jkirkcaldy

I could but the solution in the link means that I don't have to factor in my own human error. I don't have a massive drive on my gaming rig so I tend to only download the games that I want to play. once they have finished downloading I usually play instantly, meaning I would basically forget to create a copy or backup. This also will cache updates meaning that even if I copied ARK for example, if I had to do a fresh install or reinstall the game there would still be a huge download to do to get all the updates. By setting it up as a cache I wouldn't need to do anything, just install and uninstall games as normal and everything is down in the background. It also means that once it's working properly I could add the rest of my house to the cache so their games are cached as well. And games that we all play are cached, meaning it only needs to be downloaded once from the internet and then the second computer will take it from the server on the LAN. Out internet tends to get crippled if there is a big download going so with games like Ark that regularly push out updates that are usually >1gb multiple computers needing to download the same file it would be good if it could all just come from the LAN rather than the internet.

I am always looking for things to do with my server. If it's drinking up all that electricity it's going to have to earn it's keep. And since I just moved to a new house where the internet is less than perfect I started looking up steam cache. Now I know the differences between a steam cache and just backing up the files onto the server and I don't want to do that. It would probably be easier in the short term but forgetting to make a copy or whatever just means that I am still going to have to download everything again anyway. So I followed this guide on arstechnica using the docker method. https://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2017/01/how-to-build-a-local-steam-cache-server/ it is running on an ubuntu server VM and the games are being downloaded to a windows 10/7 pc. I have set the dns settings directly on my computer due to sharing the internet connection with a couple of other people and don't want to role out the cache to the entire network yet. but I am hitting a bit of a stumbling block. When I download a game I can see the logs downloading it from the steam servers and I can see the files being downloaded to my server. Great. But when I delete the game and try to reinstall i get a line of green text letting me know that it has grabbed the manifest from the local server but it then re-downloads the game from the steam servers again doubling the space it has taken up on my server. Any ideas on how I can get this working would be greatly appreciated. (ps this is the first time I have used docker so I may need a little help navigating through it if needs be.) Thanks

Yeah the ethernet ports on the router are only 100m. But I only have one port used on the router going into a switch where everything is gigabit speeds. Which shouldn't affect the LAN speeds as long as the rest of the network is gigabit right?

I thought as much but couldn't find anything online to suggest otherwise. Thanks for confirming

So I was watching a film last night on my Plex media server, and I had a couple of stumbles in playback. Now I know what was the probable cause of the issues (it being streamed over wifi rather than plugged in via an ethernet cable - a problem which will be sorted by the weekend.) It got me thinking, how much - if at all - does the router affect LAN performance. I know that it could have an impact on an WAN connection, being the gateway to the internet and all but how much can it affect the performance of the LAN connections of the various devices in the internal network. I'm basically using the router as a modem and a dhcp server atm, all wifi goes through a Ubiquiti unifi AC LR and Lite access point or is plugged into ethernet. But I am wondering if it is worth replacing it with something with a little more power or if it has such a little impact on performance that it really doesn't make a difference. Alternatively I could just use my Windows Server 2012r2 as a DHCP server and just have the router literally being a modem only? Any thoughts?

