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Which is faster for iTunes (both streaming and sharing on a LAN)?

stuman74

stuman74

Senior member
I am looking to better stream my iTunes to my iPhone or work computer from my house. I currently have all of my music on my Dell 530 (see sig below) which is wirelessly connected with a DLink Xtreme 802.11n card to a DLink Xtreme 802.11n router. My Comcast broadband internet is ~16MbpsDL/2MbpsUL.

The 3rd computer in my sig below (Athlon XP 2500) is now an extra that I am thinking of installing a gigabit NIC (probably the Netgrar $25 card) and connecting directly with an ethernet cable to that router (which supports gigabit connections). The PC itself isn't as fast, but with the faster direct connection to the router, I'm wondering if it will stream faster. Not only over the internet actually, but also to other wireless networked computers in the house.

The other reason that I prefer a PC instead of a NAS is because I have TiVo's and to run the TiVo server (so music can be played on any TV) that app has to run. Currently, the TiVo server runs on my Dell 530 and that computer is always on 24/7.

The only downside that I can see (however, I don't know how much) is that while on my Dell 530, my transfer speed of my music files and videos will take a hit since it's not on the local hard drive. Hopefully the gigabit eternet conenction to the router and then wireless 802.11n card in the 530 will still be pretty decent.

So, should I stick with my current setup on the 530 or set up this extra PC and connect it to the gigabit router as a media server PC?
 
Streaming is only a few hundred kilobits, at worst. Aside from the potential interference to the wireless system, it shouldn't matter at all.
 
Well, for streaming over the internet, I agree. It seems the same.

For sharing files over my home LAN though, so far it seems to be a little bit better.

My PC: 102.11n
Wife's Laptop: 102.11g (and 6-7 ft from router)
Network PC: Gigabit NIC

Music Files Transfer Test
199 files
530 MB

My PC to Wife's Laptop
335 sec
1.58 MB/s
12.64 Mbps

Wife's Laptop to Network PC
185 sec
2.86 MB/s
22.92 Mbps

Network PC to My PC
85 sec
6.24 MB/s
49.88 Mbps

My PC to External USB Drive
44 sec
12.05 MB/s
96.36 Mbps
 
1. You seem to confuse Streaming with File transfer.

2. Wire is always faster than Wireless.

3. The Router per-se has nothing to do with it.

4. The Wireless part of the Router might affect LAN's file transfer. Draft-N sometimes provides a little more Speed for File transfer when both the Wireless Source and the Client are Draft-N.

5. The result are usually better with Giga When all Giga capable computers are connected to a good independent Giga switch and the switch is Uplinked to the Router.

This is a very good End Users Giga switch, currently $9.99 after rebate, http://www.microcenter.com/sin...tml?product_id=0243515
 
Originally posted by: JackMDS
1. You seem to confuse Streaming with File transfer.

2. Wire is always faster than Wireless.

3. The Router per-se has nothing to do with it.

4. The Wireless part of the Router might affect LAN's file transfer. Draft-N sometimes provides a little more Speed for File transfer when both the Wireless Source and the Client are Draft-N.

5. The result are usually better with Giga When all Giga capable computers are connected to a good independent Giga switch and the switch is Uplinked to the Router.

This is a very good End Users Giga switch, currently $9.99 after rebate, http://www.microcenter.com/sin...tml?product_id=0243515
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback and tips. Yeah, the question was 2-part...one regarding streaming over the internet and the other for improving file transfer speeds through the LAN.

This new "old" server PC is the only one that is wired to the router. All other PCs and Laptops are wireless (one Draft -N and the others G).

In my case, would a gigabit switch really do anything for me? Tempting though to run a wire from my PC though. If I ran the wire, I'd definitely get the gigabit switch. Just tough to fish through walls and ceiling and I'll probably remain wireless.

Is that PC then the limiting factor in speed? I have pair of WD 80 GB IDE drives in there that have 2 MB cache, 7200 RPM, and on a ATA-100 controller on the mobo. Seems ok, just don't know if its then the bottleneck.

 
depends on file size. i run a full GbE network that is uplinked from a wireless G linksys router (w/ modified firmware). i run my home server, my main rig, and htpc all via wire that i had a friend feed through the walls for me. even when streaming audio/video to the htpc the speed is much less than 10MB/s of even a 100Mb/s (non-hd video) switch, but when i move large files like a movie or show that is basically 50MB or larger, that is when you really will see a difference in GbE vs 100Mb/s ethernet imho in a small lan home setup.

w/ file transfers that fastest i have seen is around 50MB/s sustained, which i believe is the bottleneck created by one of the hdd's writing ability, which in my case are all non-raided drives (the hdds on my lan range from 4200rpm laptop hdds to new generation 15k u320 scsi hdds). moving to GbE has saved me a lot of time doing backups (i use acronis and do full hdd images to the home server). but, if i didn't do this or move large files i would still be on 100Mb/s lan.

just to do a quick test, i moved 297 files (~790MB) of mp3s w/ album art from my main rig on a 7200.10 250GB seagate hdd (single platter) to a 120GB WD hdd on the home server. i would say it average approx 18MB/s or so (this was an informal test - i just watched du meter's graph). moving a 600MB single file, i got ~25MB/s, so there is a difference. now, just so you know i wouldn't say my network is "tuned" in the sense that i am not running the best switches and not all hdds are currently defragged. as far as the actual network cable it is cat5e solid, fwiw.
 
The limit of Giga transfer when using End User peer-to-peer network id about 45MB/sec. Similar systems with 100Mb/sec. Network yield 8 to 10MB/sec. So a good Giga Network is about 4 to 5 times faster than 100Mb/sec.

If the hardware (like HD) supports more it would Not work faster, if the hardware supports less it would be as fast as the slowest component.

Most Laptop would not benefit from Giga. If they do have Giga Card it probably would be about 2 to 3 times faster than regular laptop.

All of the above has nothing to do with Wireless. Wireless and Giga are two independent issues and their performance does not relate one the other.
 
Originally posted by: JackMDS
The limit of Giga transfer when using End User peer-to-peer network id about 45MB/sec. Similar systems with 100Mb/sec. Network yield 8 to 10MB/sec. So a good Giga Network is about 4 to 5 times faster than 100Mb/sec.

If the hardware (like HD) supports more it would Not work faster, if the hardware supports less it would be as fast as the slowest component.

Most Laptop would not benefit from Giga. If they do have Giga Card it probably would be about 2 to 3 times faster than regular laptop.

All of the above has nothing to do with Wireless. Wireless and Giga are two independent issues and their performance does not relate one the other.
Click to expand...

i was addressing the lan part and the benefit of him getting a wired connection if doing large transfers
 
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