Router getting bogged down and slowing down while streaming media from attached NAS

Access

I currently have a standard Eircom netopia 2247 router.

Plugged into this i have a NAS which over wifi serves movies to two laptops, a HTPC, and a couple of other small kids tablets.

The problem i am having is if we are watching a movie on one pc and my son goes to watch another movie off the same Nas on his pc... the two movies will stop and buffer and so on. So anything more than one or sometimes two media connections to the router over wifi is a no go.

Would i be right in saying the router itself is the bottle neck here?

Is it a gigabit router i should be looking at to replace the eircom netopia one?

Thanks for any info on this.

Wifi has limited bandwidth and it tends to be quite variable and succeptible to interference.

Newer wifi standards tend to be faster and more suited to video streaming. You are probably only using 802.11g.

In order to take advantage of faster wifi technology, your client devices would need to support it also. So the first thing to do is find out the specs of the wifi cards in your laptops.

Access

Deleted User wrote: »

Wifi has limited bandwidth and it tends to be quite variable and succeptible to interference.

Newer wifi standards tend to be faster and more suited to video streaming. You are probably only using 802.11g.

In order to take advantage of faster wifi technology, your client devices would need to support it also. So the first thing to do is find out the specs of the wifi cards in your laptops.

Newish Dell = 802.11 b g n
Older Dell (sons) = 802.11 b+g
HTPC = 802.11 b g n

Not sure of the kids little tablets, but they are not the problem at the moment.

Just checked the router and its only capable of broadcasting 802.11 b+g

Would i be right in saying so, that the router only has broadcast bandwidth of 54Mbps when the client devices i have (apart from the sons dell) can receive up to 300Mbps on their N wifi adapters?

PogMoThoin

Wireless is rubbish for media. It's half duplex, it uses the same spectrum for transmitting and receiving therefore it will either transmit or receive, not both at the same time like a cable (full duplex). You may not realise this, but streaming and file transfer is two way traffic, it is sent in batches and must be acknowledged before more is sent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Protocol

The best advise is to cable to everything static and leave wireless for mobility about the house only (laptops, phones etc). Having a more modern wireless "n" will speed things up, but will never get over this half duplex issue.

Access

Cheers for that...

The HTPC will shortly be wired... (in the process of redoing a room in the house so that is on the list of things to do).

Its unfortunately not an option to wire the front of the house though, as its an old house with one and a half foot thick stone walls and tiny front attic space, so that leaves the soon to be raspberry Pi XBMC and the sons laptop on Wifi only.

Was thinking of using http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0084Y9N3O/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0RSRECY9AHNG8G9RMXBK&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=317828027&pf_rd_i=468294 for the Pi

But might it be better to just change the router? - maybe one with better range to penetrate the front of the house more? I had read about the duplex issue with wifi, but think i might be limited in my options.

PogMoThoin

The homeplugs would be a better option for the Pi as you will be streaming media, keep the wireless for other devices that need it. 1080p HD goes over 30mbit, even the best wireless "n" with a few devices connected or any with poor signals will struggle to maintain this.