Home Network setup. Issues faced and probable solution ?

[majithia23]

Hello nsaners, (esp those adept in Networking and have multiple network devices running with media capabilities ) .

Been sometime i checked up here, but now facing some issues, so i had to !

I recently upgraded my old LCD panel, to a new Sony LED, that is Network enabled ( KDL 50W900B ).

My Modem cum router is the TP-Link W8968. It has a USB port and also has a Media Server option.

Filled up a USB with some media, plugged it in, and enabled media server.

Number of connected devices to this modem-router -

LED Panel

Desktop X 2 ( One continuously )

Laptop ( On-Off )

Android mobiles X 3

Android Tab

iPhone

Wireless printer ( On-off )

Issues i'm facing -

USB media server, sometimes shows in LED and PC media library and sometimes does not.

When it shows in the LED, the panel fails to read the contents. "Unable to connect to server" message.If it does connects, the TV reports no compatible file, where as it is fine when the same drive is connected directly to the panel.

TV remote app fails to find the LED panel.

The printer although in wireless network, is reported as offline by the PC.

iMediashare or BubblePnP, has same issues. Sometimes recognizes the PC and the media libraries and sometimes does not.

The Windows media player sometimes detects the 'Play to' device ( Bravia LED or the BubblePnP ) and sometimes does not, inspite of the panel connected to the wifi network.

I just recently turned on these wireless capabilities, so not sure whats happening.

Are all these issues related to a bad router ?

or

Is it something else also that i am doing wrong or not paying attention to ?

Opinions ?

What say Leet ( network specialist ! )

[masterupc]

Well, try to turn off the media server capabilities of your modem and use your usb as a network disk (plain file sharing), so you can see the usb as if was a NAS. That will resolve most of the issues.

For your printer, if it was installed via usb cable as a normal printer (not wifi enabled) then reinstall (you should uninstall it before) it and select the wifi option... the drivers aren't the same.

Good luck.

[LeetPirate]

My Modem cum router is the TP-Link W8968. It has a USB port and also has a Media Server option.

Filled up a USB with some media, plugged it in, and enabled media server.

What say Leet ( network specialist ! )

Congrats on your new TV. The problem is quoted above, the TP-Link W8968 is not powerful enough to be a media server. It's a common misconception that those residential class routers can do all those functions all at once. This is what most likely happens: you try to stream a movie, it starts streaming, soon after the cpu and memory gets overburdened and the router OS locks up and crashes, depending on the OS it either reboots on its own or you need to manually power cycle it. I have seen this happen even on very powerful ARM based router CPU.

The other issue is the datasheet for that router does not list DLNA certification, so means that media streaming is not guaranteed, especially when it comes to Sony TV which is very picky brand. You need to have all the files as MP4 to even be compatible. Fortunately MP4 is a container format and any H.264 video file eh .mkv can be renamed to .mp4 and might work.

Another issue is that these router firmwares are not always the most stable. When it becomes overloaded it may cause those other issues you mentioned. :)

The best media server is Synology, good software and reliable.

[majithia23]

Well, try to turn off the media server capabilities of your modem and use your usb as a network disk (plain file sharing), so you can see the usb as if was a NAS. That will resolve most of the issues.

For your printer, if it was installed via usb cable as a normal printer (not wifi enabled) then reinstall (you should uninstall it before) it and select the wifi option... the drivers aren't the same.

Good luck.

My Modem cum router is the TP-Link W8968. It has a USB port and also has a Media Server option.

Filled up a USB with some media, plugged it in, and enabled media server.

What say Leet ( network specialist ! )

Congrats on your new TV. The problem is quoted above, the TP-Link W8968 is not powerful enough to be a media server. It's a common misconception that those residential class routers can do all those functions all at once. This is what most likely happens: you try to stream a movie, it starts streaming, soon after the cpu and memory gets overburdened and the router OS locks up and crashes, depending on the OS it either reboots on its own or you need to manually power cycle it. I have seen this happen even on very powerful ARM based router CPU.

The other issue is the datasheet for that router does not list DLNA certification, so means that media streaming is not guaranteed, especially when it comes to Sony TV which is very picky brand. You need to have all the files as MP4 to even be compatible. Fortunately MP4 is a container format and any H.264 video file eh .mkv can be renamed to .mp4 and might work.

Another issue is that these router firmwares are not always the most stable. When it becomes overloaded it may cause those other issues you mentioned. :)

The best media server is Synology, good software and reliable.

@masterupc

As i said, if i plug in the USB directly to the LED panel, it can read the contents of it regardless !

I can do away with the media server part, but its the other issues that trouble me .

