Live Stream Issues Resolved?

Tony

Staff member
I know that none of you know exactly what I had to go through yesterday before the live show when we had the Great Geena Tucker on with us the ENTIRE SHOW! The live stream was awesome and I can't wait for what is coming next (more details when we get things figured out and setup). But in this thread, I'm going to explain what happened before the live stream, if it has happened before, and what I am now doing about it for future Live Streams.

So yesterday was a fantastic day. I finished up some things on the site and was talking to Jacob, our social networking guy about some things and then it was time to head out to the studio where I had not been since last Friday! All week long I had been working on the site and the new Article system that is now live on the site. I did try to access my computer out in the studio (remote connection) but it would not connect. I figured there was a power outage and that the computer had shut off (later remembered I set in the BIOS to return to the last state after a power outage). So I headed out there.

When I get out there I noticed the computer was still turned on and had not restarted since everything was still on the desktop the way I left it last week. So I type in the IP address to the bridge and NOTHING. So I type in the IP address of my main router which is also what the Bridge IP is when it screws up, and it brings up the default page! :dammit:

For those of you that don't know how I have my studio setup (or things in my house for that matter) I will try to explain. I have my main router in my 'networking closet' which is connected directly to the internet. I do have wires that come out and one goes to my main computer and the other one is beside my bed for when I need to transfer files from my laptop to my desktop as fast as possible (because lets face it, Wireless N is not that fast for file transfer!). But there is no way I can run an ethernet cable all the way from my main router all the way over to my studio which is in another building. I guess I could run it like that, but I just don't have that much Cat5 cable laying around (and don't get started on " you should use cat6 or cat7 because for a gigabit network, cat5 is all you need).

So out in my studio (as well as over at my grandmothers house, and for my TV and Aquarium in my house) I have what is called a Wireless Bridge. These are just routers that are loaded with what's called DD-WRT which allows you to do much more with a standard router than it could do from the factory. The bridge I used to have out there was the WRT54G which is a FANTASTIC router, but the wireless speeds are only Wireless G which is only 54Mbps (that is Mega BIT, not Byte) so file transfer is very slow! I just so happened to have a Linksys EA2700 sitting around that is Wireless N and accepts DD-WRT. However, this router has a flaw, a BIG ONE!

You see, if the power flickers, if you unplug it or if the router is just having a bad day, it will completely delete DD-WRT from itself and reinstall the factory firmware. When it does this, you lose all bridge functions that came with the DD-WRT firmware. This is what happened. I never remember seeing a power flicker, so I guess the router just wanted to be difficult. Either way, there was no way I could run back inside the house, locate the file and re-flash this thing back to DD-WRT in time for the show so I decided to steal one that was in another room.

I get that one out there (it's one of the WRT54G ones, but internet only, 54Mbps is fine) and realize this bridge is limited to 2Mb up and down. That is not going to work. So I run BACK inside and I snatch the one that is running my living room stuff like the Tv, Xbox, Playstation and Aquarium. I get it out there, plug it in and there is now NO NETWORK ACTIVITY from the computer. It sees the network card, it tries to connect to a network, but it doesn't. At this time, I have 3 routers out there and not a single one of them are making a connection. At this time, it is 10 minutes to the time that the show is to go live. Talk about pressure.

So this fat boy runs BACK INSIDE the house ONCE AGAIN and I grab my laptop. Now I have tried to live stream with my lappy before, and it was laggy. I have done almost NO work on the studio software on the lappy so I didn't know how this was going to go, but it was the ONLY way I could get the live stream going at this point. So, I fire up the lappy, fire up the studio software, unplug the camera and mic from the other computer and plug that into the lappy and with only a minute left I finally get Geena's voice to come through on the software.

I went out there at about 7:20 to start setting all of this up so it was a solid 40 minutes that I was trying to get this live stream going and EVERYTHING was trying to stop me!