So I have this chassis for my server https://www.logic-case.com/products/rackmount-chassis/4u/4u-server-case-w-16-x-35-hot-swappable-satasas-drive-bays-6gbs-minisas-+-2-x-525-bays-sc-4316/ it is currently populated with 12 sata drives using the built in ports on the mobo as well as a sata PCIe card as well as a startech card. If I want to add any more drives to the server I now need to buy another PCIe card to give me the extra slots. I would like to use the opportunity to get rid of the two expansion cards that are in there already and replace them with one card that will support all the drives. There are 4 SFF-8087 ports one for each row of drives. What I need (if it exists) is one expansion card that has enough ports for all 16 drives. The drives are all Sata 3 I don't need sas drives. Ideally I don't want to spend more than £200 on the card and I am not opposed to buying second hand. I don't need any raid functionality as all my drives are pooled using Transparent Raid from FlexRaid. it only stores media files and anything important is backed up on another drive plus crashplan central. I have a fairly good knowledge when it comes to building and buying a gaming system or but I am just getting into the enterprise hardware so I am still very much a novice when it comes to shopping for this hardware. I have had a look around but from what I can see the places that used to sell "affordable" 16 port HBA cards either don't sell them anymore or they are enterprise cards with features that I don't need. I have looked through ebay but buying server hardware isn't necessarily as easy as buying consumer or gaming hardware due to compatability issues and the assumption that you know exactly what you are looking for. Other information: Windows Server 2012r2 (possibly updating to 2016 soon) gigabyte z77-ud5h mobo 32GB ddr3 ram all drives are formatted as standard NTFS drives All drives are Sata 3 No raid system is connected to a UPS System runs 24/7 Plex Server/Nextcloud vm/Ark server/file server Any more questions or information I will answer as best I can Thanks for the help.

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Plex are working on hardware transcoding so in a future release there may be use for the GPU on Ryzen. My first File server/Plex box ran using an Core2Duo processor and then I upgraded to a Pentium. The pentium was great as long as media was being directly played or it only had one transcoded stream but anything more than that and it started to struggle so my server now runs an i7 3770 with 32GB ram. Plex can eat a lot of processing power even with one user. If you want to sync any of your media to your iphone it will likely transcode it to a compatible format, add a stream on top of that and whilst it will do it, it will just take much longer. It's all about how much stress you are likely to be going onto your system and how easily you want to be able to upgrade it in the future. I would always lean on the build it myself side of things as I like to tinker and upgrade in stages. Also with a prebuilt nas it's more likely that using some of the more advanced features of Plex like DVR and live tv will be more difficult. But you may attach more or less importance to that depending on what you want to use it for long term. Also a system with more power than you need leaves room for more use cases down the line. I for example was only using my server for Plex with a 2TB drive to begin with, now its Plex, file server, backup server, game server for Ark, runs 2 linux VM's for Nextcloud and a separate torrent downloader all with over 35TB of raw storage. There is no way that I could be doing all of this with the lowly core2duo that I started with. And if I had gone with a prebuilt nas I probably wouldn't have even looked into some of this. but it all depends on what you want. And what you think you might want to use it for in the future. You don't want to invest in a closed system if you know you want to upgrade in the future. I would look for a mobo that has 2 gigabit lan ports if possible, and I would also stress on getting a ups. I didn't bother for years and then I had 4 micro power cuts in the space of a couple of hours (lasting a couple of seconds each in the middle of the night) and because my server was set to turn on after a powercut it caused a few issues that I needed to sort out the next day. I went for this one but I don't know what the availibility is like in Australia https://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-UPS-BX-Uninterruptible-BX1400UI/dp/B00T7BYPDG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1496916803&sr=8-5&keywords=ups If the internet where you live is not great for the best experience I would also strongly suggest having it on your local network. Mine sits in the living room and you can barely hear it. and it will give you greater flexibility with how you want to use it.

I will keep VPS in mind for when my subscription comes up for renewal.

I already have a VPN subscription so i would ideally use that. I'm not necessarily fussed about which country the VPN goes to just as long as whatever the government is logging now has nothing to do with my identity. So I am not worried about getting US netflix, I just want it to work whilst protecting as many devices as I can in the network.

I will have to look into it deeper when I get my hands on the router. Like I said though I will probably replace it with some more heavy duty gear as that router alone won't cut it for our usage anyway. Not unless I can persuade everyone in the household to be hard wired.

