WiFI Dongle unable to play network video

[Kezza52]

Recently received V2 and EDUP AC wifi dongle.
Plugged the wifi dongle into the USB 2.0 port and connected network at 150Mbps. Mounted my network NAS server.
When I tried to play a video from my NAS server (WD MyCloud) the spinning star started and didn't stop. After pressing stop button for several minutes finally stopped and got back to directory. Tried the dongle in the USB 3.0 port and managed to play video stop/start motion with spinning star. I have tried the WiFi dongle in my U4 with the same result. FTP download to my computer was slow, less than 1Mib/s.

V2 and U4 running latest firmware, I have no trouble streaming to other devices over WiFi.

Any suggestions?

[Paul_oz53]

Only yesterday I connected my old EDUP ep1619 AC dongle to my U4 usb 2.0 port. It connected at 430 Mbps and worked fine. I logged into the 5GHz band on my router. You should try both bands.

That your speed is so low suggests you are a long way from the router, have thick walls or are getting interference. Sometimes changing the active wifi channels in your router can help. Otherwise, repositioning the router may give a better signal.

My firmware is the beta dated 20200405 but I doubt your firmware is the problem. About now Gully will often tell posters to get the exact version from Menu- Information- About as sometimes this is significant.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

You should try both bands.

Not with the "Netcom N300 Router" that's listed in Kezza52's sig

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Recently received V2 and EDUP AC wifi dongle.

What model of EDUP wireless adapter is it?
What is shown in Setup>>Network>>Network interface (or in Network adapter selection>>Network settings info) under the 'WLAN connection' heading?

[Kezza52]

EDUP Model: EP-AC1619

Network Interface 8812au enabled.
All other network configuration settings are standard

The dongle is currently in my U4 as it needs a network connection.

Regards
Kerry

[Kezza52]

With regard to the router, yes it is dated and have contemplated an upgrade but we have very little wifi traffic, my wife's HP pro desktop mini is on the other-side of a double brick wall and connects at 300Mps.
The EDUP AC1619 maximun speed on the 2.4 band is 150Mbs, the signal strength is 95/100.
Our LG smart TV has no problem streaming over wifi (DLNA) and it is further from the router.
I can stream to and old Toshiba laptop and that connects at 72Mbs .
So I don't think the router is the issue here, I could be wrong, happened once.
Kerry

[Gully]

My firmware is the beta dated 20200405 but I doubt your firmware is the problem. About now Gully will often tell posters to get the exact version from Menu- Information- About as sometimes this is significant.

I wouldn't have minded if you had taken this time to do it.

Agreed, it may not be the problem but it will also bring updatd drivers too.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

So I don't think the router is the issue here, I could be wrong, happened once.

So long ago though that you've forgotten what it was, eh?

That's a single-stream adapter, with up to 150Mbps on 802.11n/wireless-N and up to 433Mbps on 802.11ac/wireless-AC.
Using neighbour-friendly 20MHz bandwidth on the 2.4GHz band of your router would mean the adapter can connect at up to 72Mbps (throughput will be lower of course).

In my experience, using wireless on a Wiz is one of the most shithouse experiences there is. Okay, that's clearly an exageration, but it's not a pleasant experience, and not one for nuffies.
What works one time, doesn't work on the next reboot, or if you forget to hop on one leg, or you don't sacrifice enough goats nor chickens, or if you happen to barrack for Collingwood.
Case in point, I just chucked my TP-Link T4U adapter into my U4 and I've rebooted four times and the Wiz still can't detect any networks (not mine, not neighbours, so not an access point issue). I was successfully using this adapter in te U4 only a few weeks ago before swapping back to ethernet.
Earlier today I used an el-cheapo Edimax 11n adapter in the U4 that I've previously used and had trouble setting it up but eventually got it to work. Later it stopped working. Sigh. When's that delivery of goats arriving?

If I were you, and I had no option of using ethernet, I'd be using a wireless extender, access point, or router, that can operate in wireless-to-ethernet bridge mode. That way you're not using any wireless configuration on the Wiz, as the wireless bridge uses its wireless radio to connect to your router and handing off an ethernet connection that you connect into the Wiz using an ethernet cable.
A cheap example is this $29 TP-Link TL-WR802N, operating in "client mode" (MrQuade has previously suggested this in another topic).
https://www.msy.com.au/tp-link-tl-wr802 ... ernet-port
Another example is the TP-Link TL-WA801ND access point that can operate in ethernet bridge mode (its "Client Mode").
https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/Net ... TL-WA801ND

[Kezza52]

Thanks for you thoughts Geoff.

I did contemplate doing that before I bought the dongle, dusted off an old Netgear dual band N router and set it up in bridged mode only to find that it only had WEP security or none, so gave up on that. Looks like its back on the agenda. The TP-link may do the job. Upgrading the router to AC wifi might work, but I think I will avoid the usbs.

I haven't any problems with the dongle not being recognised or disappearing.

I experimented with the WiFi dongle, plugged it into my Win 10 PC, 120Mbps in the USB 3.0 port and 150Mbps in USB 2.0 port.
Uploaded a file to my NAS using FTP and both ran at 7MiB/s compared to the 1MiB/s when downloading from the U4. (Gigabit LAN connection runs at 37MiB/s.) I could stream the file on my PC no problem over WiFi..

Conclusion is that the thru-put issue lies with Bwiz USB architecture.

I had an external USB 3.0 hard drive connected to my U4 (now connected to V2) and was disappointed with its performance. The harddrive was out of my T3 which I traded in on the U4. When I connected it to the V2 everything ran slow until I reformatted the drive and plugged in and old 16Gb mico SD card.

