XR700 - Plex Setup (FW:1.0.1.20)

[Federico]

Hi,
I recently bought an XR700 (instead of RAX200) for the amazing presentation of DumaOS (waiting for 1.3 soon) and for the option to avoid to buy a NAS to install my Plex in way to have everything directly by the router (USB).

I bought a WD 6TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive - USB 3.0 it on purpose and moved all my stuff from HD1 to WD.

Set all settings as for instructions :

• Router: https://kb.netgear.com/000060256/How-do-I-set-up-my-Plex-Media-Server-on-my-Nighthawk-Pro-Gaming-XR700-router
• Plex: https://support.plex.tv/articles/230934267-netgear-nighthawk-x10-router/

I did many tries and i don't find a way to be fast as before.
I don't need outside home, then i really don't understand why isn't possible to have a fluid transmission from Router to AppleTV/iPads/MBPs.

Do you have any suggestion?

My Setup is:

• Internet: Dw:500Mb - Up:350Mb;
• Router: XR700 (Cables Cat8);
• Extender: EX8000.

Hope for any help.
Thanks,

Federico

[Netduma Alex]

Welcome to the forum!

So your problem is that the Plex server is not fast enough to stream HD video?

How is your Plex client connected, through wired or wifi? Can you stream video from other sources on this device seamlessly?

[Federico]

Thanks,

Right now it’s streaming in HD, but the stream take by 30s to 1m to start the stream and sometimes doesn’t start. 
We have many clients, the wired one is enough fast but the one in wireless not. 
 

I just started an analysis on the Plex library with the hope to speed up a bit.
 

yes I usually stream without any issue on all device, for that I tought that was a Plex issue...

[Netduma Alex]

I'm not sure why the wireless device isn't working properly with Plex. Analyzing the Plex library is a good idea.

I would suggest turning off Smart Connect on the router and connecting to the 2.4GHz network. This might work better over longer ranges than the 5GHz network.

[Federico]

4 minutes ago, Netduma Alex said:

I'm not sure why the wireless device isn't working properly with Plex. Analyzing the Plex library is a good idea.

I would suggest turning off Smart Connect on the router and connecting to the 2.4GHz network. This might work better over longer ranges than the 5GHz network.

Thanks for suggestion, but house is fully covered. The minimum connection available everywhere is 250mb. And the Minimum WiFi connection is 600mb. Then I think that there is something blocking the flow, but I don’t know what. 

[Netduma Alex]

Ah I see, so the devices which are having problems with Plex are experiencing no issues with bandwidth in other areas. How mysterious. I'd be interested in finding out if this problem is caused by Plex specifically, or if it affects all LAN to LAN traffic... What's an easy way to test it... Do you know how to use iperf?

If you have the ability to transfer a file from one local network device to another without using the internet, could you try it? I'd like to see if this is also ridiculously slow.

[Federico]

36 minutes ago, Netduma Alex said:

Ah I see, so the devices which are having problems with Plex are experiencing no issues with bandwidth in other areas. How mysterious. I'd be interested in finding out if this problem is caused by Plex specifically, or if it affects all LAN to LAN traffic... What's an easy way to test it... Do you know how to use iperf?

If you have the ability to transfer a file from one local network device to another without using the internet, could you try it? I'd like to see if this is also ridiculously slow.

I never tried but I can study.

I have only 1 MBP at home for what I read you need 2 device to make the test, then I will try to ping the router.
Or maybe do you know any OS X Application that can do the same w/o play with OS X terminal?

 

I did it with WiFiperf for MacOSx but I cannot connect to any port on Router...

[Federico]

Nothing, I tried to open FTP Port, but I receive a timeout error.

anyway, this is what can I see from MBP:

[Federico]

Yesterday I discover that there are some steps to do in way to speed up the flow - I started from a neutral situation (router restarted):

1) Wait a minute after the restart of the router;
2) GoTo Settings/Plex Media Player -> Open;
3) GoTo Settings/USB Storage/ReadySHARE Storage;
4) check if the USB device is recognized (check the bottom of the page);
5) click Apply button.

That process above completely speed up the stream that was taking +30s to start (with random timout) to 6/7s to start a movie. 
 

If you restart the router you must ReDo the steps above.

I didn’t try to check if after a bit (+1hr) plex is ready to go or in sleep mode, if I need to redo the steps above. 

[Netduma Alex]

So applying settings on the ReadySHARE storage page enables the full transfer speed of the drive? That's good to know for future reference, and maybe to help with the fix.

[Federico]

25 minutes ago, Netduma Alex said:

So applying settings on the ReadySHARE storage page enables the full transfer speed of the drive? That's good to know for future reference, and maybe to help with the fix.

Yes, mainly you don’t need to change any setup but only GoTo Settings/USB Storage/ReadySHARE Storage and click on “Apply” button. 
After that I record a huge increase of performance from +30s to start a movie (with random timout) to 6/7s. 

And after few days w/o router reboot is still working.