[Dave Rice]

Reception is down to your aerial, no box can make that better.

I agree with Steve about catch up / on demand. I bought a Humax (satellite) recorder for the kitchen and put a 2.5″ USB hdd on it. Never been used.

[Dave Rice]

Looking at the ZM wiki it prefers MJPEG streams to H264 RTSP streams – how last century is that! A real bandwidth hog too.

You should be able to do this with the Axis – I haven’t used them or MJPG for a long time so I can’t remember the exact steps.

You’re probably better off with a phone or tablet running AXIS Companion http://tinyurl.com/y88sppar

 

[Dave Rice]

That’s what Lee was doing. Axis can be a bit weird.

[Dave Rice]

The AXIS M1054 streams H264 via RTSP.

I gave up on Linux and IP cameras years ago. The whole thing is odd as the manufacturers use Linux in the cameras and NVRs but all the clients are Windows based. However the high end Hikvision NVRs now run an embedded Windows 10 machine grafted onto a Linux machine that looks after storage and the cameras. That also mean Intel and making inroads into what was an ARM stronghold.

[Dave Rice]

PC coming in this evening that’s showing it’s age. Should be a prime candidate for a 120 GB SSD even if it’s for a new machine. I’m not counting my chickens though…

EDIT – damn! half of a 500GB drive being used.

[Dave Rice]

You’re quite right, 2.4 Ghz has more range than 5 Ghz. However we’ve found that if 5 Ghz is marginal then 9 out of 10 times 2.4 Ghz is too. Our test kit is 2.4 Ghz only which was down to cost when we started doing this seriously (the kit is still current however) and it’s not proved limiting.

In a commercial environment like pubs and clubs we will generally install 2.4Ghz only kit. On the public WiFi we restrict the access to the internet only and may throttle the bandwidth. The owners wireless devices get their own channel and are unlikely to need AC type speeds as those that do will be in the back office and wired in. We provide another secure channel for the likes of card readers.

Looking at the 2 AP British Legion installation, over the weekend they had 145 different devices attach to their crappy ADSL line and no complaints. Try that with a “home” access point never mind the management features, and these devices are only £60 a pop.

The real bugger is devices, they make their mind up what they’re frequency they’re going to use and when to swap AP in a multi AP environment. The Ubiquiti APs try to influence the decision the clients make but isn’t always successful, especially on cheap kit.

This is my house at the moment, as you can see it’s the client spec that has more affect than the frequency. The bottom one is the laser printer and it’s sat within 2 metres of the AP but of course it just doesn’t need loads of bandwidth so it’s specs are low. The only device you’ll see faster than this is my V110 laptop which connects at AC433.

For everyday use every device feels fast enough to do what it needs to do. It’s only when I’m shifting loads of data about (usually customer backups) that Gigabit makes a difference and then it’s a huge difference. That’s what the workshop is for.

[Dave Rice]

I always forget Burnham is now classed as Somerset. Well there’s a beach and a half there!

You’ve got Weston-Super-Mare, Cheddar Gorge and Gough’s Cave just up the road and if she wants some retail therapy there’s Clarkes Village at Street https://clarksvillage.co.uk/ which is a day out in itself. Glastonbury Tor is just down the road from there.

Then there’s Wookey Hole and Wells Cathedral, the Somerset levels for a bit of nature and the Mendips for scenery and good county pubs everywhere.

[Dave Rice]

We’ll if you want to borrow the Ubiquiti test kit just shout. All you do is plug it in to the mains or run it off the powerbank, no internet access required. I then use WiFi Analyzer on my phone to do a survey.

You want it as high as possible, we usually start near the loft hatch as that’s often the central spot of the house. Only very rarely do we need more than one AP. The others doesn’t act as repeaters, they work together.

[Dave Rice]

If it’s St Audries Bay that’s where Jason used to go, he always had a good time.

I used to fish all along that coast. There are some beaches, St. Audries is one (red sand) but it’s mostly rocky reefs. Great for fishing at low tide (conger, rays and cod) but a slippery walk out. Blue Anchor is another huge beach with a caravan park. Not been in the Smugglers Inn for years. The West Somerset Railway is always worth a trip (longest heritage line in the country).

If you’re inland it’s all beautiful countryside and lovely pubs. I’m sure you’ll have a good time wherever you go ?

[Dave Rice]

Do not waste your money on Cat 7. Cat 5e is more than good enough and will be for the future. Cat 6 and 7 are a PIG to work with too.

Before you buy anything I have a box of Cat 5e and all the proper tools, I also have all the Ubiquity test kit. If you’re near a station I’m quite willing to pop over and help you do this properly.

