PCA Forums

On my network..

I used to be able to watch movies and other things from other computers on the network, and now I can't. Whenever I load up a movie that's on one of my other computers it studders horribly. But if I play it locally I have no problems. Anybody had this happen? know how to fix it? I tried the slow network browsing thing in one of FPs posts and it was a no go.. The studdering happens on my Win2k computer when watching things that are hosted on an XPro computer..

TIA

eGo

Could be a lot of different things. You're going to have to diagnose it step by step.

Anything change before this happened? You change any network cables or network hardware?

First of all you need to figure out if it's the computer hosting the files or the computer playing the files that is the source of the problem. Do you have a 3rd computer on the network, and can it play files from the hosting computer without lagging?

Could be a problem with the network. You might be getting a lot of packet loss on the network. Try turning your switch/router off and back on. Could be a back router or switch. You wouldn't notice it when using Internet because internet access is very slow compared to 100Mbit data transfer.

Are you using a switch or a hub? If a hub, you should have a collision light on it. See if it's coming on a lot - especially during file transfers.

You could just have a bad network cable. You can lose a wire pair and still have some connectivity but a lot of packet loss. Won't show up when accesing Internet but definately would show up while streaming a large video.

You may have a lot of network congestion. Maybe one computer is infected with a virus and is trying to flood the network with junk. With all the computers idling and doing nothing, do you see a lot of activity on the data indicator lights on your network switch?

If at all possible, move the two computers into the same room and try connecting them together via a cross over cable (you'll need to set up IPs manually). If you can stream video that way then you've confirmed it's a network problem. Now connect them together through your router in the same room using different cables.

It's a pain, but you need to figure out if it's a computer or network issue, and then go from there. Too many possibilities.

I'll get right on it. Thanks FP

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Anything change before this happened? You change any network cables or network hardware?

Only thing that I can really think of is that I moved a HD into one of the two rigs. I tried removing the HD and still have the same problems.

First of all you need to figure out if it's the computer hosting the files or the computer playing the files that is the source of the problem. Do you have a 3rd computer on the network, and can it play files from the hosting computer without lagging?

Yes, I do have a 3rd computer on the network and it is also running XPro. It has no problems streaming video between itself and the other one running XPro. Transfers 700MB in about 5 minutes vs. tranferring from either of the XPro boxes to the Win2k box taking 120minutes.. Crazy things ongoing.

Could be a problem with the network. You might be getting a lot of packet loss on the network. Try turning your switch/router off and back on. Could be a back router or switch. You wouldn't notice it when using Internet because internet access is very slow compared to 100Mbit data transfer.

I unplugged the router and switch for about 5 minutes each and still the same issues.

Are you using a switch or a hub? If a hub, you should have a collision light on it. See if it's coming on a lot - especially during file transfers.

Using a switch, so no collision light.

You could just have a bad network cable. You can lose a wire pair and still have some connectivity but a lot of packet loss. Won't show up when accesing Internet but definately would show up while streaming a large video.

Switched out the network cable being used for the box I'm having the issue with and still the same thing.

You may have a lot of network congestion. Maybe one computer is infected with a virus and is trying to flood the network with junk. With all the computers idling and doing nothing, do you see a lot of activity on the data indicator lights on your network switch?

Don't see any activity when I'm not using the network. No activity on the two XPro boxes what so ever, just on the one running Win2k and the router.

If at all possible, move the two computers into the same room and try connecting them together via a cross over cable (you'll need to set up IPs manually). If you can stream video that way then you've confirmed it's a network problem. Now connect them together through your router in the same room using different cables.

No crossover cable at this time, but I will try to get my hands on one to try this.

I'm really stumped... But I'm pretty sure that it's more than likely a computer problem since the other two transfer files 10x more quickly than this one does. I've gone into the network settings tab and made sure it's running full duplex and so on. It's not a really big deal, but I don't use this computer for much other than browsing PCA and watching TV (AIW card) and watching movies as it is hooked up to my 22" monitor and I don't have a TV in my living room. I may just break down and put XPro back on this rig instead of the 2kPro... But I've not had any "real" problems with it until now.

Thanks again for your help FP!

eGo

I'd have to agree that it's a problem with the computer you're trying to play the videos on - you've eliminated any possibility that it's a network problem.

Next on my list would be to re-install the NIC drivers, then try installing a different NIC card.

After that it gets tough. If it was a WinXP system I'd say roll it back to an earlier restore point, but unless you have a registry backup, Ghost image of the boot partition or are using Norton's Go Back, there's no option like that.

You didn't use any TCP/IP tweaking utilities like MaxMTU?

You might try unistalling all the network drivers and protocals and re-installing them.

Hmm, I just came across this very problem on my computer as well. I was trying to load a movie from me 2k3 box, to my xp pro box and it was just sat there and did nothing for a long time. I checked the server and it was upping data to my machine it just wasn't playing the file.

Not sure but the only things that changed here so far since last time was the switch to sp2.

I just clicked on the file and moved it onto a window of VLC player and it played fine.

So my question to you, what player you using, and have your tried anything else?

Originally posted by The_Frapster
Hmm, I just came across this very problem on my computer as well. I was trying to load a movie from me 2k3 box, to my xp pro box and it was just sat there and did nothing for a long time. I checked the server and it was upping data to my machine it just wasn't playing the file.

Not sure but the only things that changed here so far since last time was the switch to sp2.

I just clicked on the file and moved it onto a window of VLC player and it played fine.

So my question to you, what player you using, and have your tried anything else?

WMP9
BSplayer
WMP 6.4
ATI File Player
AVI Preview

Doesn't matter which one I use.. Once it loads it will play for 12 seconds and the studder.. Weird I say.. I'm gonna try that last thing FP mentioned before I reinstall XPro on it.

eGo

Well, tonight it's not wanting to transfer any files at all between ANY of the computers.. So at this point I'm going to assume this switch has taken a dump on me.. I've got an 8 Port hub floating around here somewhere, looks like I"ll have to find it and put it into good use. I can still browse the net and VNC the other two computers just fine, but file xfer seems to be unavailable. I "thinK" I may have a 4 port router coming for me birthday, so I may not have to buy a switch.. Who knows.. Anybody got a switch I can borrow? he he

eGo

So, was it the switch?

Originally posted by ©LINT
So, was it the switch?

Nope.. Go figure.. It was the onboard NIC, things are much better now that I've hooked up a USB Nic for temps until I can figure out the deal with the onboard NIC...

eGo

Might have taken a surge and gone south. You can try re-installing the drivers maybe, but when a NIC goes bad, it goes bad.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Might have taken a surge and gone south. You can try re-installing the drivers maybe, but when a NIC goes bad, it goes bad.

Thinking back I think Talent and I were on an NForce driver update kick and I'm wondering if that didn't cause the problem. Because thinking back, about the time I did that is the time the problems arose. I'm gonna find the drivers and reinstall and see what I get. I'm gonna hunt down the original driver disk and see what I can do with it. I'll post back once I try it.

eGo

NForce 1 or 2? I remember having NIC problems with NForce1 drivers. I don't even use the one on my NForce2 board because I'm using a gigabit controller instead.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
NForce 1 or 2? I remember having NIC problems with NForce1 drivers. I don't even use the one on my NForce2 board because I'm using a gigabit controller instead.

NF2.. Eventually I'll upgrade to the gigabit LAN, should be blazing fast, but I'm still waiting for prices to drop a little on that stuff..

Pretty cheap actually. I ordered a couple of gigabit NICs and a gigabit 5 port switch for under $100 from Newegg - D-Link stuff I think. Greatly improved file transfers between my workstation and my server.