July 15, 201015 yr I have my main PC in one room, where the internet comes in, with a wireless-N router. My Unraid will be in a closet on the other side of the house. My HTPC is in the next room to the closet... it could reach the Unraid with an ethernet cable, and I'd like to, so that HD movies can stream easily from one to the other. But there's no way to cable from the main computer to the storage closet. Can I just put a wireless card in the Unraid, or a USB wireless adapter? Getting from the closet to the main PC doesn't need to be fast, because it will just be music and data getting streamed to it, no big 1080p files like to the HTPC.
July 15, 201015 yr Little confused... If I read what you stated correctly you should be able to connect the main PC and the HTPC via wired connections to the router, yes? But then you state there's no way to cable from the main computer to the storage closet - are you referring to the storage closet where the Unraid server will be? As long as you can connect the Unraid server and the HTPC via wire to the router, you should be fine. If you have to, you could put a wireless adapter in the main PC and use wireless to connect that system to the others - as long as they all can connect to the router, it will handle moving the traffic between them, regardless of whether they have wired or wireless connections.
July 15, 201015 yr Author The problem is that the main computer, which is also where the internet comes in (and thus where my wireless router is), cannot reach the HTPC or Unraid with a wire.
July 15, 201015 yr Running wire is really very easy; it is hiding it that is the problem. You said it is a house, One story, Two Stories, Basement? It will be worth it to run an ethernet cable between the HTPC location and the Router location. As long as you can do that (where there is a will there is a way) you can then put a workgroup switch at that side of the house at the HTPC location and run one long cable (Switch To Router), one short one (HTPC to Switch), and one medium length one (unRaid to switch). What is nice about a switch is that traffic between the HTPC and the unraid will never leave the switch, that is it will not go back to the router since it does not have to.
July 15, 201015 yr The problem is that the main computer, which is also where the internet comes in (and thus where my wireless router is), cannot reach the HTPC or Unraid with a wire. Google "powerline ethernet" if nothing else works for you. You'll get about a 3rd of the speed of a wired LAN, but you might be able to live with that if all you are doing is accessing the web through the router. It is NOT fast enough to watch a video over, but will work otherwise.
July 16, 201015 yr Google "powerline ethernet" if nothing else works for you. You'll get about a 3rd of the speed of a wired LAN, but you might be able to live with that if all you are doing is accessing the web through the router. It is NOT fast enough to watch a video over, but will work otherwise. I've used the powerline adapters Joe L. mentioned with varying success. Joe L. what do you think of the following netgear that's to be for sale soon: http://www.itechnews.net/2010/03/02/netgear-xavb5001-and-xavb5501-powerline-av-adapter-kits/ http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineforHighPerformance/XAVB5001.aspx It's supposed to get 500 Mbps transfer speeds. The next fastest netgear is 200 Mbps, which was released a while ago. I haven't actually seen this on sale anywhere though.
July 16, 201015 yr I use one of the older versions of the powerline ethernet adapter for a specific spot in my home where power is available, but ethernet cannot be run and wireless does not work. It is used just for connectivity to the web for browsing, so no real impact from its slower speed. I will reserve any comments about the higher speeds advertised by netgear by their new powerline ethernet adapter until I read some reviews. Just like all other powerline protocols, the results will be best if the adapters are all on the same "phase" of power in your home. Otherwise, they'll only work well when a 220 volt device is turned on, connecting the two phases. (It will work when the electric stove is on, or the clothes dryer, etc) I do like the marketing though: Automatically powers down when not connected or not in use. Translation, if you are an engineer... Uses no power when not plugged into the wall.
July 16, 201015 yr What kind of internet? Say it was high speed cable. The cable also likely goes to the TV right beside the HTPC so move the cable router to that location. If it's DSL then move it to another phone jack. Peter
July 16, 201015 yr Author It's fiber optic... it only comes into my computer room... As for cable TV... hahahaha, with XBMC and an Unraid full of movies, who needs cable?
July 17, 201015 yr When you say fibre optic, do you mean just the connection from the ISP to the WAN side of the router or do you have a fibre optic NIC on your PC?
July 20, 201015 yr Author Yeah, fiber optic from the ISP to my house... it enters my computer room as regular ethernet... Anyways, you guys convinced me... Got a 100 foot ethernet cable, and a switch. Hey, if I can live with a shedding dog, my wife can live with a cable, right? Right?
July 20, 201015 yr I use the linksys 5 port and 8 port 10/100 ethernet switches with no issues and have done so for years. The 5 port is really small
August 1, 201015 yr Author Okay, I now have: 10 ft 10ft Unraid <---> Switch <---->HTPC | | 100 feet | Router <---> Hackintosh Desktop 10ft The switch, router, and all 3 computers are all gigabit, all the cables are Cat5. Copying from the desktop to the unraid, I'm seeing speeds at about 10 MB/s... is that right, or should it be faster? 10 MB/s is 80 Mb, which is under 100, let alone under a gigabit... EDIT - I don't have a parity drive assigned yet, waiting to copy all my stuff over to generate it...
August 1, 201015 yr I do like the marketing though: Automatically powers down when not connected or not in use. Translation, if you are an engineer... Uses no power when not plugged into the wall. I've got the original HD Powerline adapters, and they get warm, even when the device attached is powered off -- so they are always using power. The newer models avoid this. So, it's not B.S.
August 1, 201015 yr The switch, router, and all 3 computers are all gigabit, all the cables are Cat5. Might depend upon the cables and the quality. Cat5 do not always get you gigabit speeds and might be throtled to 100m Especially with the 100ft leg. Might need Cat5e or Cat6
August 1, 201015 yr Might depend upon the cables and the quality. Cat5 do not always get you gigabit speeds and might be throtled to 100m Especially with the 100ft leg. Might need Cat5e or Cat6 10m fly leads, 90m solid core is what cat6 and cat5e are rated for i believe.
August 1, 201015 yr Justin, The key place you want speed is HTPC to unraid. I would invest in a pair of 10 foot Cat 5e or Cat 6 cables. When I am doing a lot of trabnsfers to the unread from my development/ripping PC I always just build up a folder on the PC and then start a copy that runs while I am asleep. One of these days I will bench mark read write speed between my unraid and my development PC. To make it easy for me does any one know of a Win program that does just that?"
August 1, 201015 yr One of these days I will bench mark read write speed between my unraid and my development PC. To make it easy for me does any one know of a Win program that does just that?" I use CrystalDiskMark for that...It's really designed for benchmarking built in harddrives, but if you map an unRAID share to a drive letter in Windows, you can use it for benchmarking your read and write speeds between your PC and unRAID server...
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