Hi,
I recently moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a two bedroom house. My internet speed and hardware remained unchanged, but now I get relatively frequent frame drops while I stream.
The streaming PC has the following specs:
At my previous apartment, the computer was connected to the 5GHz band of the router, was located about 18-20 feet from the router, with one cinder block wall between it. In my current residence, the computer is located about 16 feet from the router, connected to the 5GHz band, and there are two bathroom (drywall) walls and one bed between the computer and the router.
I have a second computer that I use for non-streaming purposes located at approximately the same distance, but it is about one foot above the streaming computer.
When I compare these computers side by side, they get roughly the same performance over the network. If only one of them is using the majority of the bandwidth, then, I can expect either computer to get between 75-92 Mbps down, and 10 up. If I do speedtests on both computers simultaneously, one computer will get 50-75 down, and 5-6 up, while the other will get anywhere from 2-10 down, and <1 up.
I'm at a loss here, because the setup hasn't changed, but there definitely seems to be an issue with the network. When I stream, I will drop frames every 30 seconds or so, and the bit rate will drop to something completely unstreamable, usually hitting 0 for about a second before coming back shortly after.
While I stream, the only other things I have going are discord and the stream preview on my non-streaming computer.
I've tried a few things to try and diagnose the problem but I haven't gotten anything too conclusive. What I do know for sure is that the streaming PC's wifi card is not the issue. It consistently gets good speed, just as the other computer does. I've also pretty much ruled out that it's not my Suddenlink internet. I'm the only one wired in at this telephone pole, and my connection quality has never been more stable before. I also know that this is not hardware related, as recorded video looks flawless on the machine.
Here's what I assume the problem could be, from most likely to least likely:
1. The StreamPro router can't really handle what I'm throwing at it, especially if two computers are trying to do a lot on the 5GHz band. Its antennae may also be too small to make a big enough difference, so the signal could be spotty due to the antennae, and the router isn't powerful enough to handle those two connections at once.
2. By watching the Stream preview on twitch on one computer, and streaming on the other, I'm using more bandwidth than the router can handle, resulting in having too low of internet speed to stream comfortably. I don't believe this is likely because the hardware, internet speed, etc, hasn't changed, only my location. Maybe the router's distance is affecting it, but not sure.
3. The internet connection is actually unstable and I just haven't noticed it. I may only notice the spottiness of the internet when I'm streaming. I need to test the connection using a wired setup to confirm. I don't believe this is likely because the connection has been fine most of the time, and isn't being shared with any neighbors.
4. The PCIe wifi card in the streaming PC is being bottlenecked by the PCIe 2.0 port it's connected to. It uses a 1x slot, but it is PCIe 2.0. Perhaps this may cause instability for this card. I don't believe this is likely because the internet is fine when I do many repeated speedtests.
I'd like to get some advice on what course of action could possibly be the best here, going forward. Prior to posting, my plan was going to be to upgrade my suddenlink internet speed from 100 down/10 up to 150 down/15 up, and then replace the StreamPro router with one that has much better computing capabilities, like a Nighthawk AC1900 or something similar. My hope then would be that the larger antennae, better compute performance, and higher speed, would be more reliable overall and I wouldn't have to deal with so many dropped frames.
Does my evaluation sound correct? Would replacing the router and upgrading the speed make any difference? Or should I pursue some other avenue to avoid dropping those frames?
(Pastebin with the log here: http://pastebin.com/L3LDzvMG)
I recently moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a two bedroom house. My internet speed and hardware remained unchanged, but now I get relatively frequent frame drops while I stream.
The streaming PC has the following specs:
- Processors: 2 x Intel Xeon X5672 @ 3.2 GHz (8 cores, 16 threads)
- Memory: 24 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC RAM
- GPU: Nvidia GTX 750 Ti
- Capture Card: AVerMedia Live Gamer HD
- Networking: Rosewill PCIe Wifi card, AC1900, connected to NETGEAR StreamPro AC1200 router
- Internet connection: Suddenlink, 100 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, no data cap
- Resolution: 852x480@60Hz
- 2300 kbps
At my previous apartment, the computer was connected to the 5GHz band of the router, was located about 18-20 feet from the router, with one cinder block wall between it. In my current residence, the computer is located about 16 feet from the router, connected to the 5GHz band, and there are two bathroom (drywall) walls and one bed between the computer and the router.
I have a second computer that I use for non-streaming purposes located at approximately the same distance, but it is about one foot above the streaming computer.
When I compare these computers side by side, they get roughly the same performance over the network. If only one of them is using the majority of the bandwidth, then, I can expect either computer to get between 75-92 Mbps down, and 10 up. If I do speedtests on both computers simultaneously, one computer will get 50-75 down, and 5-6 up, while the other will get anywhere from 2-10 down, and <1 up.
I'm at a loss here, because the setup hasn't changed, but there definitely seems to be an issue with the network. When I stream, I will drop frames every 30 seconds or so, and the bit rate will drop to something completely unstreamable, usually hitting 0 for about a second before coming back shortly after.
While I stream, the only other things I have going are discord and the stream preview on my non-streaming computer.
I've tried a few things to try and diagnose the problem but I haven't gotten anything too conclusive. What I do know for sure is that the streaming PC's wifi card is not the issue. It consistently gets good speed, just as the other computer does. I've also pretty much ruled out that it's not my Suddenlink internet. I'm the only one wired in at this telephone pole, and my connection quality has never been more stable before. I also know that this is not hardware related, as recorded video looks flawless on the machine.
Here's what I assume the problem could be, from most likely to least likely:
1. The StreamPro router can't really handle what I'm throwing at it, especially if two computers are trying to do a lot on the 5GHz band. Its antennae may also be too small to make a big enough difference, so the signal could be spotty due to the antennae, and the router isn't powerful enough to handle those two connections at once.
2. By watching the Stream preview on twitch on one computer, and streaming on the other, I'm using more bandwidth than the router can handle, resulting in having too low of internet speed to stream comfortably. I don't believe this is likely because the hardware, internet speed, etc, hasn't changed, only my location. Maybe the router's distance is affecting it, but not sure.
3. The internet connection is actually unstable and I just haven't noticed it. I may only notice the spottiness of the internet when I'm streaming. I need to test the connection using a wired setup to confirm. I don't believe this is likely because the connection has been fine most of the time, and isn't being shared with any neighbors.
4. The PCIe wifi card in the streaming PC is being bottlenecked by the PCIe 2.0 port it's connected to. It uses a 1x slot, but it is PCIe 2.0. Perhaps this may cause instability for this card. I don't believe this is likely because the internet is fine when I do many repeated speedtests.
I'd like to get some advice on what course of action could possibly be the best here, going forward. Prior to posting, my plan was going to be to upgrade my suddenlink internet speed from 100 down/10 up to 150 down/15 up, and then replace the StreamPro router with one that has much better computing capabilities, like a Nighthawk AC1900 or something similar. My hope then would be that the larger antennae, better compute performance, and higher speed, would be more reliable overall and I wouldn't have to deal with so many dropped frames.
Does my evaluation sound correct? Would replacing the router and upgrading the speed make any difference? Or should I pursue some other avenue to avoid dropping those frames?
(Pastebin with the log here: http://pastebin.com/L3LDzvMG)
