At wits end with my network

[tekkie]

Hello everyone, I've been lurking for a while, and decided to make an account today. I just recently moved to South Korea from the US, and have an entirely new network to play with.

I have this amazing service from KT that offers gigabit speeds via fibermodem that has 4 switchports. I do not know whether a management console can even be accessed, or whether it has one. It doesn't seem to offer private IP addresses, only public. This tells me that it's simply a media converter, but I honestly don't know much about it.

So with the above being said, I desperately need to modify my network so that it functions better. Currently, I have an R7000 from Netgear that services the home and handles NAT as well as all other services, since the fibermodem is IMO nothing more than an open door. I also have an RT-68 that is in bridge mode, and another ISP provided (unknown make) wireless router that is also in bridge mode.

The unknown make router/switch is just servicing my home entertainment center. an IPTV STB, Amazon FireTV, Samsung TV, and Ooma.

The R7000 handles the load as above.

The RT-68 handles wireless only in the master suite.

An example of network issues I'm having primarily revolve around media streaming from my server. My server is a new build that is connected to the R7000 at 1gbps. Port forwarding is enabled and functioning, and the server hosts plex currently.

When watching a movie, I get buffering issues around every 2-3 minutes to my television with plexapp (Samsung Smart TV)

I'd like to just use a decent switch to handle all root connections to the fibermodem in the comms closet. The wireless devices should be then converted to access points and not much else. I'd also like an 8~16 port switch for my entertainment center that can be linked to a recommended switch in the comms closet. I can at most trunk two ports from the entertainment center area (two cat5e drops there, one was to a voice switch and the other to a data switch that is dead in the comms closet)

If you can provide some recommendations on equipment or configurations, I'm all ears. I can provide additional information if/when required, just tell me what I can do to make the most of my 1gbps service

 

[thiggins]

My server is a new build that is connected to the R7000 at 1gbps. Port forwarding is enabled and functioning, and the server hosts plex currently.

I don't understand how port forwarding is involved if the server and TV are both on your LAN.

If both server and TV are connected via Gigabit Ethernet to the R7000's switch, I'd look at the server for the source of the buffering problem.

The only reason you would need to use more than one Gigabit port from the Entertainment center switch to the main switch is if traffic is > 1 Gbps in either direction. What's going to be connected to the entertainment center switch?

 

[tekkie]

That's just the thing. I don't know if Plex keeps things local, if connecting to my server directly in the home or not. I know that using the webservice plex.tv requires port forwarding in order for their handler to "see" the server; I don't know if the SmartTv App also reaches out to the webservice in order to connect to the server.

I also confirmed last night that the tv is only capable of 10/100, no 10/100/1000 NIC exists for Samsung televisions.

Good call about the trunking. I don't think I'll be using enough bandwidth to require trunking now that I'm relooking at things with a fresh mind.

 

[System Error Message]

If you use transcode with plex you dont need trunking but you need a powerful CPU. Using transcode the TV will able to watch HD videos using its ethernet port. Locally the plex server can be found using DLNA which is a multicast protocol.

 

[tekkie]

IIRC, the default setting on the Plex Server is to transcode. The server is comprised of an i7 5930K (hex core) with 64GB DDR4. It's an upgrade from an older 4 processor Xeon 7300 series rackmount I had previously with 256GB of DDR3 ECC.

Are you referring to the App on the television, in that it should default to transcoded streams?

Also, you mention DLNA. I know of the protocol/service; are you saying that Plex no longer allows for direct connections to the server on a local network, and that all connections regardless whether local or remote will pass through the "cloud"?

Oh, and FWIW: I removed the POS unknown wireless router/switch from the combination and replaced it with a 5 port gbps netgear unmanaged switch for the time being. The IPTV seems to like this a bit more, so I'm going to test some high GB content and see how Plex does with it.

 

[System Error Message]

for use with 100Mb/s network and HD content i.e. 1080P/4K with 5.1/7.1 DTS HD you will need to use transcode. DLNA is only used to discover the server which helps devices like consoles and tv to find the server however i found that it doesnt work over VPN even though you're within the same subnet. It seems that for multicast to work over layer 3 and higher (VPN is layer 4) than it requires PIM and IGMP.

Im referring to the plex server. The settings for transcode and DLNA apply to the server not the app. Both the app and server can determine the maximum bandwidth used. With 6 cores it will have no problems serving 6 clients at the same time with HD content.

