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Slingbox issues

jcm193jcm193 Posts: 1,286
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in Virgin Media Broadband #1
Hi ive been testing a friends US slingbox for the last few days ive noticed that the quality of the picture drops in the evening as the connection between me and him also drops. The only way i can get around this is by using a US vpn ive also conducted speed tests to various US servers any they also seem to affected in the evening too my own connection is fine and neither of use are affected by high utilisation etc what is causing these issues.

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  • StrathclydeStrathclyde Posts: 2,888
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    #2
    The Slingbox is pretty clever at optimising the bandwidth available, but of course the end result can't be any better than the LOWEST speed anywhere along the route. The speed at the upload end is likely to be the biggest determinant of overall speed.

    Folks typically worry only about the download speed they get on their broadband, but for the Slingbox the UPLOAD speed (at the Slingbox site) is critical. In the UK, you may well have 20 or 30 Mb download, but typically get under 1Mb upload.. sometimes as low as 300Kb. and on top of that, contention kicks in...So as soon as the kids come home from school, the true speed drops dramatically.

    I have a UK based Slingbox attached to Virgin (fibre) broadband. I regularly visit the US where I have pretty good wifi broadband. In the US, after about 5 mins of optimisation, I can get end to end capability just below 2Mb, which is fine when fed into a 40 inch TV. But occasionally the download speed in the USA hiccups and the throughput drops right down to 400Kb or so, before working its way back up.

    I don't think the traditional speed tests are much help in predicting results, since they're testing using short bursts... and slingbox depends on a decent and constant average.
  • jcm193jcm193 Posts: 1,286
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    #3
    Strathclyde wrote: »
    The Slingbox is pretty clever at optimising the bandwidth available, but of course the end result can't be any better than the LOWEST speed anywhere along the route. The speed at the upload end is likely to be the biggest determinant of overall speed.

    Folks typically worry only about the download speed they get on their broadband, but for the Slingbox the UPLOAD speed (at the Slingbox site) is critical. In the UK, you may well have 20 or 30 Mb download, but typically get under 1Mb upload.. sometimes as low as 300Kb. and on top of that, contention kicks in...So as soon as the kids come home from school, the true speed drops dramatically.

    I have a UK based Slingbox attached to Virgin (fibre) broadband. I regularly visit the US where I have pretty good wifi broadband. In the US, after about 5 mins of optimisation, I can get end to end capability just below 2Mb, which is fine when fed into a 40 inch TV. But occasionally the download speed in the USA hiccups and the throughput drops right down to 400Kb or so, before working its way back up.

    I don't think the traditional speed tests are much help in predicting results, since they're testing using short bursts... and slingbox depends on a decent and constant average.

    Thanks for the reply ive checked with my friend in the US he tells me that his upload is fairly consistant 24/7 and if i connected to his slingbox via a vpn i get the same speed from him around 4mb at my end but if i use the slingbox without the vpn i maxes out at around 1.8mb.

    Doing some more research I think its some kind of issue with virgin be it routing or something else at least it works as it shoud via a vpn not that i should have to use one.
  • Rusty BoltRusty Bolt Posts: 11
    Forum Member
    #4
    I have spent an age getting my SlingBox to work with a VM SuperHub including 70 minutes on the phone to a really helpful SlingBox Tech in Holland.

    I have written this up here https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Wireless-Networking/Superhub-Post-Forwarding-SlingPlayer-and-Firewall-Rules/m-p/2741922#M67330

    However to cut a long saga short if you can't get your SlingBox to work with a VM SuperHub set the Firewall to "Low" if you are happy to do so and reserve an IP address for it. Set this IP address using setup.slingbox.com and choose any Port you fancy that is not otherwise in use. I did set up port forwarding but it didn't seem to matter.

    Then enjoy!
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