The plan long term is to replace all the networking gear with more of a pro-sumer level kit. ISP will be Origin Broadband who provide an Asus router, https://www.asus.com/uk/Networking/DSL-N16/ which will likely just be used as a modem. my plan once I'm settled is to get something like the Ubiquiti USG along with a matching POE switch. (Probably this one) I already have the Unifi Access points and would manage the whole network through the cloud controller software. But if this isn't necessarily the best way to go then I am open to other options. But I ideally will be looking at spending £100 - £150 on a router and around £200 on a switch. I am also scouring ebay to look for a decent used switch on ebay to save a few ££ but they can be as expensive as buying new because of enterprise features that are way more advanced than I would ever need. I'm also open to the idea of buying a router to flash with DD-wrt or buying a pre-flashed WW-DRT router. I have also been looking at this switch with the possibility of adding 10gbe to my server https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/25396-tp-link-t1700g-28tq/

So this is the situation as it stands. I live in the UK and they have just passed some really questionable laws on data privacy and data collection/hoarding meaning your ISP has to log all your data. So I go out and immediately subscribe to a VPN service because it just doesn't sit right with me. I am moving house in a couple of weeks and I will be redesigning our network infrastructure to make it more reliable and robust and whilst I am at it I have been looking into setting up the VPN on the router level to protect every device in the house. Now whilst this is great for privacy etc as a household we all have subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon Prime etc. Netflix doesn't like you using a VPN to access their servers, even if you access it from the same country that you live in, so my question is: Is it possible to create two separate VLANs one for devices that people want to be protected by the VPN and then another one that we can connect things like games consoles and apple tv type devices to so they can reach netflix without issues. I'm fairly certain that it is possible but what sort of equipment will be needed to make it work. I'm assuming that it will be a managed switch and a couple of access points for wireless devices. But will I need a separate router for each VLAN? Or am I just making this really complicated and I should just resign to using the VPN on a per device basis?

I have a rebranded ZTE router that my ISP provided and this is how I would set it on my router. Also have you checked any firewalls that you may have on your computer to make sure that they will let connections through port 80 through Name: SEToolkit Protocol: TCP and UDP WAN Host Start IP:N/A WAN Host End IP:N/A WAN Start Port: 80 WAN End Port: 80 Enable MAC Mapping: no LAN Host IP: 192.168.1.8 <-correct assuming this is the PC you are forwarding the port to (you should also set this to a static IP address in the router's settings so it doesn't change in the future) LAN Start Port: 80 LAN End Port: 80

Just a word of warning if you are thinking about 4k content to be played via Plex. Whilst you can play 4k content on plex using fairly low powered cpu's this is only if the client you are watching the media on supports it and is being played via direct play. This means your media needs to be in the correct codec supported by your client. As soon as you play it on a client that doesn't support direct play 4k content ie. apple tv and ios devices it's going to need to be transcoded and you're not going to have a good time transcoding high bitrate 4k files in real time using a celeron or pentium processor. If 4k is something that you are going to want in the future it may be worth building a system on a chipset that will let you upgrade to a more powerful cpu down the line when you want to implement 4k. Maybe go for a kaby lake i3 with 8gb ram or something similar then down the line if and when you want to start looking at 4k again you can get an i7 to help transcode the 4k media. Or look at Ryzen? (All of this assumes that you won't be storing multiple optimised versions of your media which would be the way to go about using a low power cpu and still having 4k support) In terms of having your server somewhere away from your house - you will need to make sure that, that property has an amazing upload speed or a direct connection to your network if you are thinking about streaming media at 1080p60fps or 4k.

your best bet if you're having issues remotely is to limit the bandwidth in the server settings in Plex directly. It sounds like your setup - hardware wise - should be more than enough to handle multiple streams of transcoded media. Here are the settings that I use for my server (this is with an i73770) this solved all my remote streaming issues. For whatever reason increasing the limit on the remote stream to anything more than 3mbps and I started to have issues with buffering etc. Even though my connection is a 100/100 constantly but I don't have the time or know enough about the ways in which this works to try and figure it out properly.

A projector that doesn't require metres and metres of hdmi cable to mount. Looks awesome.

This would seriously upgrade my editing pc / Hacintosh but would also let me finally find a decent mobo that would match my build (been wanting a nice looking/spec'd white /black mobo for h440)