@Leet

Thanks mate :)

(... i know Sony is a picky one, but the panel had superb picture quality compared to any in this size ! )

Yes, from the reading i'hv been doing, i did realize, that the TP-Link is not a good router for the things i'm making it to handle.

Thanks for pointing out over the Synology media servers, but i dont think i would be investing in a dedicated NAS as of now.

Media streaming is desirable, but i would like it to happen more from the local devices, than a dedicated server. Like the iPhone or the Android tab or even the Windows PC !

The other issues as i mentioned are more troublesome and irritating !

I was thinking of getting the Asus RT-N66U router, and using the TP-Link as the standalone modem.

Your take on it ? Would it solve my issues or do i still need to go for a more niche and exotic router ?

I would want ---

>Wireless devices to be always available . Not sometimes found and sometimes not.

>Streaming should be a lil smooth from the Android tab or the iPhone

>And also from the Windows PC via DLNA

What say Leet ?

[masterupc]

As Leet says, that modem of yours is no capable to do the work.

Instead of buying a router, why not a more powerfull modem (450 MBPS or more)? That will be a solution over a Synology (I've proposed the same NAS to some of my clients who works with audio/video edition).

Good luck!

[LeetPirate]

I was thinking of getting the Asus RT-N66U router, and using the TP-Link as the standalone modem.

Your take on it ? Would it solve my issues or do i still need to go for a more niche and exotic router ?

I would want ---

>Wireless devices to be always available . Not sometimes found and sometimes not.

>Streaming should be a lil smooth from the Android tab or the iPhone

>And also from the Windows PC via DLNA

What say Leet ?

Asus RT-N66U is not the best choice for the money, it uses a traditional single core MIPS32 CPU, performance will not be an upgrade for you. If you are about to spend money I suggest getting the Asus RT-AC56U or Asus RT-AC68U as they both use dual core ARM CPU with 256MB RAM. If it were me I would pick the RT-AC56U and here is why, under the hood the RT-AC56U and the RT-AC68U are almost identical except that the AC68U has a different radio chipset for an additional wireless spatial stream for AC1900 speeds. Higher model number isn't always better for the customer, just marketing to make people waste money.

Does AC1900 speeds matter in real life? No, it's just like how retarded smartphone companies keep packing more ppi into tiny handheld screens thereby needing more processing power and use more battery just to show who has the bigger but totally useless dick. More spatial streams means your device needs more antennas to actually use the speeds, so having AC1900 router is useless since by the time AC1900 speeds become ubuquitious 20 years would have passed and that router would be obsolete.

I'm still a bit unsure of the other issues you are trying to overcome, it was my understanding that all those other problems were symptoms of trying to use the media server ability on the TP Link. If you turn off all the unnecessary features on the TP Link would that not solve the problem?

If the TP Link has these problems with the media server and extra features disabled then perhaps what you really need is to configure the modem to operate in full bridge mode and then use the second router with PPPoE wan connection. This is assuming your ADSL uses PPPoE and not PPPoA. Other than that you could look into a cheaper single purpose ADSL modem without the wifi and those extra stuff.

Sure the Asus RT-AC56U has one of the most powerful router CPU money could buy but I have a Buffalo router with the same CPU and I can tell you that it will eventually crash and reboot if I try to stream a HD movie. The Asus firmware may be better than my Buffalo firmware but no guarantees. As for stable Wifi and routing capabilities the Asus RT-AC56U is without a doubt an excellent choice.

[majithia23]

As Leet says, that modem of yours is no capable to do the work.

Instead of buying a router, why not a more powerfull modem (450 MBPS or more)? That will be a solution over a Synology (I've proposed the same NAS to some of my clients who works with audio/video edition).

Good luck!

I dont think upgrading a modem would solve routing and networking issues.

And the speed you mentioned is not modem dependent i think. Modem is just for network connection !

These transfer rates are dependent on the wireless protocol been deployed ( a/b/g/n/ac ) or the type of LAN port .

[majithia23]

I was thinking of getting the Asus RT-N66U router, and using the TP-Link as the standalone modem.

Your take on it ? Would it solve my issues or do i still need to go for a more niche and exotic router ?

I would want ---

>Wireless devices to be always available . Not sometimes found and sometimes not.

>Streaming should be a lil smooth from the Android tab or the iPhone

>And also from the Windows PC via DLNA

What say Leet ?

Asus RT-N66U is not the best choice for the money, it uses a traditional single core MIPS32 CPU, performance will not be an upgrade for you. If you are about to spend money I suggest getting the Asus RT-AC56U or Asus RT-AC68U as they both use dual core ARM CPU with 256MB RAM. If it were me I would pick the RT-AC56U and here is why, under the hood the RT-AC56U and the RT-AC68U are almost identical except that the AC68U has a different radio chipset for an additional wireless spatial stream for AC1900 speeds. Higher model number isn't always better for the customer, just marketing to make people waste money.

