Hey friends, I’m writing because I’m trying to make my connection to my PC better. When I put this all together years ago, when we first moved into this apartment, I had no idea there were different types of ethernet cables, but now I do. Basically setup is:
Cable Internet
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Cable Modem
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Netgear Nighthawk Router
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Netgear Switch
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Long cat5e cable snaked along the base boards
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Cheap ethernet coupler
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Long cat6 connected to the PC.
I get a decent amount of dropped frames and congestion during my streams, and I’m wondering if there’s anything I can do to strengthen the connection between these long ethernet cables (wifi isn’t an option).
So I’m asking for your help. Might y’all have an idea as to what I can do to make this better?
150ft I think for the first one, I think 100 for the second one. The cables are being snaked around the baseboards and door frames from the living room, where the modem is, to the PC, which is in the second bedroom on the far side of the apartment.
Ping between a device connected right at the router and your PC, see if you have dropped packets or inconsistent latencies. If not, the ethernet cable is not your problem.
Actually, just ping your router from your PC. Most likely,
ping -t 192.168.1.1
If that gets timeouts or inconsistent latency, then try plugging in a laptop or something where your long cat5e ends, before the coupler. That will test if the coupler is the problem.
Either settings on the PC or your internet upload speed. I’m not the person to talk about it having no experience myself, but my understanding is there are some fine points to streaming properly.
Cat5 and Cat6 are specced to maintain the signal strength for 100 meters, so the length isn’t the problem. You could measure the latency between every midpoint, but if 192.168.1.1 is your modem and has <1ms, it’s not on the connection.
Find an online web-based latency test to see if it’s the ISPs fault, though they may be shaping and it might be inaccurate.
Otherwise… Particle effects are cheap for the GPU, but aren’t easy to compress, whatever software you use may not be able to do it in time for every frame (varies on the game, sorry I can’t find time where to slot your videos). Try to turn down the effects in-game and test.
It’s either some arcane streaming config thing or your upload isn’t fast enough. I suggest asking on forums populated by streamers, if there are such things. Maybe Chaturbate has forums?
I also know nothing about this but this seems a reasonable starting point. Just FYI this is for particular software but the overview still seems informative.
Potential solutions for dropped frames and stream disconnects:
First and foremost when it comes to dropped frames or stream disconnects, you must understand that this is almost always a network issue. Some, if not most, times it can not be fixed unless you call your ISP (internet service provider, IE: Xfinity, AT&T, Verizon, etc.) to let them know that you are experiencing issues with your connection. However, there are a few fixes that you can try to do. We would recommend starting with the following to rule out that it doesn’t have anything to do with your local network.
Try manually connecting to the closest or second closest streaming server on the streaming platform you are using, do not use Auto in Settings > Stream.
Restart your network gear, like your modem, router, or switches, and see if that helps
Check that the video and audio bitrate are not exceeding your internet upload speed
Disabling your computer’s LAN adapters and re-enabling them.
Note: Speed tests are a snapshot of your speeds. A speed test might say you have 5mbps upload, but this does not mean it is stable to upload at 5mbps. Also, these speed tests do not show that you could be experiencing other network related issues such as packet loss or demonstrate stability of your connection overall.
Here are a few additional things you could try to resolve your issues with dropped frames/stream disconnects if the above does not help:
Flushing your DNS:
While on the desktop, press the Windows Key and type CMD
Right-click Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”
Type ipconfig /release in the command prompt
Wait a few seconds for a reply that the IP address has been released
Type ipconfig /renew in the command prompt
Wait a few seconds for a reply that the IP address has been re-established
Type ipconfig /flushdns in the command prompt
Close the command prompt and attempt to stream or check the Twitch Test Tool again
Another potential fix for your issue could be reinstalling your network drivers for your computer by going to your motherboard/laptop manufacturers website and downloading them from there.
It could also be a local issue with your network. Open the outbound port 1935 for TCP, we recommend checking out PortForward for assistance with that.
If reinstalling your network drivers and opening the port does not fix your dropped frame issue then you would have to call your ISP and ask them for assistance and let them know you’re experiencing connection issues/packet loss.
Welp, the guy on the phone at Spectrum said I can just take the modem in, explain my issue and a ask for a new and different modem, so I’m gonna do that next week. Yay!
