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[CountryBumkin]

Help.
Yesterday everything was fine. Now I can't watch anything on any of my three Client machines. Every 20 seconds, the video will stop with a message saying "Buffering". The buffering will last for ten seconds.
This happens on movies, recorded TV shows, and live TV shows. Basically anything coming from Server.

All Clients are hardwired. no issues I can see transferring/copying files to clients.
1) I have no problems accessing the Internet, watching Netflix, or YouTube videos on Clients.
2) I see no problem with Network when watching Resource Monitor.According to Resource Monitor (from one of Client machines); Network Utilization 0% (6.4Mbps), CPU 26%, Disk 0%, Memory 44%.
3) Temp storage location/folder on clients and server are not full.
4) Tried rolling back last Win updates (I only install critical updates - but there where some yesterday)

No problem watching this media on the Server - its only happening on the three (all) Client machines.
I rebooted machines several times, I rebooted the Router.
back last Windows 7 updates on Server.

What could be going on?

[JimH]

Power the network and everything on it down and back up.

[glynor]

How do the clients access the video?  Exclusively through MCWS (streamed by the server) or can they directly access the file locations on the network (via a mounted network volume or UNC paths)?

If the latter (they directly access the files) then this indicates an issue with disk or network.  Since the files work on the server itself, then I'd assume something is borked on your network.

If the former, it could be either of the above two things, but it also could be trouble with MC transcoding the files for streaming.

[CountryBumkin]

My gut tells me this has to be related to a Windows update (but rolling back didn't fix the problem) since that is only thing that has changed. I saw something in the update notes about IPV6 updates. I don't know why I keep letting MS install updates - I should turn this feature off. Since there's nothing but MC and some ripping software on the Server, I may just reinstall Win7 if I can figure this out by tomorrow.

I'm using the standard "Media Network" settings from JRiver on the Server to share the Library where I enter the "access key" and have Authentication done by Username and Password on the clients. I don't use the MCWS method. What's the best way to set this file sharing up?

How do I check the MS transcoding?

I did the network/router power up-down a couple of times.

[glynor]

I'm using the standard "Media Network" settings from JRiver on the Server to share the Library where I enter the "access key" and have Authentication done by Username and Password on the clients. I don't use the MCWS method.

That is MCWS, but it doesn't tell us how the client copies of MC are accessing the files.  MCWS is the Media Core Web Service, which is used by all clients of MC that aren't DLNA (so MC itself, JRemote, Gizmo, etc).

By default, if a client copy of MC can see the files on disk in the same "spot" as where the server sees them, then it will just play the files directly (like the server does).  This is a client side option in MC, but it is on by default:

Tools > Options > Media Network > Client Options > Play local file if one that matches Library Server file is found

What this does is whenever a client copy of MC tries to play a file, it first checks the server's [Filename] path for the file to see if it is valid on that particular Windows installation at that moment.  In other words, if the client tries to use that same exact file path to open the file, can it see the real file "on disk" (via a network share or whatever)? If it can see the file, then instead of asking the Server to stream it the file, it just plays it directly, the same way the Server plays the files (by opening them on disk and playing them).

This works well, and will usually perform much better if all clients are on the same LAN. It also gives you access to more of MC's tools, like Right-Click > Locate > On Disk (External).

If resolving the [Filename] fails, then it asks the server to stream it the file. This requires the server to send the file to the client via HTTP, and it can optionally transcode the file on the fly (depending on the other Client Options set in that same section of Options).  That's useful for when you take a laptop away from your LAN, or for if you can't figure out how to set up network shares.

I explain more of the details here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=93232.msg642725#msg642725
and here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=92666.msg638639#msg638639
and here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=90621.msg622470#msg622470

[CountryBumkin]

Thanks for your detailed help. My computers share all their files, printers, etc. through MS' HomeGroup settings (I thought). There is an option to "Map Network" drives too, but I never used that.
I do have the "play local file is one that matches ..." setting checked.
I'll read through the links you provided.

[glynor]

Homegroup sharing is bizarre and... Well, I've never been able to get it to work well, and Microsoft has heavily de-emphasized the feature with modern versions of Windows (it isn't gone, but they've effectively abandoned it and push everyone to OneDrive now).  Using Homegroup sharing, though, certainly will not make the files accessible in the same path on all machines automatically.

You could keep it that way, though, but you'd have to import all of the files into the Server using their UNC paths.  If, on the server, the [Filename] path has a drive letter and not \\servername\share\ at the beginning, then it won't work.

That said, none of this has any bearing on why it worked before and suddenly stopped.

My guess is actually that something happened on your router.  It could be that a change happened on Windows, or you added another client and kicked the network "over the line" or something, but... The router would be my first suspect.

[JimH]

I did the network/router power up-down a couple of times.

Network, router, and all computers and other devices on the network.

If you're using Media Network, it doesn't require or use any Windows networking.

Firewalls can be a problem.  Try the wiki topic called "Network Access".

Think about what else had just changed when it stopped working.  Other software installed, for example.   Antivirus ...

The Weird Problems thread might also help.  Link in my signature.

[glynor]

+1 to all of Jim's stuff.

Networking performance can be fiddly.  It could, very well, be anti-virus or security software interference on the Server machine.

[CountryBumkin]

Well, its been a tough weekend. But I learned a lot about networking.

During the hair-pulling, I decided to just reinstall the OS on the Server since nothing else was making sense. And since I had the choice, I decided to install Win10. So far Win10 is working fine (however, I was still getting the Buffering). I also mapped all the drives on the Clients too.  

When I was rebooting my new Win10 install, I noticed a message during boot up that said my hardware RAID was "degraded". Apparently the "3Ware pop-up alarm" wasn't popping up to tell me there was a problem so I didn't notice anything was wrong.

I'm sure that explains the Buffering issue (I most likely didn't test enough playing videos on the Server  - which is why I thought the problem was only Client/network related.

After the RAID rebuilds (maybe by end of day tomorrow), I test again - but I think this is the issue.

Glynor thanks for your help and the links.

EDIT/UPDATE: RAID is fully rebuilt and verified now (took 3 days) and systems is back to fully functional. No more buffering messages!