It sounds like your problem is bandwidth. Either on the client-side, coming off your net to your ISP, or routing problems elsewhere on the Internet. The hard part is tracking down where the bottleneck is. Try to have multiple end-user test points. The company I work for has employees on a couple of different local ISPs and servers at various colo facilities. Try logging in to each machine and testing the stream. If it's across the board, you can safely bet it's your "unlimited" pipe to your ISP or a problem at your ISP. If it's a problem with a fraction of the clients, try doing traceroutes and see how the packets hop across the Internet and look for any similarities to see where the hang-ups can be. It's also possible that some clients just aren't getting the bandwidth they think they should be getting. Try everything you can to optimize your streaming application of choice. Reduce the number of FPS if you can. If it's only a talking head or something with little movement, try spacing out the keyframes more. Unless you're broadcasting a music video or movie, try using mono instead of stereo for audio. If it's a speech, you probably don't need CD-quality sound. Dropping the sound to 32, 24, or even 16kbps for a WMA/MP3/RA stream will still sound decent for something that doesn't have a lot of variation in sound.
Also, if it is possible, try to expirament around with variable bit-rate streams for video and/or audio. That can come in handy if your target audience spreads from AOL dial-up in the middle of nowhere to your urban 8 Mbps+ broadband connections.
In streaming, the big three big things that you have to worry about are the encoder's connectivity (to push the stream to the distribution point), the encoder's power (to make sure it can really compress all that video without overheating or dropping frames), and the distribution point's connectivity. Distribution servers don't use much bandwidth as all they do is simply regurgitate the data back out to clients without having to do any processing other than logging.
I've been doing streaming for about 5-6 years now. I've done everything from web cam streaming to large convention streaming that put out 300+ Mbps of connectivity. By no means am I an expert (I've done streaming--it's not what I do), but everything above is my experience with it. Most of all, just stick with what you know and are comfortable with. Your client base will determine most things. Personally (even being a BSD guy), my preferred streaming setup is using Windows Media Encoder at the source, Windows Media Server 2003 at the distribution point, and Windows Media Player (or anything else that can play Windows Media v9) at the end-user. In my experience, it has been rock-solid and can be deployed quickly. If you're already running Windows 2000/XP/2003, all the software mentioned above is provided free-of-charge.
I didn't take this one directly, but one of my co-techies did. The ISP told the customer that there must be a cabling problem between the network and the router. He said that the cable was CAT5 on one end and RJ45 on the other.
For the quota support, you could use a FreeBSD firewall with ipfw/dummynet traffic-shaping for the entire subnet. Granted, you'd have to slice it up on a per-IP basis for good quota support, but it still works great for me. You could set up WEP for security. If you are really anal about security, you could set up the firewall or another computer as a VPN server for the extra encryption.
Oh, and my opinion on the wireless stuff.. Stick with B or G. I always hated A. It never worked quite right for me, but I've had few negligible problems with the B/G stuff.
If I'm not mistaken, the card described in the article is the Radeon 9700 Pro and not the few-month-old Radeon 9700. To my knowledge, this card is newer and therefore better. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.
As for the card itself, screw it. I'm willing to wait and spend up to $500+ to get a good GeforceFX card. I don't care who is fastest. I want quality that I can depend on and a good driver set.
I built a file server a couple of years ago and started out with 2 30GB Fujitsus. I don't remember the model numbers, but they are ATA66 7200RPM. They've been spinning nearly 24/7/365 for 2 years now and I haven't had a problem.
However, my IBM 60GB drive is on it's way back for a 3rd replacement in one year. Truly pathetic.
I also have a brand new Maxtor ATA133 80GB drive that runs great with one glitch--I have to use a Windows 2000 or XP boot CD to create a boot delay ("Press any key to boot from CD.....") in order to boot anything (Grub, LILO, Windows). I guess this could be fixed by using an IDE boot delay in the BIOS, but that feature doesn't exist in mine. Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed the speed of my new Maxtor. It's only a month and a half old so I can't comment on reliability as of yet. At least it's not making noises yet (which was the case with my IBM drive).
Same thing with the 'work from home' bunk they promote, and yet block VPN connections.
Hrmm.. I'm on Comcast and have no problems with using a VPN. All I have is a regular residential plan and I use a VPN from work to home on a near daily basis to sync up the work I do at home with the work I do at work.
We have a hybrid network of Win2k and Linux servers at work. Our backup server is a Win2k box with a little over a terabyte of storage. We have an internal "utility" Linux box that is running Samba and rsync. For our production Linux boxes, we only have rsync to use for backups. The interesting way we back up the production boxes is by rsyncing to a backup share on the Win2k backup server that is mounted on the utility box using samba. At first, we thought that this would make things kinda slow, but actually they run at full speed.
Just thought I'd share our little Linux backup experience.
Well, paper is thinner than those hard drive platter. I'm just wondering exactly how small you can get a piece of graphite to be and still stick on paper. And what to do with those eraser shavings when you delete a file? Of course, we could use ink, but that bleeds and would be more or less like a CD-R since you can't erase. After all that, after every few pages in a text doc, you're going to have to sharpen the [pencil] heads.
