What's new

NAS streaming advice

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

Carnagerover

Senior Member
Hi all,

I currently have a 2 bay Netgear Readynas Duo V2, I am soon looking to upgrade to a 4 bay, does it matter what NAS I choose with regards to network streaming?

Ideally I would like both SMB and NFS streaming, I use a Dune HD D1 which has my Bluray ISO files on and in the future I would like to be able to also steam 3D films which will require much higher bandwidth, the most I have seen on the Dune so far is 60Mbps.

Any preferences for this type of use?
 

Thanks for the reply that is basically my experience of streaming files at the moment. Can be moving a file at 40MBps and still have enough left for 1080p. On the other hand when streaming a 60Mbps test file from my NAS to my Dune it stutters, however from my PC to the Dune it plays back fine. I can stream a 90Mbps file to the Dune using NFS from the Duo V2 and get no stuttering. I wonder if some are better than others with NFS and SMB. I realise that NFS is supposed to be more efficient than SMB with less overhead.
 
I can't speak to NFS. I only test SMB.

From my testing both http and nfs are more efficient than SMB on popcorn hour, dune and boxee box. What I don't know though between Nas boxes is streaming potential, would one be better on SMB but terrible at NFS. I know you can run into problems on The Netgear I you start using addons and such it doesn't take much to saturate the CPU and Ram.

More research needed for me
 
Doctor! It hurts when I...
"when streaming a 60Mbps test file from my NAS to my Dune it stutters"

Dr. says: Well, don't do that!
 
I have a Networking related question now if someone could help;

Here is my current setup;

Netgear R6300 > Netgear GS105

My Media files are stored on a Readynas V2 Duo
My Media player is a Dune HD D1

If I plug both the Readynas and the Dune into the 6300 or into the Netgear GS105 I get stutter from my Bluray rips and my test files and I have to enable a special option on the Dune called fast SMB to get any sort of decent playback via SMB.

However if I plug say the Readynas V2 into the R6300 and the Dune HD into the GS105 switch then my streaming problems go away and everything plays back really nice. SMB is great without enabling special options and all my test files playback perfectly.

What is the reason for this? I thought that they would work better being in the same switch not different ones?
 
Anyone help with the above post, all devices seem to connect at full speed as they should, for example my PC connects Full Duplex 1GBps but the above problems occur.

Is it a Netgear issue?

Would this managed switch be a good solution;

Netgear GS108T ProSafe 8 Port Gigabit Smart Switch
 
Last edited:
The new Netgear GS108 V2 Switch arrived today,

Plugged all my wired devices into it, six including he patch cable to the router.

First impressions are that it works much better, my 60Mbps SMB test file worked fine, my 90Mbps file would not playback smooth on NFS so I went onto the switch management page and enabled flow control. Once flow control was enabled the 90Mbps test file played back without a hitch. I'm not sure if I should enable anything else or not as this is the first manageable switch I have bought.

Either way all seems good so far :)
 
I'm surprised you had to enable flow control. But I have no experience with NFS, so maybe it was needed. That's a GS108T V2, correct?

I wouldn't muck with other settings now that you have things working.

Thanks for the report.
 
I'm surprised you had to enable flow control. But I have no experience with NFS, so maybe it was needed. That's a GS108T V2, correct?

I wouldn't muck with other settings now that you have things working.

Thanks for the report.

No worries at all and thanks,

It is indeed the V2, I verified a few times just to be sure, but for 90Mbps you do need to enable Global Flow Control. Otherwise it will stutter on playback on the Dune, SMB tops out at 72Mbps.
 
Hi again,

Just out of interest, I have got my files playing fine without flow control now. However looking on the Internet in general there seems to be conflicting information on its usefulness especially when using TCP as it has its own built in traffic management of sorts. There was an article on here from 2009 but like I say not to many definitive answers, other than the fact that it was off by default on the switch which tells its own story I suppose.
 
Most streaming video/VoIP uses a variant of UDP/RTP. This does not use TCP but rather the basic datagram of IP. This protocol has no flow control.
In popular RTP based systems, flow control and management, etc., is sometimes done with a separate TCP connection.
 
Most streaming video/VoIP uses a variant of UDP/RTP. This does not use TCP but rather the basic datagram of IP. This protocol has no flow control.
In popular RTP based systems, flow control and management, etc., is sometimes done with a separate TCP connection.

When selecting NFS on the Dune you can choose TCP or UDP, using UDP my 90Mbps file stutters when using TCP it doesn't. I haven't tested it with flow control on as of yet.
 
Why use UDP is TCP works? Flow control applies only to TCP.
 

Similar threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top