Initial reaction on Sling Adapter

[TG2]

oops! turns out mine already does this. wife just figured it was 'normal' since our equipment is prone to weird things happening 'on purpose...'

and apparently, the buffering stops when the dvr event starts playing. POOP!!

See ... you actually had me wondering if you were joking the first time.. mister smarty pants...

and NOW you know why your wife gets pissed at you for interrupting her shows.. OR Did you not tell her that it was you? hmmmm Thanks for fessing up though!

 

[TG2]

but that's the router & modem .. that MTU setting would be for your PC's ... the thought process is, that your MTU isn't auto adjusting (windows 7/vista) and not backing off 1500 bytes for its normal (ethernet standard) and that perhaps the problem is that the MTU isn't getting adjusted through the router to the other devices.. the problem with the router involvement again is that unless it was a command from outside not being seen, the problem should not have happened with the PC & the Receiver on a separate ethernet switch.

 

[pabeader]

See ... you actually had me wondering if you were joking the first time.. mister smarty pants...

and NOW you know why your wife gets pissed at you for interrupting her shows.. OR Did you not tell her that it was you? hmmmm Thanks for fessing up though!

she has many other reasons for that. the receiver acting weird is something she is used to, for reasons I can't discuss.

 

[Tony S]

but that's the router & modem .. that MTU setting would be for your PC's ... the thought process is, that your MTU isn't auto adjusting (windows 7/vista) and not backing off 1500 bytes for its normal (ethernet standard) and that perhaps the problem is that the MTU isn't getting adjusted through the router to the other devices.. the problem with the router involvement again is that unless it was a command from outside not being seen, the problem should not have happened with the PC & the Receiver on a separate ethernet switch.

I am using Windows XP. I set my desktop pc's MTU a long time ago using these Microsoft articles (both articles end up making the same registry changes).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283165

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826159

I set the pc's MTU to 1492. Shouldn't that take care of the fragmentation problem? I have done ping tests (ping 4.2.2.2 -f -l 1464) and I found that 1464 is the largest value without fragmentation, so I set the MTU to 1492 (1464 + 28 = 1492). The MTU is set to 1492 in my modem, my wireless router, and my computer.

 

[TG2]

I am using Windows XP. I set my desktop pc's MTU a long time ago using these Microsoft articles (both articles end up making the same registry changes).
How to change the PPPoE MTU size in Windows XP
HOW TO: Change the Default Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) Size Settings for PPP Connections or for VPN Connections
I set the pc's MTU to 1492. Shouldn't that take care of the fragmentation problem? I have done ping tests (ping 4.2.2.2 -f -l 1464) and I found that 1464 is the largest value without fragmentation, so I set the MTU to 1492 (1464 + 28 = 1492). The MTU is set to 1492 in my modem, my wireless router, and my computer.

what about trying to ping your receiver.. to see if its having an issue with packet size from you to it? And did you confirm after setting (and rebooting) that it showed the correct packet size on your ethernet interface? those two links set PPP & VPN *over* Ethernet.

TCP/IP and NBT configuration parameters for Windows XP

That link shows you the parameters available, with MTU to reduce it on the ethernet interface itself (though you'd have to figure out the interface from what you have insalled since there's not one that says "I am your ethernet port" .. often wrapped in { } curlies.. (hint HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\Parameters\Interfaces\{ curly here } click on each one.. look to the right for your LAN IP address.. etc..)

if you use netstat -ev in a command prompt.. it will show you want the MTU of the interface is..

 

[Stargazer]

ping 4.2.2.2 -f -l 1464 is also the maximum number that I can ping before it tells me that the packet needs to be fragmented but DF set

 

[TG2]

and netstat -ev ? shows 1492 for the ethernet that you're using? or 1500?

and the 4.2.2.2 ... thats an external test.. you want to ping the IP of your Dish receiver..

 

[Tony S]

TG2, You are right about the MTU size. My LAN adapter MTU is set for 1500. I tried pinging my receiver (ping 10.0.0.103 -f -l 1472) and I found that the 1472 is the largest value without fragmentation (1472 + 28 = 1500). I will try setting it to 1492 and see what happens. Also, I noticed that my TCP Loopback interface has the MTU set at 1520. Is that also a problem? Should I also set that MTU to 1492?

Thanks a lot TG2 for pointing that out. I was not aware that there were so many different MTU values to set.

 

[TG2]

TG2, You are right about the MTU size. My LAN adapter MTU is set for 1500. I tried pinging my receiver (ping 10.0.0.103 -f -l 1472) and I found that the 1472 is the largest value without fragmentation (1472 + 28 = 1500). I will try setting it to 1492 and see what happens. Also, I noticed that my TCP Loopback interface has the MTU set at 1520. Is that also a problem? Should I also set that MTU to 1492?
Thanks a lot TG2 for pointing that out. I was not aware that there were so many different MTU values to set.

loopback can be higher or lower.. I've not checked my XP machine.. my vista shows 1500 for loopback and speed as 1073741824 (wohoo got a 1 gig loopback) kinda figured the results would come back to 1500 normally ... the only thought was that maybe with the router doing 1492 that it was applying that to lan traffic, and maybe its causing a problem but that's what buffering and fragmentation is supposed to work on.