[Dave Rice]

The Mrs has just bought herself one. She’s finally outgrown the likes of the Xperia E and Moto C she got through Tesco mobile, but at £7.50 a month who’s complaining!

It’s taken a few years but she’s discovered “apps” at last. I might even get to wean her off the laptop and onto an Android tablet.

[Dave Rice]

Files – File Menu – Connect to server

[Dave Rice]

It’s definitely a failed HDD, I always run manufacturers diagnostics on the HDD. Data Lifeguard failed it on even the simple tests.

Absolutely flying along with the WD Green SSD (Amazon same day £50).

[Dave Rice]

Just had to take the back off a Toshiba as glacier like Windows and the user also complaining about it only working on mains. Once it had booted tests confirmed a tragically slow read rate. Great, a use for the SSD. Battery seemed OK though.

14 screws later the back actually came off quite easily. HDD put in caddy and data transferred. Hmm, doesn’t feel like a HDD on it’s last legs. Run test again on my desktop and the HDD is fine. Strange.

SSD in laptop in horrible rubber caddy, its really not designed to be worked on, won’t start. Phone customer and find out what I hadn’t been told, it’s had a glass of red spilt into it. Motherboard is the culprit, not the HDD and that explains the battery thing too.

Desktop I built 4 years ago arrives at the door, running slowly. WD Blue 1TB really is the cuplrit on this one. I know this guy, doesn’t do much. Great a use for the SSD.

Since I last saw him he’s been made redundant and started his own blacksmithing business. Loads of videos and photos he’s taken to show prospective customers, way too much for 120GB so had to order a 240GB.

Damn.

 

[Dave Rice]

Blimey that is dramatic.

Here’s a real world test. I’m transferring 35GB of mixed files from an internal HDD in an FX3600 desktop to the DS216 via Gigabit. Averaging mid 40’s MBps peaking to high 80’s when it hits a large file, dropping to low 20’s when there’s a succession of small ones.

[Dave Rice]

Full HD H264 cameras @ 15 fps only need 4.1 mbps (0.5 MBps) max so speed isn’t really an issue. But for data transfer that’s the speed of snore ?

[Dave Rice]

Homeplugs can be pants, I’ve stopped using them. I find after about a year their performance drops right off. The 200 mbps will have a 10/ 100 mbps Ethernet socket. A noisy power circuit can really affect them badly. Bandwidth is shared between the homeplugs, so the more you have the worse it gets.

Wireless N. The devices are probably a maximum of 150 mbps and wou;dn’t even transfer that quickly on a perfect connection.

From the PiFile testing I did recently here’s the N300 results:

Devices / Write / Read
N300 to PiFile wireless / 4.65 / 3.75
N300 to DS216j USB / 9.37 / 10.77
N300 to DS216j / 9.41 / 7.29
N300 to DS112j USB / 8.17 / 9.42
N300 to DS112j / 8.60 / 10.20

That’s going through a Ubiquiti AC AP with a gigabit connection to a gigabit switch with the NAS boxes attached to the same switch.

This is what happened on Ac433

AC 433 to PiFile wireless / 4.56 / 3.60
AC 433 to PiFile 100 / 11.38 / 11.59
AC433 to DS112j USB / 16.15 / 18.40
AC 433 to DS112j / 17.12 / 20.75
AC 433 to DS216j / 32.04 / 31.16
AC433 to DS216j USB / 36.17 / 35.40

As you can see it made a big difference to all but the PiFile wireless and maxed out the PiFile 10/100 Ethernet.

Going to all Gigabit:

Gigabit to PiFile wireless / 4.57 / 3.62
Gigabit to PiFile 100 / 11.38 / 11.18
Gigabit to DS112j USB / 21.05 / 22.92
Gigabit to DS216j USB / 50.87 / 56.72
Gigabit to DS112j / 54.06 / 79.68
Gigabit to DS216j / 94.10 / 105.36

Doesn’t matter what we do with the PiFile wireless and yes the 10/100 is maxed out.

However, despite the fact that both NAS are using the same HDD and USB drives and are both on gigabit to gigabit, the speeds are very different. I would expect your Buffalo’s to be at the DS112j end of the scale.

So network speeds are a complicated beast. Synology do a good comparison table of the performance of different NAS here

In your case the first place I’d look is the Homeplugs. I have a spare N300 pci-e card if you want to try that in the media PC to see what difference it makes.

 

 

[Dave Rice]

I’ve got an Ubuntu VM set up now. If get chance (and remember) I’ll try kodi on it.

[Dave Rice]

18″? What were they using? An engine hoist? ?

Glad to see you about, speedy recovery.

[Dave Rice]

It’s not a MAK key its a retail key. They’re even cheaper than the (MAK) keys I get from Microsoft at charity rates.

[Author]

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