Sorry...lame, I know.. beat me senseless. I just felt compelled to do it.
Some competitor is going to release yet another standard that will knock this super drive off of its pedestal. Maybe this will knock down the prices in the other non-super drives. I just can't wait for these things to cost below $100 like CD-RW drives. But, I have a feeling that won't happen in the near future until everyone gets their act together and decides on a single, standard format. All we can do is wait.
You oughta stop by and visit some time. LAN party at my place every Friday night, unless otherwise noted. Of course, we only skip LAN parties on Friday nights when we're not on vacation or at an anime convention. =)
Oh goodness...5 years in between new systems. Heck, I can hardly go 5 days without finding something else I want for my system and wind up upgrading within the month. So, therefore, my system is always new.
Yes, but there are many a PC user that refuse to switch to Apple hardware due to the cost. If it were ported to the x86 platform, they could at least grab part of that market that would otherwise have nothing to do with Apple at all.
Sure, they may not have as many PC users switch to Apple hardware at that point, but that loss would probably be made up by the sales of the OS X port to the x86.
Heh.. if they were to port it, maybe they could call it MacOS X(86).
Actually, I'm convinced that Microsoft designed every version of Windows as a self-corrosive OS. That way you're always paying for upgrades and tech support. I bet if you let a fresh install of Win2k/XP sit on a machine running for 1 year with no user intervention and no hardware failures, it would still crash when you checked on it after that year...but that's just my opinion.
...just works! I guess with an underlying *nix core, things seem to just work better. Wouldn't it be interesting to see a version of Windows with a *nix core?
A 250W should be fine as long as you're not running tons of extra hardware in the machine. Also, you're usually safe with an exhaust fan near the processor. I've noticed that makes for better cooling and an intake up front and no exhaust for the heat coming from the processor.
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like your problem is bandwidth. Either on the client-side, coming off your net to your ISP, or routing problems elsewhere on the Internet. The hard part is tracking down where the bottleneck is. Try to have multiple end-user test points. The company I work for has employees on a couple of different local ISPs and servers at various colo facilities. Try logging in to each machine and testing the stream. If it's across the board, you can safely bet it's your "unlimited" pipe to your ISP or a problem at your ISP. If it's a problem with a fraction of the clients, try doing traceroutes and see how the packets hop across the Internet and look for any similarities to see where the hang-ups can be. It's also possible that some clients just aren't getting the bandwidth they think they should be getting. Try everything you can to optimize your streaming application of choice. Reduce the number of FPS if you can. If it's only a talking head or something with little movement, try spacing out the keyframes more. Unless you're broadcasting a music video or movie, try using mono instead of stereo for audio. If it's a speech, you probably don't need CD-quality sound. Dropping the sound to 32, 24, or even 16kbps for a WMA/MP3/RA stream will still sound decent for something that doesn't have a lot of variation in sound.
Also, if it is possible, try to expirament around with variable bit-rate streams for video and/or audio. That can come in handy if your target audience spreads from AOL dial-up in the middle of nowhere to your urban 8 Mbps+ broadband connections.
In streaming, the big three big things that you have to worry about are the encoder's connectivity (to push the stream to the distribution point), the encoder's power (to make sure it can really compress all that video without overheating or dropping frames), and the distribution point's connectivity. Distribution servers don't use much bandwidth as all they do is simply regurgitate the data back out to clients without having to do any processing other than logging.
I've been doing streaming for about 5-6 years now. I've done everything from web cam streaming to large convention streaming that put out 300+ Mbps of connectivity. By no means am I an expert (I've done streaming--it's not what I do), but everything above is my experience with it. Most of all, just stick with what you know and are comfortable with. Your client base will determine most things. Personally (even being a BSD guy), my preferred streaming setup is using Windows Media Encoder at the source, Windows Media Server 2003 at the distribution point, and Windows Media Player (or anything else that can play Windows Media v9) at the end-user. In my experience, it has been rock-solid and can be deployed quickly. If you're already running Windows 2000/XP/2003, all the software mentioned above is provided free-of-charge.
Hope this helps.
Imagine a cold rain on a warm hood...
I didn't take this one directly, but one of my co-techies did. The ISP told the customer that there must be a cabling problem between the network and the router. He said that the cable was CAT5 on one end and RJ45 on the other.
For the quota support, you could use a FreeBSD firewall with ipfw/dummynet traffic-shaping for the entire subnet. Granted, you'd have to slice it up on a per-IP basis for good quota support, but it still works great for me. You could set up WEP for security. If you are really anal about security, you could set up the firewall or another computer as a VPN server for the extra encryption.
Oh, and my opinion on the wireless stuff.. Stick with B or G. I always hated A. It never worked quite right for me, but I've had few negligible problems with the B/G stuff.
If I'm not mistaken, the card described in the article is the Radeon 9700 Pro and not the few-month-old Radeon 9700. To my knowledge, this card is newer and therefore better. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.
As for the card itself, screw it. I'm willing to wait and spend up to $500+ to get a good GeforceFX card. I don't care who is fastest. I want quality that I can depend on and a good driver set.