Does AC1900 speeds matter in real life? No, it's just like how retarded smartphone companies keep packing more ppi into tiny handheld screens thereby needing more processing power and use more battery just to show who has the bigger but totally useless dick. More spatial streams means your device needs more antennas to actually use the speeds, so having AC1900 router is useless since by the time AC1900 speeds become ubuquitious 20 years would have passed and that router would be obsolete.

I'm still a bit unsure of the other issues you are trying to overcome, it was my understanding that all those other problems were symptoms of trying to use the media server ability on the TP Link. If you turn off all the unnecessary features on the TP Link would that not solve the problem?

If the TP Link has these problems with the media server and extra features disabled then perhaps what you really need is to configure the modem to operate in full bridge mode and then use the second router with PPPoE wan connection. This is assuming your ADSL uses PPPoE and not PPPoA. Other than that you could look into a cheaper single purpose ADSL modem without the wifi and those extra stuff.

Sure the Asus RT-AC56U has one of the most powerful router CPU money could buy but I have a Buffalo router with the same CPU and I can tell you that it will eventually crash and reboot if I try to stream a HD movie. The Asus firmware may be better than my Buffalo firmware but no guarantees. As for stable Wifi and routing capabilities the Asus RT-AC56U is without a doubt an excellent choice.

Yeah, totally useless bigger d!cks ! Exactly !

People dont realize this or in same words what the thing actually is that they are buying .

Eg - here being the relationship b/w the screen resolution and the viewing distance and the screen size.

So important a thing but hell no one cares !

( Quad HD displays on 5 inches display and viewed from 6 inches to 1 foot ! -- Absolute bullshit ! )

Yes, i did read about the redundancy of AC bands higher than 1200 in the present scenario and to preferable to stick around AC1200.

Thanks for reaffirming this !

So i see your views on the RT N66U . Its an old router, but just bcoz it has some solid time tested good reviews, i was shortlisting it.

But, its a no go now. Thanks for pointing out !

I had the RT56U in my notes and the only thing that i had a issue was the Wifi range.

It has internal antennas, and so would be a lil bad in wifi coverage.

What say ? Does it make a difference ?

I contacted the TP-Link support about how to get the modem/router into only modem mode, and he told to run the quick setup and select 'Bridging mode' and its good to go.

Then i would have to set up a dial up connection from the windows control panel .

But i guess, if the router is attached to the the TPLink, then the dialing part will be done by the router !

As of now, my ADSL connection is PPPoE . ( Although i have no idea what PPPoA is ! ), with a username and password .

When you say HD streaming, how do you do it ?

On the 5Ghz band ?

From a media server ?

From mobiles or tabs ?

Wired over LAN GB port ?

I have disabled the media server and the printer server options on the TP Link.

Will test the issues this evening when i head back. and report ....

Also Leet can you comment on the Archer C7 model of the TP link, please.

Mixed reviews and i have a dealer who could give me a good deal on it. So noted this down too !

Thanks for the help man :)

[LeetPirate]

I had the RT56U in my notes and the only thing that i had a issue was the Wifi range.

It has internal antennas, and so would be a lil bad in wifi coverage.

What say ? Does it make a difference ?

No difference in range, external antennas only give the ability to adjust the spatial orientation of the signal. Consider that all wifi is designed for IEEE 802.11 spec. A misconception is that buying a router with extended range will help but this is subjective to the user and the purpose of the router. Even if a the wifi range of a router is super extended all it means is it can transmit packets across a longer distance but nobody stops to realise that the client device (eg smartphone) will not be able to send back packets to the router because it won't have the same extended range transmit capability. You see the problem, extended range is marketing gimmick, it's only needed if say you want to use two access points at far distance to bridge a network.

I contacted the TP-Link support about how to get the modem/router into only modem mode, and he told to run the quick setup and select 'Bridging mode' and its good to go.

Then i would have to set up a dial up connection from the windows control panel .

But i guess, if the router is attached to the the TPLink, then the dialing part will be done by the router !

As of now, my ADSL connection is PPPoE . ( Although i have no idea what PPPoA is ! ), with a username and password .

Yes you can do this, I recommend a second router when operating in bridge mode because in bridge mode NAT functionality is not used so you cannot share the internet connection unless you have a second router to act as your gateway router.

When you say HD streaming, how do you do it ?

On the 5Ghz band ?

From a media server ?

From mobiles or tabs ?

Wired over LAN GB port ?

I have disabled the media server and the printer server options on the TP Link.

Will test the issues this evening when i head back. and report ....

I tried all of those you listed. The weak link was trying to use the router as the media server. If however I used PC as the media server it works. From mobiles and tablets I do not need to use DLNA capabilities as those usually have native features to "cast screen" to the app on the smart TV.

