap, I might even have one laying around the house somewhere.

Now here is the main question I want to ask: Is there some way I can measure the network through-put so I can actually verify that the problem is really network speed? If I had some way of measuring, I could use the 1st measurement as a benchmark and as I make changes compare the new measurements against my starting point.

Thanks,
Larry

[Ian]

Hi Larry,

Unless the cable to your workshop is faulty then I don't think that would be the issue. The maximum recommend length of any cat5 run is 100 metres so 120ft is well within that.

What are you streaming to? Is it up to the job? The reason I ask is one of my desktops exhibits the exact same symptoms as you and it is because the desktop itself is not up to the job, the server is fine. Just a thought.

If you've installed a gnome desktop on your server then System Monitor (Applications -> System Tools -> System Monitor) will do what you're asking. It's like Task Manager for Windows and shows network throughput. Failing that, there's a nice list of tools here. Never tried any of them myself tho.

Let us know how you get on

Ian.

[LarryJB]

Hi Larry,

Unless the cable to your workshop is faulty then I don't think that would be the issue. The maximum recommend length of any cat5 run is 100 metres so 120ft is well within that.

What are you streaming to? Is it up to the job? The reason I ask is one of my desktops exhibits the exact same symptoms as you and it is because the desktop itself is not up to the job, the server is fine. Just a thought.

If you've installed a gnome desktop on your server then System Monitor (Applications -> System Tools -> System Monitor) will do what you're asking. It's like Task Manager for Windows and shows network throughput. Failing that, there's a nice list of tools here. Never tried any of them myself tho.

Let us know how you get on
Ian.

I am streaming to my LG BluRay player. It works fine when I stream to it from my windows computer, but when I stream the same file from my server, it is jumpy, and some times pauses and skips. I did move the server up to the house and tried it from there. Even though I believe it was better, it did not solve the issue. I ordered a new NIC for the server from Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00023433U, (this one, looks as though it will be compatible with ubuntu) it should be here sometime next week. It was cheap and I probably need to upgrade it anyway. My router can handle the gigabit too!

[Ian]

Are you accessing the video via the DLNA server when you stream from your windows desktop or are you accessing it directly? If the latter then I'm wondering whether the problem is with the re-encoding of the video rather than the network bandwidth itself. If the former, then just ignore me

Ian.

[LarryJB]

Are you accessing the video via the DLNA server when you stream from your windows desktop or are you accessing it directly? If the latter then I'm wondering whether the problem is with the re-encoding of the video rather than the network bandwidth itself. If the former, then just ignore me

Ian.

I am streaming in the same way form both computers. I have Serviio installed on both computers, and I have also streamed directly form both computers. There seems to be no difference whether between using the dnla server and directly streaming. The windows computer streams fine and the ubuntu server struggles.
Here is another big clue. The VNC GUI connection is very slugish, I have found that if I drop the connection speed on the VNC client to 256k, it works better. This makes me think it might be a problem with the network card.

[Ian]

Ah ok. I'm with you now Larry. My apologies, I misunderstood you. When you mentioned streaming with the windows machine worked fine I thought you meant streaming to the windows machine from the ubuntu machine. ie. using the windows machine as the client not as the server.

So, I tend to agree with you now, it's definitely a problem with the Ubuntu machine. If the NIC doesn't sort it then I'd be looking at the processor/memory next. Streaming across a network in itself doesn't tend to eat network bandwidth (even an uncompressed blu-ray stream is only ~50Mbps so well within the capabilities of a 100meg NIC) so if you get a chance to run System Monitor on your server then that should definitely help pinpoint the cause. It shows processor usage, memory usage and network throughput so is quite a neat tool for seeing what's going on.

Good luck sir and keep us posted.

Ian.

[LarryJB]

I did run the system monitor while it was streaming, The cpu usage seemed pretty low, it never got above 15%, The memory showed about 25-30% usage. I really don't understand the what numbers mean of the network throughput, so I don't have a feel for what is good or bad. What should I look for there? My server is shutdown at the moment, so I cannot run the test now.

[LarryJB]

I restarted the server and am running a movie now. cpu is running between 15-30% and never gets above 50%. Memory is holding steady at about 30%.
Network however is all over the place. It gets as high as 500 kib/s for short spurts and then will drop to almost 0, the back to 100 kib/s it seems to average around 150 to 200 KiB/s. That seems a bit odd to me, but I really don't know. What do you think?
BTW, it doesn't seem to be quite as jumpy tonight.

[LarryJB]

I think I have figured out the problem. I had routed the patch cable from the server to the router through an ethernet surge protector that is a part of the UPS battery backup I have. After I took that out of the loop the videos now seem to play smoothly. After reviewing the specs of the UPS, I discovered that the ethernet surge protector is rated for 10baseT only.
I have a new gigabit network card coming that I and still going to install in the server. If that goes smoothly I am going to order another one and install it in my windows computer, then I should be able to transfer data between the 2 computers much faster. Oh, in case you are wondering, my router is gigabit capable as well.

[Ian]

Nice one Larry and thanks for reporting back

Ian.