What I'd wonder is if the receiver is seeing the MTU of the router and it goes lower than 1500 for lan.. these are just wild hare ideas I'm throwing out.. we still really need someone on the Sling side for Dish to be able to walk through these issues. For all we know it could be that a setting in Windows isn't set properly to scale (there's MTUPath discovery and I was reading its available to 2000 on up .. but that it wasn't turned on by default until vista or 7 -- which made sense to me, because vista is known for a problem where it sees a network connection as "Local Only" swap out on an XP loaded hard drive, and it would have no problems.. its supposedly some incompatibility between Vista and some gateway routers.. though I've never found a conclusive "this is always what it is and how to solve it" ... but that's only on a fringe in related to this..

also note that lowering MTU on ethernet can cause other problems.. so.. test it.. but set it back if you find problems.. (test it with dra / d.o. and other sites like google & microsoft and using FTP to download a file or two... etc)

 

[Tony S]

I just used the link that TG2 posted above to change the MTU to 1492. I shut down my system, and restarted it. Then I ran the netstat -ev command and the output says that the MTU is still 1500. Why didn't it change?

Here is what I did: I went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{9DC7A294-0A84-4E31-90AF-624475701B22}. There was no MTU value, so I added it and set the value to 1492 (0x000005D4). The value is a REG_DWORD. I am sure that {9DC7A294-0A84-4E31-90AF-624475701B22} is my LAN adapter ID because I used the procedure that Microsoft specified in that link to find it, and the {9DC7A294-0A84-4E31-90AF-624475701B22} key has a DhcpIPAddress value of 10.0.0.100 (my desktop's IP).

I entered the MTU value correctly, but the netstat -ev command says that it is still 1500? Is that normal?

EDIT: Wait a minute... I just tried pinging my receiver (ping 10.0.0.103 -f 1464), and now it looks like the MTU is set at 1492. So it looks like the registry change worked! The netstat -ev command continues to report 1500. Maybe that is referring to something else?

 

[TG2]

did you reboot?

 

[Tony S]

Yes. First I did a restart. The MTU stayed at 1500, so I tried shutting down the computer completely (power off). I re-booted and the netstat command said the MTU was still at 1500.

EDIT: Wait a minute...I tried pinging my receiver, and now the maximum MTU is 1492, so it looks like the registry change is working! However, the netstat -ev command still is reporting an MTU of 1500. Maybe that is for something else?

 

[TG2]

EDIT: Wait a minute...I tried pinging my receiver, and now the maximum MTU is 1492, so it looks like the registry change is working! However, the netstat -ev command still is reporting an MTU of 1500. Maybe that is for something else?

Odd ...

And it probably didn't help anyway..

 

[Tony S]

Odd ...

And it probably didn't help anyway..

Yes, unfortunately changing the MTU values had no affect on my problem. Actually, nothing I have tried has helped.

 

[pabeader]

have you , by chance, tried a different computer? like one from a buddy? or go the local rent to own and get one for a week to try?

 

[lotusguy]

I have exactly the same problem as Tony, so I doubt that it's the computer. I think the hardware is fine. I have requested that someone technical from Sling take a look at this forum and make some suggestions, but ..... I tried something new and got interesting results. Previously, my PC connected to my router wirelessly, but my 722 connected using a Cat6 cable. Then, I tried to connect my PC and VIP722 to the router using Cat6 cables so any wireless anomalies would be out of the equation. No help. Now I have my PC wireless and my DVR wireless by using an IOGear WI-FI N adapter. It connected immediately and the streaming speed got up to 5kbps, the fastest I've seen. However, when I logged out and logged back in -- error 36! I have noted that the wireless/wireless connection does connect more often, but this amounts to 2-3 times per day as opposed to once per day using a hardwired connection somewhere in the chain. I don't know if this helps, but I sure would like someone who has knowledge of the source code to chime in.

 

[Tony S]

Same here... For the last 2 days in a row, my desktop computer connected to the sling adapter on the first try. When I logged out and logged back in it would not connect and error 36! Afterwards, it would not work again for the rest of the day. That same scenario has happened on several occasions. Meanwhile, my iPhone4 connects on the first try every time (wifi) using the exact same wireless router that my desktop is wired to.

When it does work with my desktop computer, I get really good bitrates...goes up over 8Kbps!

 

[jayiw]

WOW... just tried Sling on the computer (FF 4 Browser) and what a difference between that and Ipad/Iphone. Via the computer got up to 8meg streaming on highest quality HD and was smooth, very smooth and clear. On the Iphone/Ipad streaming will only get up to around 2meg or so and it's 'ok' clear but also at a low FPS where it's not smooth. iOS versions of Dish Sling really need an update. Both are using my home network, not any crappy ATT 3g. I am assuming via computer tops off at 8meg due to the that being the bit rate of the actual data stream and same thing with the iOS versions which use a much lower bit rate. I know the Ipad and Iphone can handle smooth HD video just fine so why not use the better data stream? Odd.

Jay

 

[lotusguy]

Does anyone from Dish or Sling monitor this forum or are we just complaining among ourselves?

 

[dwarren2]

Does anyone from Dish or Sling monitor this forum or are we just complaining among ourselves?

There are a number of Dish people on the forum. Called the DIRT team. Dish Internet Response Team. Their names will be in red and will have dishnetwork in their email address. Matt, Zach, MaryB and Ray are just a few. I've had dealings with several of them and they are very helpful.