Performance of plex especially with transcode is CPU, disk and network related. I wish plex would use the 3 GPU accelerations or even openCL since it would allow having low end servers that can be hidden away to transcode very high quality content for multiple clients.

 

[funhouse69]

Plex will only transcode if needed, most player support "Direct Play" and even the highest quality Blu Ray I've seen only takes about 30 - 40mbps of bandwidth.

That said there are some Plex apps that have problems with very high bandwidth Rips, Amazon's Fire TV was one at the beginning I am not sure if they've worked that out since or not.

Just to be clear your TV is a wired connection correct? Can you try playing a low bandwidth video say a Ripped DVD? Does it happen with other devices (like a Laptop, Phones / Tablet).

Also the Plex Port Forwarding is only used to access Plex outside of your house so that doesn't even take affect in your network.

I've been using Plex for a while now on a much lower powered system then you have and I don't have any issues whatsoever inside or outside of my house.

 

[tekkie]

The TV has been wired with Cat5e since getting things going in the Apartment. Now I'm using the Netgear 5 port switch as mentioned above, and things work better, except now I don't have buffering issues, I just have "error playing file" issues at seemingly random areas. I did see that there was a Plex update available for the server, going to check the changelog and see if by chance I'm not alone with this issue.

Seems we've kind of gotten off-track with the thread though

Does it make sense for me to purchase and utilize a 24 port managed switch in the comms closet, and then place the r7000 at the far opposite end of the RT68? I find the firmware to be lacking on the r7k in comparison to the options I can see with the RT68. Maybe it's because I'm just learning the system, but I can't even change the hardcoded region settings (it's still programmed as NA, and needs to be KR).

 

[System Error Message]

the r7000 is compatible with a port of merlin firmware which helps. You can use a 24 port managed switch if you want to wire your entire house and have it as a central switch (that can mean multiple cables to some rooms). Theres no point using such a switch if you've wired your house with multiple switches. Putting the APs apart does help improve coverage but on the 5 Ghz you can put them in the same place to increase bandwidth in the immediate area if you have a lot of wireless devices in a small area.

The managed part of a switch is if you want to do security, network segmentation, QoS (only lets you do basic priority based QoS such as with ports or to change QoS value priorities) and some other features. The good thing about a managed switch is that it keeps a statistic of traffic so you can see where packets were dropped which can help if you have issues on LAN. In general if you can afford managed than go for it. There are 3 catogaries of switches - unmanaged, semi-managed/smart, fully managed. Fully managed switches tend to be pricey but have a lot more features and are more versatile while semi-managed let you change layer 2 stuff and some things and usually have a web interface.

If you want to use wireshark, VLAN, a bit of security and use statistics than semi managed can do it. A lot of features listed for a switch are usually unrelated as they tend to be automated and out of your control. Semi managed and above also have upgradeable firmwares.

 

[tekkie]

Thanks for all of your responses.

I wouldn't be paying anything (or very little) for a Cisco 2950. Not sure what IOS is loaded, but that shouldn't matter for what I intend to do.

I'm going to open another thread though, for that question. Man it feels good to get back into my roots. Networking is a perishable skill; one that I haven't used in 8+ years!

 

[netwrks]

Thanks for all of your responses.

I wouldn't be paying anything (or very little) for a Cisco 2950. Not sure what IOS is loaded, but that shouldn't matter for what I intend to do.

I'm going to open another thread though, for that question. Man it feels good to get back into my roots. Networking is a perishable skill; one that I haven't used in 8+ years!

As mentioned above, the Xvortex / Merlin port for the R7000, is a stable piece of firmware that has the Asus look and feel, with more features than stock NG firmware and, ports well onto the R7000.

http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/asuswrt-merlin-on-netgear-r7000.71108/

 

[rayik]

I wouldn't be paying anything (or very little) for a Cisco 2950. Not sure what IOS is loaded, but that shouldn't matter for what I intend to do.

I hope you realize the Cisco 2950 is a 10 / 100 switch and not gigabyte

 

[rayik]

That's just the thing. I don't know if Plex keeps things local, if connecting to my server directly in the home or not. I know that using the webservice plex.tv requires port forwarding in order for their handler to "see" the server; I don't know if the SmartTv App also reaches out to the webservice in order to connect to the server

You need port forwarding for plex only if you want to access plex from outside your home. Plex settings will identify the port used. You then need to set up port forwarding on that port to your plex server