network foundations
Before installing and running PS3 one should get an overview of the network topology. The Playstation 3 communicates with the PC or Mac. If one wants to see web content like youtube videos an internet connection is required. Most used technology for accessing the internet is an ADSL- or cable-internet-connection. You connect the socket with a modem (ADSL or cable) which will later do the dial in. The modem can be connected directly to the PC or Mac. But most people use a WLAN-router to connect. The router is then a gateway to the internet for PS3, Mac and PC.
WLAN
In most WLAN-routers nowadays there is an integrated modem and WLAN-accesspoint. The PS3 and notebooks both have integrated WLAN-NICs and can therefore communicate via WLAN when logged in into the access point. The integrated WLAN network card of PS3 is compatible to standard 802.11 b/g. This means a maximum network speed of 54Mb/s. To log in into the WALN-accesspoint you need the following infos:
- WLAN network name (SSID)
- WLAN network password (PSK)
- encryption standard (WPA, WPA2)
- radio channel / frequency
All these settings are defined on your WLAN router / accesspoint. If there are a lot of WLAN-networks in your range try to change to a radio channel with the biggest frequeny distance regarding the other cannels. Otherwise you may experience poor network quality and speed. Another quality factor is having walls with much ferroconcrete.
You can reach an average speed of 35Mb/s. For streaming HD videos this might be not enough…
LAN
What is the advantage of LAN (wired connections)? Its maximum bandwith of 1000Mb/s. One big disadvantage is you have to wire all devices, so you need physical access. The devices (PC, Mac, PS3) have to be wired with Cat5e S/FTP with RJ45-plugs. All devices have to be connected to your router integrated switch. Of course you can extend the switch ports of your router with an uplink to an external switch. If your router switchports are 100Mb/s you can tune up maximum speed with an external 1000Mb/s (1Gb/s) switch. The link speed and duplex mode should be handled automatically via autonegotiation. Sometimes it doesn’t work correctly and you have to change settings on your PC or Mac by yourself.
example screenshot for changing linkspeed and duplex mode in Windows XP:
DLAN
If it’s not possible to wire your devices but you need an higher network transfer rate there is a solution available called DLAN aka powerLAN. In this case you use your power line for sending data accross it. Market leader for this technology is devolo. You can get DLAN adapters with up to 200Mb/s.
Update:
Now there are new 1Gb/s powerline adapters available from Belkin!
TCP/IP, DHCP, ICS, DNS and firewall
The router is default gateway for all devices in your home network. The communication is done via TCP/IP protocol. In such a network every device needs an identifier called IP-address. More than one program on your PC can use network at the same time. Therefore these programs also use an identifier called port number. PS3 media server uses port 5001 as default. You can change that if it is already used by another software. Your home network is a private network and therefore uses special IP-addresses. The IP range is limited by the so called subnet mask (e.g. 255.255.255.0). Because nobody can memorize a large numbers of IP addresses (like 74.125.67.100 for google.com) you need another network service called DNS which translates IP addresses into domain names and vice versa. The router forwards DNS requests to a dns server of your provider and sends the answer to the requesting device.
Setting up an IP-network is not a simple task. There was also a need for automation. DHCP solves this issue. Your router has an integrated DHCP server which sets up every network device (PS3, PC, Mac) automatically. You mustn’t use DHCP and internet connection sharing (ICS), a windows feature, at the same time. ICS has to be deactivated.
It is possible that your PC or Mac has more than one network card builtin. If you use vitualization software (VMware, Virtualbox, …) additional virtual NICs are created.
For security reasons a firewall is integrated in your router. The firewall restrics communication with the internet. Most router integrated firewalls do not restrict communication in your local network. It is also possible that there is a personal firewall software running on your PC or Mac. To get PMS running you have to open port 1900 (UPNP discovery) and 5001 (PMS). If you change the port for PMS in configuration you have to change your firewall settings as well.
UPNP
Windows only discovers UPNP devices in your home network when SSDP service is running. Here is an Microsoft kb article how to enable SSDP.
machine power
You can stream media files with quite old PCs and Macs. If PS3 doesn’t recognize the video container format and has to remux you will need some additional CPU power. A 2GHz CPU should be sufficient. When transcoding a video on full HD resolution an up to date dual core processor from Intel or AMD with at least 2,6GHz is necessary. It is also necessary to have enough network bandwith available when streaming HD videos. It is nearly impossible to stream a full HD video via WLAN, even when restricting network bandwith and setting video quality very low. You should also have enough free RAM, which means about 512MB. There is also some space needed on your systems hard drive for buffering videos. 500MB free disk space is enough. If you want to stream media files from an external hard drive please consider that an USB1.1 connection is too slow for videos.
Thanks a lot dude, didn’t know part about wireless an wired not working together. That’s been mah problem for a while now!
That is great, but, I think i after the answer to =a slightly more technical question…
My PS3 reports its LAN connect as NAT type 3 and that UPNP is NOT activated…
Which it would appear limits the ability of the streaming services to work and indeed for the PS3 to be recognised…
That is where it is coming unstuck.
The network is entirely MAC OSX10.6.1 with gigabit ethernet
I look forward to your comments
John
I don’t have a clue how to configure MacOsX – please ask in PMS forum for help. But you also have to enable UPNP on your router. In apple language this has to be airport xxx.
I do not have play station but have xbr9 tv. would I be able to use media server to get videos on TV. Or do I have to connect via playstation device?
