The VideoLAN Forums

hi ppl,

I have problem streaming IPTV's TV channels on UDP port over wifi to my pc. My current topology is as below



Streaming over UDP with ethernet cable to PC works fine...but I just bought USB wifi adapter so I can stream it over wifi, but somehow over wifi , streaming is not working. VLC just dont play the file and I can see no activity on my wireless network adapter. Is there anything I need to setup in my ADSL router so it can send UDP packets over wifi? I looked at all options in my ADSL modem setup but nothing was there related to this.
As I said, its working fine if I connect through ethernet cable between PC and Modem. It just not working over wifi. does it mean wifi is not capable streaming UDP protocol?
I need help with your expertise guys..I will appreciate your efforts .

p.s. IPTV set top box is not necessary to be attached to modem to stream UDP channels on PC. Its just topology for your reference. And ofcource, modem is providing internet access.

UDP works in any TCP/IP network, including WLAN based ones. Could you tell us your VLC options? And did you check that cable and WLAN IPs are on same subnet?

VLC options are default, I have changed nothing in it. Also how to tell you options? there are many!
my adsl modem provides DHCP IP address to all client PCs ( however I only have 1 pc at home ) and it is in same subnet .

While connecting with Ethernet, ADSL provides following address :
IP : 192.168.1.2 sub : 255.255.255.0
While connecting with WiFI , ADSL provides following address :
IP : 192.168.1.10 sub : 255.255.255.0

Also, the IP of channel I am streaming over UDP is 225.225.225.16 on port 2001.

If you open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2) before you start streaming, does it complain something after you have started streaming?

Here is the debug message .

I meant on server side.

server side? I didnt get it. how can I check server side diagnose msgs?
It is being multicast from my local telephone exchange probably. It is IPTV service, I m not streaming from any home server..my IPTV service is provided over my existing telephone line.

Although, it shows nothing except the verbose output I shown you.

I am still looking for help

here are some more debug details..I started UDP streaming then stopped after 7 seconds ( VLC shown nothing on screen during this period )

this is probably not related to VLC

but I just bought USB wifi adapter so I can stream it over wifi, but somehow over wifi , streaming is not working

then you will need to ask around for some decent access point

I looked at all options in my ADSL modem setup but nothing was there related to this.

hardware limitations?

Dunno if it is hardware related. Even if I need to change my ADSL modem, I will do it, but I dont know which one I should get to solve this problem.
Do you know which modem/router supports UDP streaming over wifi?

still looking for solution!

Hi:

I think the problem is (maybe, I'm not sure) the streaming address you used (255.255.255.16).
This address is strange to me. As my knowledge this address is for broadcast.
so it work on the lan side (they use the same switch chip set, the switch hardware do this for you.)
and it is not work between lan and wifi (they use different hardware interface, grouping by the software bridge feature).

I suggest you use an ip address in the same ip segment of your lan (192.168.1.x) on your IPTV set top box.

Thanks for your reply.
But, as I said, if I want to stream channels on my PC, I dont need IPTV set top box, because IPTV data comes from ADSL broadband line, so I just need to connect to my ADSL modem to view channels on my PC.
And all channels are in range of 225.225.225.xx .

p.s. offtopic, how to manage IPTV set top box? there is nothing about this in manual. this is not priority, but I am eager to know about this.

Sorry for my misunderstanding.

So you mean you can access the streaming of your PC at other places (the office, the cyber cafe...) by attach your PC to the lan port of the ADSL modem.
but, if the PC is attached by the wifi, you can not access it.

Right?

I think you still didnt get the point. I am not streaming anything FROM my PC. I am streaming IPTV channels!! It is multicasting from my ISP's telephone exchange server.
And yes, If I connect my PC to my ADSL modem through ethernet cable, it streams just fine, but if I connect my PC through wifi to ADSL modem, it just doesnt stream it. but other TCP protocols such as internet is working fine on wifi.

Ok... let me try again. (I miss the p.s. line of your orginal post)
1. You try to get streaming (in) from your ISP on your PC by lan or wifi.
2. lan is OK, wifi failed.
3. And there's notthing about the IPTV settop BOX, whether the box is there or not does not affect anything
right ?

I suppose I got it this time.
And assume that you have to pay for the streaming servie, so there must be some authentication mechanism.

Then, according to the assumption, I guess that your ISP maybe lock the service by the MAC address of your PC or devices.
You may change another PC or just replace another NIC(Network Interface Card) to see whether you still can get the streams or not.
If yes, you can get the stream by another NIC or PC, then I am wrong.
If No, then all you have to do is just call your ISP for help (to change your MAC).

or Check the drivers of your USB wifi card to see whether you can modify the MAC address of your USB wifi card.

And thanks for your paicient.

Now you got the point! But its not binded with any MAC address, because the the guy who did IPTV installation shown me this streaming on his laptop when he fitted this equipments.

Here are the messages with successful streaming over ethernet.

Now, as a guy, who streams over 100 channels of IPTV to the network of potentially 80.000 listeners (actual number on pilot project is 600, as I can see from logs), I can be a bit of a help here:

1) this has NOTHING to do with VLC
2) would you please post EXACT model and firmware of your wi-fi router, or whatever you are trying to transmit?
3) can you post screen shots of router configuration, particularly those, which contain QoS, UDP, Multicast and similar settings?

As from my experience, if we omit high-end equipment, only few mid-range wi-fi can forward UDP multicast from WAN to wi-fi. One of them is DLink DIR300 with some beta firmware (2.0.5, as I remember, could be mistaken).

And I haven's seen yet any ADSL/wi-fi combined devices, capable of such tricks.

best would be something like this

@joshi42, my ADSL modem is some Fujian-Star device ( yeah crappy, came with ISP bundle ). But I also tried connecting my Netgear WGR614v9 router to ADSL Modem and connected my PC to that Netgear router, but same problem.
There aren't any options for UDP, multicast etc in there in both of devices.

Sadly, my netgear router doesnt support dd-wrt or any 3rd party firmwares . Do you recommend me some routers for my requirement?

Can I have some recommendation for new router capable of UDP streaming over wi-fi?

Sadly, my netgear router doesnt support dd-wrt or any 3rd party firmwares . Do you recommend me some routers for my requirement?

they will know better...

Some wireless routers do not support multicast on their wireless interfaces. Asus WL-500gP comes to mind. Unfortunately I don't remember whether it was a hardware or firmware issue (I was running openwrt backfire on it and couldn't get ospf to work on the wireless interface).

Most WiFi access points do not support multicast, especially the older and the cheaper (non-pro) ones. Multicast on WiFi was designed with very low bandwidth discovery protocols in mind, such as Microsoft networking, UPnP, Bonjour, ... Therefore, the bandwidth allocated to multicast on WiFi is very low, and insufficient for streaming. Furthermore, error correction does not work as well for multicast as for unicast, causing packet loss, and degraded reception.

The bottom line is, you should use unicast streaming, if you have WiFi.