Slingbox Questions
 

Hey all,

I was checking out Slingbox and was wondering what % of success you have in it working well. Some hotels have very poor Internet speeds.

Whenever you use Slingbox, how does that affect the people at home using the Internet? I read the Slingbox specs and they require 256k upstream from your broadband connection at home and even go on to say that a larger upstream works even better.

When you are watching Slingbox on the road have you had any compliants about slow Internet speed from those at home?

Thanks!

1. It's a virtual certainty that any slowness you experience trying to watch your Slingbox remotely over a broadband connection (at a hotel, a Starbucks or an airport for example) will be due to the upload cap on your home broadband connection, not the download speed at your location.

2. A corollary to #1, people using your internet connection at home aren't likely to experience any speed issues, as they are using the "down" portion of the bandwidth (for the most part) when surfing, while you will be using the "up" portion of your bandwidth to stream/watch.

Do you have a Slingbox?

I do, and I don't entirely agree with the above.

I have certainly had problems getting that kind of download speed at all times, but, yes, for the most part, your problem will be on your upstream cap.

I went out of my way to buy extra upstream capacity (I get about 500k) just to support 3 Vonage phone lines, and the slingbox is a dream at those speeds. My partner hasn't complained of slow browsing, but I'm not entirely sure he would.

What type of broadband connection do you have and what speed are you getting up/down on it?

(BTW, the thing people at home will complain about is your taking over a TV at the house. :( )

I've got a 2.5m/256k cable connection. I run an FTP server which only sees use when my friends decide to leech from me. I notice a difference in overall Net performance when they are downloading from my FTP (using my upstream). That's the reason for my question about people at home noticing a performance drop at home while you are on the road using the Slingbox.

I also have a Packet8 phone (VOIP) running off this connection but I use QOS in my router to make sure that it gets priority.

I've been to MANY hotels where it's nothing more than a P2P fest causing the entire network to run slow. Which is the other reason why I asked the question about the perfromance of Slingbox while on the road.

Thanks for the input!!

Oh yeah, I have a ReplayTV so the only reason I'm looking at Slingbox is so that I can watch the shows that I've got on my Replay. :)

Never had any problems, run 9down/1up at home and everywhere I've been its been great.

If I'm not mistaken cable connections do share upstream and downstream so one does affect the other, but the most it should take away is 256K.

The best is advice is to go get the thing from someplace with a 30-day return policy and check it out. No one will be able to tell you what to expect but you.

Also, when your friedns download from you, are they using the same PC that you're seeing slowdowns on, or do you see a performance hit housewide? What kind of router do you have? I sometimes wonder if old routers can handle all that continuous traffic and still serve all the nodes effectively?

I may have to wait on my cable company to upgrade the upstream before purchasing a Slingbox.

I run a server on my network and that's what they are downloading from. It's not the PC that's slowing down, it's the Internet speeds.

I've got the Linksys WRT54G (I like this router more than I thought I would). The performance hits are definately the Internet speeds. My LAN runs through a Cisco catalyst at 100 meg (all wired connections).

I'm not a big fan of the Linksys anymore, but you'll certainly love life more running a server, VoIP, and Slingbox over a faster upstream connection.

Honestly, I was never a Linksys fan... EVER. This router was purchased in a pinch when my old faithful Netgear finally routed it's last packet. I have to give Cisco props for the options they put in this router. Being able to have my router do my Dynamic DNS and being able to give my VOIP Quality of Service priority made me rethink my dislike of Linksys.

I know that a lot of people have said that they frequently have to reboot their Linksys but haven't had any problems out of this one.

I can't really talk about the wireless capabilities of this router, I run an Orinoco AP2500 AE.

How did you buy extra upstream capacity? I am thinking of getting a TIVO and not sure if I have a fast enough connection here. Thanks!

Just call the cable company. I am on Comcast and for an extra $10 I was moved to their "Gold" Internet package.

Yeah, you just buy on eof your service providers better packages. They'll focus on the downstream speeds, but look closely and you'll see that upstream speeds increase as well as the downstream speeds increase.

Just to be clear, though, TiVo and Slingbox are totally separate things. TiVo is a settop box that works with your existing cable or satellite TV service. You won't get any new programming that comes in over your phone line or internet connection.

Slingbox is something different that connects your television to the internet so that you can watch your TV from anywhere. It is slingbox that requires extra internet capacity.

I meant to say I was thinking about getting a Slingbox. Thanks for the help and I will contact Comcast and see what I can get. Looks like I need to increase my upstream. Thanks again!

Slingbox
 

I have a Slingbox connected to DirecTV/TiVo. My DSL is standard. I only occasionally have trouble using the Slingbox. When I do, it's usually that my hotel broadband has reached the end of the 24-hour billing period.

With no monthly fees, it's a great deal. The other thing to consider is that if they wanted to, they could easily attach a monthly fee for on future Slingbox sales once they have market penetration.

Bottom line: very happy with Slingbox.