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I am troubleshooting some networking issues.
I have an Nvidia Shield TV connected to the same switch as a secondary router (in AP mode only, as the primary router is handling DHCP) with a connected hard drive by USB3. I am trying to use the Shield to play a high-quality video file (e.g. 17GB for a 1.5 hour video file) that is on the secondary-router-connected hard drive (on the same switch) and I am getting some buffering that is baffling me.
My understanding (from other questions on SuperUser) is that the traffic between two devices on the same switch does not have to travel to the primary router (elsewhere in the house, connected by Powerline unfortunately). However, my primary router's bandwidth DOES register LAN traffic while I was playing the video.
Does that necessarily mean that the traffic was slowed down by travelling through the primary router? If so, any thoughts on what I can do to avoid this situation?
Thanks in advance!
sstacks
Posted 2016-04-17T14:57:00.763
Reputation: 11
Disconnect the uplink to the main router or power off the main router for a short time... does playback still work? I expect it will, this indicates the devices are talking within the same switch. Any unicast traffic on the same switch should not leave the switch on a normal basis, broadcast or multicast traffic will though. – acejavelin – 2016-04-17T15:07:18.460
Interesting. I am trying the same streaming now and I am not seeing the traffic on the router bandwidth log. Rebooting the router did not stop the streaming of the video, so that's good. I wonder what could have changed? (Unless I wasn't playing the video file I thought I was...) A related question - once each device on the network has an IP address assigned from the main router, can devices on the same switch still identify each other through those IPs, even if the main router is turned off? – sstacks – 2016-04-17T20:19:43.387
yes... The router only connects different networks like your LAN and the Internet, it isn't needed for intra-LAN communication. – acejavelin – 2016-04-17T20:49:30.317
But the router IS needed to assign the IPs in the first place, correct? But once the router is disconnected, the devices are able to retain their IPs so that intra-switch communication is possible? – sstacks – 2016-04-17T22:21:01.230
1Correct, sort of... DHCP is a service that assigns IP addresses automatically, it can be in the router, a computer, or other piece of equipment. Devices are given a "lease" on an IP address for a set amount of time, typically 1440 minutes (1 day), at the end of that timer it has to renew it's IP or release it. – acejavelin – 2016-04-17T22:33:14.237
Many thanks for your help. I really appreciate it! – sstacks – 2016-04-18T13:34:26.693