Samba streaming / caching problem?

[Eskimoto]

hi,

i got my xbox modded over a year ago, but have had it in storage for over 6 months cos i have been moving around so much. anyway have finally got round to getting it up and running again at my new place (with the intention of using it as a media center in my living room), and so downloaded a copy of the latest build of xmbc. (really impressed with the vast improvments btw - i had a really old version before)

anyway i have figured out how to get the smb file sharing working - sucessfully being able to nativate through my allocated share folders and 'play' (if you can call it that) my various music and video media.

the problem is - its just too damn slow. i wonder if anyone can shed any light on some issues for me.

i have a dlink 802.11g 2.4 ghz (54mbps) router running my home network - which has an excellent connection to my windows pc in my upstairs room. its no more than 10-15 foot away in the room above, and i have never had any problems with transmission rates before. the xbox is located at my home entertaiment area in my living room - and plugged directly into my router using a normal cat 5 cable.

problems :

it takes ages to load an album/folder of mp3s - and sometimes it doesnt work at all - just freezes at the load bar. videos eventually start after waiting 60 seconds - but are too jumpy to watch.

what kind of performance should i be expecting on such a setup? is anyone here using something similar and successfully able to play large video files - 400 - 800mb etc with little problem?

i would expect this setup to be quite quick to propogate my mp3 collection and load files - but this is not happening - i am very annoyed :s

i have tried adjusting the cache settings in the gui (increasing video & audio allocation etc) - and though there have been moderate improvements - its still not what i would expect as video stutters a lot(its unwatchable) and mp3 playing over the network is near pointless. does anyone have any idea what cache limits should i be assigning to the various video and sound requirements? would this be a big factor in optimizing my streaming?

if this isnt the problem - what else might it be? i have followed all the tutorials and advice as desribed here (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=8;t=361) on this forum, and although i can see the smb share and workgroup and all the files - its not really worth using. i'm at a loss. help.

esk

[pike]

ok, first, i have a very limited experience with wireless networking.
but it sounds like you have some issues there... serious issues. afaik, 54mbps is the theoretical max, not the actual speed you always get.
chances are you have much much less than that. you should find a way to measure it i think.

about the slowness issue when opening a folder of mp3's. check that "use id3 tags" are disabled (in settings). if you dont have them in a database, it will scan them everytime you enter that folder.

[st0rm-x]

hi,

i experienced similar problems to this.

turned out to be my firewall (kerio 2.1.5)

whenever i switched it off, the problem would disappear

just my 2c

[axavier]

my experience with wireless has been fantastic. my setup is a netgear wirleess router (802.11b/g). linux box serving files using samba and the xbox on a wireless bridge.

even with the b bridge, as long as all the network cache settings were set to max, play was outstanding. i only had a few issues with some matrashka video files and for that i would puase the movie until the cahce got full and then i would start play again.

after about 6 months of doing that, i decided to get a game adater from netgear which is basically a wireless bridge with fucntioning mac address cloning and with support for the g standard, and it workes fine though. it fillss hte cache quicker therefore i can start watching the movie in less time than with the other slower bridge.

i'm using wep keys and mac address filtering and that does not hinder the experience.

i have another computer that justs serves mp3's and the respnse is excelent. also streaming internet audio and checking the movie trailers works fine. dsl conneciton is 768/128.

check your netowkr settings my friend. there might be something you may have overlooked.