Has anyone run tests on the USBs? Linux is not my thing, played with it a couple of times reminded me of MS DOS.

Another thing cropped up this morning, tried to remember how the recording we watched last night (over a few glasses of red) ended. Used openwebif to stream it to my PC from the V2 external harddrive over Gigabit LAN connection and it wouldn't play, moved it to the SD card and no better, can stream live TV OK. So the idea of being able to stream between the U4 and V2 is not looking good.

Would recording directly to the NAS be a better option (once I establish a network connection) or does that have issues?

Regards
grumpy old man Kerry

[peteru]

Conclusion is that the thru-put issue lies with Bwiz USB architecture.

Wrong conclusion.

I have no issues pushing an external HDD in a dock to it's limits. 135MBytes/s

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Another thing cropped up this morning, tried to remember how the recording we watched last night (over a few glasses of red) ended. Used openwebif to stream it to my PC from the V2 external harddrive over Gigabit LAN connection and it wouldn't play, moved it to the SD card and no better, can stream live TV OK. So the idea of being able to stream between the U4 and V2 is not looking good.

"wouldn't play" doesn't tell us much. Use Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder to play the *.ts file - does it then play? If so, perhaps it was just the wrong streaming port - try changing the port in the .m3u8 file from using port 80 to 8001 (or vice versa).
What program was opening the .m3u8 file?
Can you stream from the U4 okay?

[Kezza52]

OK

So if its not the USB or the WiFi dongle then whats choking the data stream?

Any suggestions other than give up and try something different.

With regard to openwebif stream not playing recording. Win 10 PC, media player VLC, frozen image, works fine on live TV stream. I can play it thru windows explorer/VLC and I can also play it via smart tv dlna. No I can't stream from the U4 because of the WiFi issue.
It's not something I would do very often and using windows explorer is quicker. I had not tried it before but stream live TV occasionally.

Regards
Kerry

[Grumpy_Geoff]

With regard to openwebif stream not playing recording. Win 10 PC, media player VLC, frozen image, works fine on live TV stream. I can play it thru windows explorer/VLC and I can also play it via smart tv dlna.

If you can stream live TV there shouldn't be a problem with streaming recorded TV.
It sounds like a 'http' streaming issue rather than a bandwidth issue because your file streaming using Samba works.
You could try PotPlayer (it's what I use, I prefer it over VLC) if you want to test. You can open the .m3u8 file with PotPlayer ('Open File'), or alternatively take the 'http' command that is in the .m3u8 file (an example from my U4 is shown below), copy it to the clipboard, and open the stream with 'Open URL'.

Code: Select all

http://beyonwizu4:80/file?file=/media/hdd/movie/20200611%201924%20-%2010%20HD%20-%20MasterChef%20Australia.ts

[Kezza52]

Checked the .m3u8 files, recording and live TV, both port 8001. Copied and opened url in vlc and same frozen pixelated image.
I can open the .ts file in vlc and it plays fine, so not really an issue, just odd.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Checked the .m3u8 files, recording and live TV, both port 8001. Copied and opened url in vlc and same frozen pixelated image.
I can open the .ts file in vlc and it plays fine, so not really an issue, just odd.

Try port 80 then, as I previously suggested.

[Kezza52]

Hi
Tried port 80 and it worked, can I configure openwebif to use port 80?

The wifi dongle issue .. I keep going round in circles, I assume someone would have mentioned if their is a driver update I could try.

Anyway I have ordered a wifi extender with a LAN port and looking into upgrading router.

Thanks
Kerry

U4
Firmware release 19.3 20191106
Drivers 180411-16.4

[prl]

The wifi dongle issue .. I keep going round in circles, I assume someone would have mentioned if their is a driver update I could try.
...
Firmware release 19.3 20191106
Drivers 180411-16.4

I assume that you've installed the rt8821cu plugin package on your V2?

As far as new drivers goes, you could try looking at the version number of the rt8821cu that you have installed. PLUGIN, then GREEN Download Plugins if you haven't installed the package or PLUGIN, RED Remove plugins, then scroll to the drivers entry and click OK to open it. Scroll down to the entry for network-usb-rt8821cu: that will also have the package version number.

The beta firmware 20200405 has version number 1.01-r1.0 for the rt8821cu plugin package. If you already have that version number installed in firmware 20191106, then upgrading the firmware won't get you a newer driver. I don't know whether there are newer drivers around.

If the issue is network speed over the dongle, I notice that it is a very small package with no external antenna. You may get better signal strength and better throughput if you put the WiFi dongle on a short USB extension cable and lead it out to where it may have a more direct signal path to the dongle (e.g. have it outside any A/V cabinet, if you use one).

[Grumpy_Geoff]

The wifi dongle issue .. I keep going round in circles, I assume someone would have mentioned if their is a driver update I could try.
...
Firmware release 19.3 20191106
Drivers 180411-16.4

I assume that you've installed the rt8821cu plugin package on your V2?

I'm not sure that'd help, as the adapter uses the RTL8812AU chipset (actually I think it may use the 8811AU, but the driver for that is included in the 8812AU package), and the driver for that has been in the firmware since the 17.5-series.

[prl]

The wifi dongle issue .. I keep going round in circles, I assume someone would have mentioned if their is a driver update I could try.
...
Firmware release 19.3 20191106
Drivers 180411-16.4

I assume that you've installed the rt8821cu plugin package on your V2?

I'm not sure that'd help, as the adapter uses the RTL8812AU chipset (actually I think it may use the 8811AU, but the driver for that is included in the 8812AU package), and the driver for that has been in the firmware since the 17.5-series.

My search got swytebopped - I searched for 88[12]1 in the packages, not 881[12]