Unless, of course, if the price is right.
Could you imagine how slow Slashdot would be at one connection per second? How well could this work on high traffic sites?
It would probably save other sites from being Slashdotted, though.
How many OSs? Is 37 enough?
I built a file server a couple of years ago and started out with 2 30GB Fujitsus. I don't remember the model numbers, but they are ATA66 7200RPM. They've been spinning nearly 24/7/365 for 2 years now and I haven't had a problem.
However, my IBM 60GB drive is on it's way back for a 3rd replacement in one year. Truly pathetic.
I also have a brand new Maxtor ATA133 80GB drive that runs great with one glitch--I have to use a Windows 2000 or XP boot CD to create a boot delay ("Press any key to boot from CD.....") in order to boot anything (Grub, LILO, Windows). I guess this could be fixed by using an IDE boot delay in the BIOS, but that feature doesn't exist in mine. Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed the speed of my new Maxtor. It's only a month and a half old so I can't comment on reliability as of yet. At least it's not making noises yet (which was the case with my IBM drive).
I was content with snake and memory on my phone. Now it's just not going to be the same knowing that a classic FPS can be played on a cell phone!
Heh, enable bluetooth or something similar and play multiplayer with the guy sitting next to you in the airport or something.
I still wish I had a port of the Gameboy version of Tetris on my phone music and all.
Same thing with the 'work from home' bunk they promote, and yet block VPN connections.
Hrmm.. I'm on Comcast and have no problems with using a VPN. All I have is a regular residential plan and I use a VPN from work to home on a near daily basis to sync up the work I do at home with the work I do at work.
I'm still trying to find the check box that removes the "Blue Screen of Death" feature...
We have a hybrid network of Win2k and Linux servers at work. Our backup server is a Win2k box with a little over a terabyte of storage. We have an internal "utility" Linux box that is running Samba and rsync. For our production Linux boxes, we only have rsync to use for backups. The interesting way we back up the production boxes is by rsyncing to a backup share on the Win2k backup server that is mounted on the utility box using samba. At first, we thought that this would make things kinda slow, but actually they run at full speed.
Just thought I'd share our little Linux backup experience.
Well, paper is thinner than those hard drive platter. I'm just wondering exactly how small you can get a piece of graphite to be and still stick on paper. And what to do with those eraser shavings when you delete a file? Of course, we could use ink, but that bleeds and would be more or less like a CD-R since you can't erase. After all that, after every few pages in a text doc, you're going to have to sharpen the [pencil] heads.
Sorry...lame, I know.. beat me senseless. I just felt compelled to do it.
With technology like that, duct tape will really stick to anything! ..if you can't duck it, fsck it...
Some competitor is going to release yet another standard that will knock this super drive off of its pedestal. Maybe this will knock down the prices in the other non-super drives. I just can't wait for these things to cost below $100 like CD-RW drives. But, I have a feeling that won't happen in the near future until everyone gets their act together and decides on a single, standard format. All we can do is wait.
Yup!
You oughta stop by and visit some time. LAN party at my place every Friday night, unless otherwise noted. Of course, we only skip LAN parties on Friday nights when we're not on vacation or at an anime convention. =)
500 dollars * 3,000,000 per day * 365 day per year * 4 years = 2.2 trillion
Well, 2,190,000,000,000 to be exact.
So...2,190,000,000,000 / 6,245,356,272 = Everyone gets $350.66. Everybody wins!
Ahh.. if it only worked that way *sob*
2.2 billion x triple-damages = 6.6 billion from fax.com.
Estimated world population by US Census Bureau: 6,245,356,272
6,600,000,000 / 6,245,356,272 = 1.06
So, basically, that's enough to give every person in the world a dollar...or enough to get Worldcom back on their feet for another year or two!
Oh goodness...5 years in between new systems. Heck, I can hardly go 5 days without finding something else I want for my system and wind up upgrading within the month. So, therefore, my system is always new.
It's a bad addiction, but it's fun!
Yes, but there are many a PC user that refuse to switch to Apple hardware due to the cost. If it were ported to the x86 platform, they could at least grab part of that market that would otherwise have nothing to do with Apple at all.
Sure, they may not have as many PC users switch to Apple hardware at that point, but that loss would probably be made up by the sales of the OS X port to the x86.
Heh.. if they were to port it, maybe they could call it MacOS X(86).
Actually, I'm convinced that Microsoft designed every version of Windows as a self-corrosive OS. That way you're always paying for upgrades and tech support. I bet if you let a fresh install of Win2k/XP sit on a machine running for 1 year with no user intervention and no hardware failures, it would still crash when you checked on it after that year...but that's just my opinion.
Why not?
Didn't these guys fix that for you?
...just works! I guess with an underlying *nix core, things seem to just work better. Wouldn't it be interesting to see a version of Windows with a *nix core?
A 250W should be fine as long as you're not running tons of extra hardware in the machine. Also, you're usually safe with an exhaust fan near the processor. I've noticed that makes for better cooling and an intake up front and no exhaust for the heat coming from the processor.