You should be able to stream from PMS to a Sony Bravia tv. You will need latest beta to do that. Please note that support of non PS3 renderers is still experimental and not main focus. On the other hand there is no other more or less working streaming server available for these tvs.
More infos are available in PMS forum, there’s even a thread for “non PS3 renderers”…
Is it impossible to work if my tv is wired and my Mac isn’t???
@Bruno: It doesn’t matter if it is wired or wireless as long as it is the same subnet. You probably get less network troughput over wireless which will result in stuttering when watching hd videos.
OMG!
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!
I have a windows vista laptop with media player 11 I have shared my library and am able to see an unknow device in the list which is my PS3 I have enabled media servers on my ps3 but when I search I am unable to find any.
I am running wireless off a Thomson TG782T.
It all seems so easy but I cant get it to work.
is obviusly my Laptop settings my sister in-law’s laptop shows up and communicates just by sharing in WMP11 OMG
@fatboyt: Check your laptops firewall settings if it works without problems with another laptop within the same network.
P.S.
Maybe you didn’t notice but this blog isn’t about Windows Media Center/Player but PS3 Media Server…
for me when i set my ps3 in wireless mode and pc in wireless mode..the media server cant detect the ps3..but when i use my pc and ps3 using wired it wont detect it at all..i have a wireless router 1 fast ethernet port and i connect it to a switch for wired connection..anyone can help ?
for me when i set my ps3 in wireless mode and pc in wireless mode..the media server CAN detect the ps3..sorry about that.
@neutrino. enable upnp on your router, also check firewall settings on your pc
I recently bought a ps3 and I downloaded PMS.
I’ve followed your guide step by step, but i still get the message that It can’t find the ps3.
Both the firewall on the router and on the PC is off.
I frequently use the ps3 on the internet, and i can ping it and it got Nat type 2 etc (If that information should matter).
Upnp is on.
Not sure what to do.
read pms faq: http://ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3507&sid=9395e35d7236bab23b0ce676cd3a7588&start=80#p34933
Went through it and everything should be in order, but it still doesn’t work.
Would seeing the log help?
As you can read in the faq not every problem can be determined with debug.log. I haven’t seen one case yet where the faq didn’t contain the solution for solving the problem.
If you want to get help open a new thread in pms forum , explain your configuration and write down every single step of the faq and your result.
Most times these checks aren’t done correctly because of a lack of IT skills.
Make java.exe and javaw.exe as an exception in firewall for windows as it will help detect your ps3 alot easier. Also allow it in your anti-virus firewall as well. I did that and didn’t need to change anything else in the ps3 media server.
http://ps3mediaserver.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3507&start=30#p18802
My pc has dual network cards built in. Up to now I’ve just disabled the second one not knowing what to do with it. Could I dedicate this to PMS only – connecting from this to the PS3 by wire? That way could I allocate the entire available bandwidth to PMS? I’m guessing by using only one network at the moment PMS is sharing bandwidth with other applications creating stutter etc. Thanks
@Stuart:
In most cases other applications only use little of your shared bandwith. If your PC and PS3 are connected to a 1Gb/s Switch you have plenty of bandwith, 100Mb/s is also o.k. for most cases. Stuttering is caused by using WLAN or low performance PCs.
Thanks for the reply. I’m only using a 85Mb/s switch at the moment and I think this may be the problem (apart from also tweaking the PMS settings). I’ll check out the 1G switches but I bet they’re expensive at the moment. My PC is pretty new and definitely powerful enough. You’re right about other applications – any that do share the line (internet radio) aren’t usually on at the same time anyway.
@Stuart: 85Mb/s sounds like Powerline and not LAN… am I right? A 5 Port 1 Gb/s LAN Switch is about 20€. With Powerline you may get much lower bandwith depending on distance, etc…. But there are Powerline adapters with higher bandwith.
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Hi!
I’ve purchased three plc adapters (dlink powerline 200mbps). One for the router, the second for the main computer and the third for the ps3. I can connect, but the speed is only 9 mb/s!!!
All the cables are cat5e and the router and the pc network card are 10/100…
Am I doing something wrong???
Ok…. so this is my problem….
I have a PS3 hard wired to a Linksys E3000 and my laptop is connected wireless to the same router. I installed PS3MS and it worked for about 10 minutes. Now the PMS says that it has found the PS3 but cannot see it (nor can the PS3 see the PMS). What is strange is that under the status tab, PMS finds a unknow renderer??.
All that aside, I cant get it to work. I used it in the past and I love the ease of use, but this time I just cant get it to work.
I’m using PMS 1.20
Thank you so much for reading this and hopefully replying
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PS3 Media Server is a superb piece of software and worked 1st time when connecting wirelessly from my Mac to my PS3 & TV.
However. I’m a little worried that other TVs or PS3′s in the local area are able to access my Mac contents.
Is there a way to force PS3 Media Server to only connect to my PS3 and absolutely nothing else? (I’m not bothered about linking the TV)
Thanks
@Jeff
Use IP-Filter Option
Hi There,
I have installed the PMS on my Intel Mac , the Server shows up on my playstation with all of the icons showing various folders etc. When I go in to each folder the are empty. How can I stream my .mkv file from my Mac to my ps3. I have ripped lots of mu Blu Rays so that I can watch them on my Ltop when I travel so this would be super to use in Hotels etc (as most will have a ps3 to hire or loan) IF I can get it to work??
Many thanks,
C
ps3 media server set the network interface to en2, it didn’t work. I manually set it to en0 and it’s fine. A lot of you are probably having the same problem. So far it seems like a good server.