So I know what you are asking.... "So how are you going to fix this?". And the answer to that is, I just purchased a router that is compatible with DD-WRT, has wireless AC capabilities which is capeable of 1300Mbps speeds. Convert that to MB and we are looking at 162.5MBps. Since both my main router, which is an Asus AC3100 and the new router have 5ghz connections, we can get that awesome speed! This is MUCH MORE than I need for streaming, but it allows me to send and receive files remotely as fast as possible.

It should be on its way come Monday and I should have it by the end of the week. Once I get it, I'm going to flash it and hope like hell that it doesn't have the same revert issue that the Linksys has. Being able to stay connected is a major deal out there and this Linksys is just not holding up. As a standard router, it does a half way job because every now and then, you need to restart it manually to keep it connected.

So hopefully my network issues are done and we can move on to WHY IN THE HELL DID THE NETWORK CARD DIE!!!! Yup, I still need to go out there and figure out why the NIC in the computer in the studio can't connect to any networks at all. And for this, I'm glad I purchased a gigabit NIC (Network Interface Card) when I thought the built in NIC was bad.

The nightmare is not over, but it's getting close. And my funds are running low. I had to spend money that I had planned to put into the Goblin to get this going which really sucks.
 

Tony

Staff member
Since I had a little more time today than I did Friday night when everything went sideways, I was able to reflash my old Linsys router to get internet out here in the studio. Might just have to fire up a live stream to see if anyone is on here.
 

Tony

Staff member
The new router came in today and I'm in the process of updating it with the new firmware. Once that is done, I will test it to see if, in fact, I get higher speeds than I did. I should, but there is always that chance. I guess I will find out soon!
 

Tony

Staff member
So I just got the new router (client bridge) setup and I'm working off of it right now. I have my lappy connected via ethernet to the new bridge and the bridge is connected wirelessly to the main router. And yes, I have wifi turned off on my lappy. I have done some power cycles like a flickering power outage (like what would kill the current bridge) and everything stayed working just fine. The speed went from about 7MB up to about 18MB, so the speed did increase which is good. Seems 5G is not working on this one though, which is common with the cheaper routers working like this. I will keep testing though.
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Something else I've heard works well as long as there isn't a transformer between the two ends... those powerline network connections. It seems they've got the bugs worked out that they once used to have. I suspect for best results, you'd still want them both on the same leg of the power coming into the house.
 

Tony

Staff member
There is another issue, where my actual network is (the router) and where the studio is located are on two different grids. The studio is not even on my property.

My next step is to just bite the bullet and bury some cat5e going over there for a hard wired connection. That is a lot of copper, a lot of work to bury that line and a lot of money. Hence why I'm using wireless bridges lol.
 

D.O.G.

Goblin 380 Supporter
Hey there Tony. I have a WIFI range extender that we purchases that works very well. A little more $$$ then Randy. Ex sample, Our house is CBS home. The caba/studio? in the backyard is also CBS structure. We use this devise to connect our electronics from the house to the caba and we have no problem picking up any signal. I've been as far as 100 yards from the unit and still was able to get you-tube/RCHelp and so on. I'm not sure if this will work or help out in anyway but here you go Amazon product
 

Tony

Staff member
Randy, that will not work in my case. The studio is not even on my property and on a completely different electrical circuit. And I thought about range extenders, but I get better throughput with my setup than most extenders can provide. I'm looking for speed so that I can transfer files as fast as possible. My only other option from here though, is to get another router like I have in my house and use that out there. But that will never happen because I'm not putting something that expensive in a building with no climate control.

But there is another issue. My computer out there is being laggy as hell. I gave up on fixing it since it is getting a little chilly out there and I'm just going to shoot the live stream in my office. Quality is going ot suck, but it's either this, or I just call off the whole thing. Quite honestly, I would rather call it off.
 

Tony

Staff member
It won't be sorted out. The only good computer I have is the one that I'm on right now which is in my office.
 

Tony

Staff member
So I came out to the studio to shoot some videos today and guess what, network issues. The router I purchased for out here will connect for about a minute, then die. I have been fighting this issue for a while. So I had to put my old system back up just to get some interwebz out here. I'm about to say screw it and just get another Asus router to put out here. So sick of these issues...
 
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