I have Arista NG Firewall running on a Lenovo IOT computer with a i3 8145u and 4GB of RAM. When trying to stream from my cousins plex server he shared with us, I get terrible buffering stutters above 720p.
It has been happening for quite a while and I finally had time at lunch today to pull the firewall appliance off. No issues. I get no issues off my local plex server or other streaming service (Disney, Prime, Netflix, YouTube and so on). It does it across all the TVs we have whether using thr built in OSs or firestick.
I do think that other streaming apps have better dynamic adjustment of resolution/bitrate but this really just seems to affect the shared library.
I was looking at my network controller and firewall appliance and I don’t see anything which stands out as an issue.
It had been forever since I had logged into the appliance. I couldn’t even remember what it was called now. There were several apps which were installed but not working because I use the free version. I uninstalled those. I updated their ad blocker and ensure ensured everything else is up to date.
Streaming doesn’t seem to take much, if any, extra resources across several apps tested. I do not have VPN turned on because it makes same streaming apps angry. I also had plex streaming/buffering going and toggled the firewall and ad off one at a time, then together and didn’t make any impact.
What is your internet speed? Your real speed, not what your ISP plan is. Plex buffering issues are never really related to your firewall settings. Those would be an issue if you couldnt connect to the Plex server at all.
Oh, and what is his internet upload speed?
Plex internet streaming is usually a bit strange. Most of the time I see it do big bursts of traffic every 3-5 seconds. These bursts are usually 4x the bitrate of the video, so if you have a video running at 5mbps then it will want to take 20 mbps every few seconds and then nothing in between those bursts. You can usually get a smooth experience with less than 4x the bandwidth, but you do need at least a minimum of 2x the bandwidth of the content stream.
And then sometimes it just flat out wont work because it doesnt like some device it has to pass through on the internet that you can do nothing about.
If Plex has the option to cap streaming bitrate per user, set it to something both your ISP connections can easily handle like 5Mbps.
I use Jellyfin and Auto streaming quality is garbage. It just picks an arbitrary transcode bitrate, writes the files locally, and sends them to the client. If the server’s available upstream bandwidth drops below that bitrate the stream chokes.
I have 1 gig fiber. Generally tests around 900 down and 7-800 up. Not sure what his is but he lives in a major metro area, more of a nerd and more of a budget than I have. So minimum of 1 gig for him.
I get major buffering issues unless I drop down to 720p, 4mbs without buffering. When I pull the firewall I am able to stream at 64mbs a second. No issues 4k, HDR etc. Put the firewall appliance back on and goes back to doing the same thing.
I guess that is a good question. I have been using NG firewall for a long time, when it was Untangle. It was primarily to allow VPN connection back to home when I am traveling. So I could fix things and not have to explain it to my wife on the phone from 12 timezones away, but I haven’t used it in a long time for that. Along with the added benifit providing a layer of network security, ad blocking, and a VPN tunnel.
Ditch the DIY router and install a Unifi Dream Router. Easy remote network management and can act as a Wireguard/OpenVPN vpn server. Does IDS/IPS and has optional ad blocking functionality.
Have your friend look on his server and when you start a stream see if it says he is using hardware transcoding or not. If not, it is probably his CPU that is causing the buffering while it waits for the next section to be transcoded. This not only has to do with what hardware he has available but also what the file type container and codec is on his end and what your hardware is requesting transcoding to. Modern Firestocks are usually pretty good with standard Plex formats of .mkv and .mp4 and the h.264 and h.265 types though. You can get some struggling with more modern 4k formats and HDR though depending on hardware.
Also, find out what hardware his plex server has.
OPNsense is good with ZenArmor. Costs like $100 a year but that is similar to Untangle Home cost I think?
Untangle/Arista NG Firewall is really nice because it is the only home use capable firewall distro for a resonable price that has real BitDefender AV integrated into it so your whole network can run a good quality AV across the network for all traffic automatically without manually installing AV onto devices. Does a good job too and doesnt require much hardware performance loss compared to a lot of AV solutions. The “free” BitDefender integration when you pay for the normal Home subscription yearly is the only reason I would ever consider using Untangle/Arista NG today though. Everything else for home use can be had easier on UniFi without a subscription fee.
It’s not my cousins setup. He’s running a beefy server, hardware transcode, everything.
Like I said, on my end, I am struggling to get 4mbs to strean smoothly with the firewall between my ISPs router and my switch. If I go straight from the switch to the ISP router, jump up streaming 4k, hdr everything as fast as I want.
Maybe I’ll reinstall the arista firewall software this weekend? I don’t see a 50% hardware utilization. If it was hardware or software I would think I would see a performance impact across the board.
I tried my BWG320 in IP Passthrough with no change. The router and the rest of my network are on different subnets.
I wonder if I should try my VPN Tunnel and see if that makes a change?
I also had plex streaming/buffering going and toggled the firewall and ad off one at a time, then together and didn’t make any impact.
