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Streaming Over Airport Extreme

H

HardwareFan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 30, 2012
5
0
Hi people,
So after much consternation, I made the plunge and got an Extreme 5gen (factory refurbed). Performance with it so far has been decent but not perfect, I'm wondering if there's anything i'm missing.

Here's the network setup:

Hardwire: HTPC / HD HomeRun Dual / xbox 360 / Time Capsule -> ZyXel switch -> Airport.
Wireless: Mac is always on and connected (though usually idle). Then there are a handful of wireless clients that connect from time to time. A few laptops, phones, tablets. I'm running seperate SSIDs for the 5ghz and the 2.4ghz.

We're getting a solid wireless signal strength and we seem to be getting fairly good consistency from the ISP (Comcast Cable).

We are having some quality issues, especially with regards to streaming. For example, right now the network traffic is solid (around 20mbs down according to speedtest). On the wireless network right now are the Mac (sitting idly not doing anything), a phone (2.4 ghz), and 3 laptops.

The HTPC (which is hardwired) is being used to stream ESPN and the quality is occasionally maxed out, but mostly very poor to somewhat poor. Nothing on the network is hogging bandwidth, and again, we seem to have plenty of power coming from the ISP. I have removed the switch and cut out a few of the hardwired devices, but that doesn't seem to help.

Anyone have any ideas on how to solve this? Without QoS options, I'm kind of stumped. I want to get this straightened out as we're eventually going to extend the network (perhaps by putting the TC in wireless land) and have an internet ready Samsung TV on the network and I know i've got enough bandwith from the ISP for simultaneous HD streams.
 
well for my little set up running 2 apple tvs with xbmc on them, of a readynas. I have 2 apple routers, one in my office and one in my living room that is hard wired to a gigbit switch, this switch then has my apple tv, ps3, xbox and directv cable box attached to it and also my readynas server. I am able to stream 720p to both atv boxes flawlessly, and 1080p to my apple tv in the living room without a problem. I will get the little hiccup when first starting the video, but after those couple seconds its great. Thats only on 1080p.

Maybe the stream maybe bad that your receiving.
 
nokian93 said:
well for my little set up running 2 apple tvs with xbmc on them, of a readynas. I have 2 apple routers, one in my office and one in my living room that is hard wired to a gigbit switch, this switch then has my apple tv, ps3, xbox and directv cable box attached to it and also my readynas server. I am able to stream 720p to both atv boxes flawlessly, and 1080p to my apple tv in the living room without a problem. I will get the little hiccup when first starting the video, but after those couple seconds its great. Thats only on 1080p.

Maybe the stream maybe bad that your receiving.
Click to expand...

so it sounds like we basically have the same setup ... i'm wondering if it's something with my ISP even though the speedtest seems pretty good.
 
I'm guessing something to do with you ISP. With the hardware listed it should be working fine. I will say this, you need a new phone of use 5GHZ exclusively. 2.4Ghz phones will absolutely wreck you wifi. You can get a DECT 6 phone for pretty much dirt cheap these days.
 
you might be hitting a bottleneck somewhere, but im also thinking something with your provider.
 
boomhower said:
I'm guessing something to do with you ISP. With the hardware listed it should be working fine. I will say this, you need a new phone of use 5GHZ exclusively. 2.4Ghz phones will absolutely wreck you wifi. You can get a DECT 6 phone for pretty much dirt cheap these days.
Click to expand...

Thanks Boomhower - sorry if i was unclear but the phones i referred to are cell phones connected via WiFi ... not cordless :)
 
Just echoing the thoughts of the previous replies. It sounds like the ISP. We've got at least 8 devices connected to a single AE and many times several of them are streaming media such as Netflix, Hulu, etc. at the same time and we haven't seen as much as a single stutter. We previously had a single band router that would get strangled with too much streaming media which is why we replaced it with a dual band AE.
 
HardwareFan: Could you click on the menu bar wi-fi icon while holding down option and tell us what you see for RSSI, Transmit Rate and Channel?

You can tell a lot about your signal by doing that.

Even though you have the 5Ghz spectrum, hopefully, you have it selected on your mac as the primary way to connect through.
 
The easiest way to troubleshoot this is to tear everything down and start testing one device at a time. Start with one computer connected directly to the modem. If that's ok, add the Airport Extreme and one wired device. Still ok, add a wireless device, and so on. The other option is to get into packet sniffing software, and start monitoring the entire network, but that has a steep learning curve and isn't as decisive as the first method I suggested.

If the problem is with the ISP, it may still be with your wiring inside the house, so don't go immediately to blaming them. You can either further troubleshoot that yourself, or they may offer to send a tech to take a look.
 
Very much doubt an ISP problem as the playing device(s) tend to buffer stuff up front because it assumes your ISP may not give u a consistent stream, there are just too much happening out there in the Internet web.

Nobody ask your environment, that's the first thing anyone should ask when dealing with WIFI. Noisy neighbors WILL interfere no matter how much expensive equipment you throw in there.

OK assume you have ZERO WIFI neighbors, the next thing I would make sure my low-priority devices (i.e. iPhone) are not fighting with my high-priority devices (ATV). Since you have segregated your 5/2.4ghz bands, you have already done this, confirm(?), your 802.11g (only) iPhone is not slowing down your 802.11n band?
 
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