itunes buffer problem...

ethan666 · 10-21-2003, 08:56 PM

Hey there... I have sort of a complicated setup, but hopefully someone out there can help out a newbie...

I have iTunes set up on a G3 at home. Sharing is on, and i have an SSH tunnel and Rendezvous Beacon set up so I can access the tunes from my G4 at work. Things work great unless the network traffic gets busy. The songs continuously get interuppted by iTunes attempting to "Rebuffer Stream." Adjusting the iTunes buffer to "large" does not help... it just makes the pauses longer.

Is there any known way to hack iTunes to further increase the buffer size? Any other ideas? I'd prefer to not set up any sort of streaming server at home... that sounds complicated. Just wondering if there is any way to keep my setup and alleviate the problem with a better buffer.

Thanks...

darndog · 10-22-2003, 05:49 AM

I dont think further increasing the buffer will solve your problem, fundamentally you are listening to your music faster than your computer can get it to you, a bigger buffer will extend the time between 'rebuffering' but it will also lengthen the time before playback begins and the time taken to 'rebuffer'.

Your problem lies with the connection you are getting to your home machine, try to discover if the bottleneck is at your home or workplace, you can run this speedtest to discover your connection speeds at home and work. If you have any other services running at home like apache or vnc sessions they will also be competing with iTunes for the upstream bandwidth. At work there is little you can do aside from quitting any other software that my be using bandwidth in the background, assuming you are on ethernet, this would include filesharing, printer sharing (your printer), iTunes sharing, web browsers, email clients etc.

I suspect this problem will occur more frequently as PC users start streaming iTunes shares around the workplace.

dD

ethan666 · 10-22-2003, 08:35 PM

Itunes sharing was working all day long until just about 5:30pm... same as yesterday. There must be some process that is happening on the network at this particular time that is causing the slowness. I'll check this again tomorrow.

I ran the speed test at work... I got a decent downstream speed: (Downloaded 786432 bytes in 5295ms (1160 kbps)) but I think the corporate firewall is keeping the upstream portion of the test from working. I'll run the test at home as well...

Thanks

ethan666 · 10-22-2003, 11:29 PM

Wow, that's pretty sad... I have more downstream bandwidth at home on my crappy cable modem vs my work network... must be too many people at work downloading porn or something...

home results:
1247kbps downstream
338kbps upstream

Even though my upstream speed is sorta slow here, my guess is that the bottleneck is at work.

mervTormel · 10-22-2003, 11:38 PM

hmm, i disagree. the upstream from your rig is most likely the bottleneck.

does your rig serve anything else during the day when you're at work?

anyhow, it's a combo of myriad elements. well, maybe not that many, but close.

darndog · 10-23-2003, 06:11 AM

5:30pm is the end of the work day right?, Do most people in your office stop work & start playing Quake about this time? Do another run of the Speedtest during a slowdown.

Another thing to check is the crontabs on your home rig for any indexing, system work etc being done at 5:30pm.

dD

ethan666 · 10-23-2003, 12:24 PM

I don't think I have anything else running at home that would slow things down, but I'll check. My home upstream speed is kinda slow, but I'm curious as to why the problem starts at 5:30pm sharp. I'm going to see if our IT department starts their tape backup then or something.

Perhaps everyone hops on the traffic websites right before they go home (I live in L.A... this is an absolute necessity!)

10-21-2003, 08:56 PM	#1
ethan666 Prospect Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 18	itunes buffer problem... Hey there... I have sort of a complicated setup, but hopefully someone out there can help out a newbie... I have iTunes set up on a G3 at home. Sharing is on, and i have an SSH tunnel and Rendezvous Beacon set up so I can access the tunes from my G4 at work. Things work great unless the network traffic gets busy. The songs continuously get interuppted by iTunes attempting to "Rebuffer Stream." Adjusting the iTunes buffer to "large" does not help... it just makes the pauses longer. Is there any known way to hack iTunes to further increase the buffer size? Any other ideas? I'd prefer to not set up any sort of streaming server at home... that sounds complicated. Just wondering if there is any way to keep my setup and alleviate the problem with a better buffer. Thanks...

10-22-2003, 08:35 PM	#3
ethan666 Prospect Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 18	hmmm... Itunes sharing was working all day long until just about 5:30pm... same as yesterday. There must be some process that is happening on the network at this particular time that is causing the slowness. I'll check this again tomorrow. I ran the speed test at work... I got a decent downstream speed: (Downloaded 786432 bytes in 5295ms (1160 kbps)) but I think the corporate firewall is keeping the upstream portion of the test from working. I'll run the test at home as well... Thanks

10-22-2003, 05:49 AM	#2
darndog Major Leaguer Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: UK Posts: 306	I dont think further increasing the buffer will solve your problem, fundamentally you are listening to your music faster than your computer can get it to you, a bigger buffer will extend the time between 'rebuffering' but it will also lengthen the time before playback begins and the time taken to 'rebuffer'. Your problem lies with the connection you are getting to your home machine, try to discover if the bottleneck is at your home or workplace, you can run this speedtest to discover your connection speeds at home and work. If you have any other services running at home like apache or vnc sessions they will also be competing with iTunes for the upstream bandwidth. At work there is little you can do aside from quitting any other software that my be using bandwidth in the background, assuming you are on ethernet, this would include filesharing, printer sharing (your printer), iTunes sharing, web browsers, email clients etc. I suspect this problem will occur more frequently as PC users start streaming iTunes shares around the workplace. dD

10-22-2003, 11:29 PM	#4
ethan666 Prospect Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 18	Wow, that's pretty sad... I have more downstream bandwidth at home on my crappy cable modem vs my work network... must be too many people at work downloading porn or something... home results: 1247kbps downstream 338kbps upstream Even though my upstream speed is sorta slow here, my guess is that the bottleneck is at work.

10-22-2003, 11:38 PM	#5
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	hmm, i disagree. the upstream from your rig is most likely the bottleneck. does your rig serve anything else during the day when you're at work? anyhow, it's a combo of myriad elements. well, maybe not that many, but close.

10-23-2003, 06:11 AM	#6
darndog Major Leaguer Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: UK Posts: 306	5:30pm is the end of the work day right?, Do most people in your office stop work & start playing Quake about this time? Do another run of the Speedtest during a slowdown. Another thing to check is the crontabs on your home rig for any indexing, system work etc being done at 5:30pm. dD

10-23-2003, 12:24 PM	#7
ethan666 Prospect Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 18	I don't think I have anything else running at home that would slow things down, but I'll check. My home upstream speed is kinda slow, but I'm curious as to why the problem starts at 5:30pm sharp. I'm going to see if our IT department starts their tape backup then or something. Perhaps everyone hops on the traffic websites right before they go home (I live in L.A... this is an absolute necessity!)