Also Leet can you comment on the Archer C7 model of the TP link, please.

Mixed reviews and i have a dealer who could give me a good deal on it. So noted this down too !

Thanks for the help man :)

Archer C7 uses a Qualcomm Atheros MIPS based CPU, it's great hardware for a stable network but I believe that any hope of media server capabilities starts with ARM architecture or x86 on the more expensive side. Just because the hardware is good does not mean the software is reliable, I do not think TP-Link firmware is great. Same with Linksys, they take good hardware and ship it with unstable firmware. On that note I should mention that Linksys is Belkin so best not to touch it even with a 10ft pole.

[majithia23]

First the test results ---

After turning off the Media server and Printer server options of the TP-Link, i did notice a change in its performance.
> The mobile TV app was able to find the LED panel a bit quicker, but still quirky ! Pressing controls on the mobiles took some delay getting transmitted to the TV and sometimes totally failed,
> Turned on the Universal Media Server app on PC and the LED panel was able to read the entire directory hierarchy of the PC and even played a few low bit rate HD files. High bit rates, totally failed.
Music streamed good and so did some High res image files.

>NOW --
While the music was playing, the song abruptly stopped at about 75% duration.
Pressing the play button, made no difference.
Going back into the directory -- Sometimes the LED panel reported " Unable to contact the server" and sometimes it could read the contents, but could not play a file !
Happened 4 out of 6 times while playing a song. Abruptly stopping at 75% and then these tantrums !

So Leet is this an issue with the router unable to stream the data from the PC to the LED
or
Something wrong with the LED panels media player ?

For playing content from the mobile devices on the LED panel, i did as you do.
Bypassed the modem router, and connected the device either through "Screen mirroring" or "NFC" or "WiFi direct" .
All the devices connected without any issues to the LED.
Then using apps as iMediashare ( iPhone) and Bubble PnP ( Androids ), all types of media played effortlessly on the LED.

> Another thing --
When accessing the media library app of the LED panel, it detects the iMediashare and the BubblePnP as being media sources in the network, but when trying to access the iMediashare or BubblePnP, it either reports " No content" or "Unable to connect".


Router issue or LED Media player issue ???


Now, getting back to your reply ---

No difference in range, external antennas only give the ability to adjust the spatial orientation of the signal. Consider that all wifi is designed for IEEE 802.11 spec. A misconception is that buying a router with extended range will help but this is subjective to the user and the purpose of the router. Even if a the wifi range of a router is super extended all it means is it can transmit packets across a longer distance but nobody stops to realise that the client device (eg smartphone) will not be able to send back packets to the router because it won't have the same extended range transmit capability. You see the problem, extended range is marketing gimmick, it's only needed if say you want to use two access points at far distance to bridge a network.

Excellent point !
Never realised this , that the client too has to be equally capable of sending the packets over long distance ! Noted .

Yes you can do this, I recommend a second router when operating in bridge mode because in bridge mode NAT functionality is not used so you cannot share the internet connection unless you have a second router to act as your gateway router.

Yes i do realize this. bridge mode w/o a router is useless. i was just putting what the tech help guy told me and that i told him, i need to connect a standalone router to this TP-Link and not just simply use it as a bridge.

I tried all of those you listed. The weak link was trying to use the router as the media server. If however I used PC as the media server it works. From mobiles and tablets I do not need to use DLNA capabilities as those usually have native features to "cast screen" to the app on the smart TV.

What app do you use for the PC ? XBMc, Plex, UMS ?
And after setting up the PC as media server, i guess you donot encounter any issues as i mentioned in this message's opening ?

Cast screen or Screen mirroring works for some mobile devices and sometimes not.
However WiFi direct connection and then using a media app, i'hv seen is more reliable !

Where do the hardware cast tools like the Chromecast, Roku, Fire Tv, fit into the scene ?

Archer C7 uses a Qualcomm Atheros MIPS based CPU, it's great hardware for a stable network but I believe that any hope of media server capabilities starts with ARM architecture or x86 on the more expensive side. Just because the hardware is good does not mean the software is reliable, I do not think TP-Link firmware is great. Same with Linksys, they take good hardware and ship it with unstable firmware. On that note I should mention that Linksys is Belkin so best not to touch it even with a 10ft pole.

No i wont touch Belkin or Linksys even with a 20ft pole !
I understand the dedicated media server part not being reliable as the routers feature.
But it should be atleast a good router, thats the minimal it can do, for it is named so !
The Asus RT AC56U will cost me about $200-20 and the Tp-Link Archer C7 about $120-30 !
Given the margin and the options and the issues i am facing, what would be your bet ?