Mac to PC Home Media Sharing???

you should be able to share your itunes library across your network no matter what platform (I think).

for the mac, you hold down the option key when launching itunes and can point it to another library, you can do the same on windows im sure.

I have the netgeat powerline adapter on my setup and it works great. you just cant plug it into any powwer strips or surge protectors, it has to go right into the wall. if they are on the same circuit, even better.

I get ~70mbps with it which is fast enough to have a couple of HD streams going.

to share the files, without iTunes, just to be able to access the folders and such, you need to turn on file sharing on the mac.

go to system prefrences -> sharing, then click options, and make sure "SMB (windows)" is checked.
then add the folders you want to share.

I guess I forgot to add the non-itunes answer as well...lol

SMB shares should work....

I would think so....I can play mkv's from my mini to my dlna samsung or ps3, so i dont see why it wont work.

did you install the netgear utility to measure speed across the powerline converters?

that would be a good place to start, or you can look at the middle light on it, if its yellow or green you shouldnt have problems, if its red, that means its running dog slow or theres an issue.


I would say anything above 50mbps "should" be fast enough to handle a 1080p stream....but thats just from my own observations.

neo179neo said:

Ok so i got the electric netgear products and they work...

Have managed to access my mac and view its shared folders (My drobo and all me media)

The 720p Plays great... the 1080p Stuff is buggy... Im not an expert on networking systems and maybe this post isnt in the right thread anymore but what i want to know is...

How to solve this?

Can i give more bandwidth to the electric ports? Or do i need a more powerful router? Or anything else?

Ideas n advice would be massively welcomed!

Click to expand...

its probably the wiring in your home....im sure the speed from the router to the drobo is fast. the bottleneck is the powerline adapter. they say it can get speeds of 200mbps, but thats if and only if you are connecting them on the same circuit within your electrical panel. so age, material, interference, etc will bring the speed down.

you could get a nice long piece of CAT6E and connect it from your router to your mini, or relocate your mini by the router and connect it to a monitor or tv there and see if you get problems still. that will rule out the router, drobo, and mini.

my home is fairly new, and im going across 3 different circuits and getting ~70-80mbps, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. i guess it depends on if the microwave or dryer is on...lol

neo179neo said:

Yeah ive been playing around with it... got a red light on... checked the speeds... its only receiving at about 37Mbps... have tried using the QOS to set the MAC address of my mac mini as priority... some 1080p streams are playing... slighty buggy ever so often... some are still very buggy...

how can i improve the speed? Could it be my router?

Click to expand...

neo179neo said:

I dont really know much about networking...

I just try different things n see what happens...

This is my router...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-Ran...QZXU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297280041&sr=8-2

And the plug n play are upto 500Mbps...

My mini is downstairs n connects via wifi to the internet and aswell now through the ethernet... can you change the settings around so it will only use lets say the wireless to connect to the internet and the wired for a computer to computer network?

Click to expand...

I suppose you could, but there would be no point because the wifi goes to the same place the wired does.

802.11G does speeds around 100mbps in perfect conditions, N is faster, but again in perfect conditions. the nice thing about N is that you can run in the 5GHZ spectrum alone where its not as saturated by other 2.4ghz signals.

all this said, wired, you have to deal with the house wiring, and wireless you have to deal with interference from the house. so more or less, the probably lies with the structure.

it should, but I would make sure that its not something else before throwing more money at it.

what is the total distance between the mini and existing router? like if you were to walk from one to the other.

neo179neo said:

Literally down the stairs n into the living room... i dont have a big house...

Yeah i could test with a cable just to see but actually getting a cable permanently connected isnt an option...

I know my current router isnt the greater... just thought something with that little extra oomph might dot he trick...

Click to expand...

if you plan to run wired (probably least chance of signal degradation), then dont spend money on a new wireless router. the wired part of it is till gig-e im sure.


drag a cable down to it and test, and if its better, then thats the issue. you can take back the powerline kit and run a wire thru the walls....