My NAS is a ReadyNAS Pro (RNDP6000) with 3 x 1 TB hitachi ultrastar (HUA722010CLA330) drives and a 1.5 TB seagate (ST31500341AS) drive setup in RAID config using X-RAID2. My switch is a NETGEAR ProSafe GS108T-200NAS set to default settings. I haven't had a chance to start messing with VLAN settings or anything else. There is a bit of a learning curve on my part. I also have a Boxee Box running the latest software/firmware.
My library of music and movies are stored on my NAS.
My movies load up in the Boxee library and my Boxee Box recognizes them with no problem. My problem starts when i start to play a movie and then after about 1 minute of play time, the movie errors out and i get sent back to the movie library screen. I ran a bunch of different movies and all acted the same way. Pretty darn annoying.
BBox is connected to the NAS using samba. My NAS shows up as a samba drive when scanned under "File Sources" as smb://... in Boxee so i am sure of this.
At the beginning I had uPnP activated under discovery services but i deactivated it but it still didn't work. I did notice that the connection to my NAS was stalled for about 30-60 seconds when i tried playing a movie and was looking at the different options under administrator settings on my laptop. This occurs every time i try to play a movie right before it errors out. I can replicate this every time.
Under standard file protocols for my NAS i have CIFS as the only one activated. The others (NFS, AFP) are deactivated. I have a MacBook, a PS3, and a Windows desktop, that all access the NAS and i thought this was the best option (correct me if i am wrong). I also have the Bonjour service active. Could only having CIFS active be the problem?
I tried to share a movie wirelessly from my MacBook Pro to my Apple Airport base station, through the Netgear switch, to the wired Boxee and had no problem playing a 1080 HD movie. I have also been able to play a couple of titles off a thumbdrive without a problem so my problem definitely seems to be the NAS. I had no issues fast forwarding the movies and playing the movies i was accessing from my MacBook and my thumbdrive on the BBox. And i know the wireless connection is slower than the wired network connection.
So everything points to my NAS causing the issues. Any thoughts?
It looks like a lot of Boxee related issues of this type are related to the network you have not the NAS or the Boxee Box.
I have a ReadyNAS and had no problems streaming to a PS3 via home plugs 99.99% of the time. Only really high bitrate movies would occasionally catch it out .
Now, when I got my Boxee Box it would buffer constantly playing many Blu-Ray movies that the PS3 would play fine on the same network infrastructure. I tried switching to wireless but this was a joke. Unless you have direct line of sight between source and Boxee, forget wireless for hi-def streams. I would sometimes be thrown back to the menu.
So, with wireless ruled out and wired, via home plug, also giving problems I moved my NAS down to the TV and plugged it in directly to the Boxee Box. No more problems!!
It does look like the Boxee Box does not buffer as well as the PS3, but the root problem was the network between the ReadyNAS and the Boxee.
FYI the forum for Boxee Box is here: http://forums.boxee.tv/forumdisplay.php?f=23
Thanks for the info. First thing when i get home i am going to try what you're recommending. I'll use one of the Ethrnet ports to connect the BBox directly.
And I did try the Boxee forum but all indications pointed to the NAS which is how i ended up here. I tried connecting thumbdrives with movies on it and it worked just fine. I would like to troubleshoot the network to see if i can figure it out at some point.
Recent Boxee firmware breaks CIFS access on the ReadyNAS if you don't have a password set on the share. If you don't have a password set on your shares, you can either downgrade your boxee to a version that does work, or set a password on the shares. But it is a Boxee issue, not a ReadyNAS issue.
Or just enable NFS on you ReadyNAS and connect from the BB using that. It gives better streaming performance too. Just remember to disable jumbo frames if you do decide to use NFS.
Recent Boxee firmware breaks CIFS access on the ReadyNAS if you don't have a password set on the share. If you don't have a password set on your shares, you can either downgrade your boxee to a version that does work, or set a password on the shares. But it is a Boxee issue, not a ReadyNAS issue.
Thanks for this post. Fired up a BB last night - Epic Fail.
Or just enable NFS on you ReadyNAS and connect from the BB using that. It gives better streaming performance too. Just remember to disable jumbo frames if you do decide to use NFS.
Would that not diminish the gig-e performance on large file writes to the NAS?
I'm using a Boxee Box with the latest firmware and a Readynas NV+ with the security mode set to 'Share' with no passwords.
The trick to mounting Samba shares in the Boxee Box is that your user name is the share name and there is no password. ie. If your share on the ReadyNas is called 'media' then use 'media' as the login and leave the password blank.
Or just enable NFS on you ReadyNAS and connect from the BB using that. It gives better streaming performance too. Just remember to disable jumbo frames if you do decide to use NFS.
Would that not diminish the gig-e performance on large file writes to the NAS?
Not sure what gives you that impression, but even if true - why would it be an issue? The BB is accessing (reading) the media, not creating it, so why would there be 'large file writes'? Or what am I missing?
Or just enable NFS on you ReadyNAS and connect from the BB using that. It gives better streaming performance too. Just remember to disable jumbo frames if you do decide to use NFS.
Would that not diminish the gig-e performance on large file writes to the NAS?
Not sure what gives you that impression, but even if true - why would it be an issue? The BB is accessing (reading) the media, not creating it, so why would there be 'large file writes'? Or what am I missing?
Not missing anything. However, BB streaming is not the only thing I want of my ReadyNAS. And the quicker I can move large files to/from it (drive images for example) the better. Reducing the ReadyNAS performance for the sake BB streaming is not something I want to do.
What gave me that impression was the ReadyNAS it'self..
Enable jumbo frames. Jumbo frames allows combining of multiple packets into one large packet, reducing network overhead and increasing large-packet transfer performance. When a jumbo frame-capable switch is used, and client systems have jumbo frame-capable network controllers, you can enable this option. Make sure the client network driver is set up for jumbo frame support.
I'm using a Boxee Box with the latest firmware and a Readynas NV+ with the security mode set to 'Share' with no passwords.
The trick to mounting Samba shares in the Boxee Box is that your user name is the share name and there is no password. ie. If your share on the ReadyNas is called 'media' then use 'media' as the login and leave the password blank.
What gave me that impression was the ReadyNAS it'self..
Enable jumbo frames. Jumbo frames allows combining of multiple packets into one large packet, reducing network overhead and increasing large-packet transfer performance. When a jumbo frame-capable switch is used, and client systems have jumbo frame-capable network controllers, you can enable this option. Make sure the client network driver is set up for jumbo frame support.
NFS and Jumbo frames are entirely unrelated topics - NFS is a higher level network protocol than Ethernet, like CIFS and AFP. Jumbo Frames refers to configuration of Ethernet frames used to carry the traffic, be it via NFS, CIFS or AFP protocols. (I overlooked the comment advising to also disable Jumbo frames when enabling NFS - I have no idea why that would be suggested)
Therefore enabling NFS would have no adverse performance impact - probably quite the opposite as it tends to be the most efficient protocol to use between two linux based systems like your ReadyNAS and Boxee system
