[mythtv-users] Preventing a file transfer from saturating the network

[Simon Hobson]

Joseph Fry <joe at thefrys.com> wrote:

> Both devices should get a Link Local address (169.254.x.x) automatically, so communication to the HDHR shouldn't be an issue (assuming your using the HDHR device name and not an IP in your mythtv device configuration, which it does by default)

Or better still, configure an IP subnet on the link - I'm something of a fan of deterministic setup !
Also it'll allow the roouting to be configured so that your PC/whatever on the main lan can still access the HDHR. It just requires the Myth server to have packet forwarding turned on, and to add a route for the subnet via the Myth server's main LAN address.

But in response to the OPs original question ...
Apart from adding an extra LAN segment (ie extra NIC in the server), which is what I'd suggest as the simplest "universal" solution - how are you transferring files ? Some programs (eg rsync) have an option to limit bandwidth usage which would deal with it - but that'll only work if the program has such an option.

A third option is to configure traffic control on the Myth server. This doesn't need anything doing on the HDHR or any clients - just configure a class for the HDHR traffic, a class for "everything else", and limit the latter class to a rate low enough to avoid conflict with the HDHR traffic. If you allow inter-class borrowing then you can allow the non-HDHR traffic to use all the bandwidth if the HDHR isn't using it.
It does take "a bit of learning" to get set up, but it does work - though controlling inbound traffic is fiddly :-(

A fourth option (which requires a capable switch) is to configure 2off gigabit NICs as a trunk to give a 2Gib/s link to/from the switch, which means you'd need two transfers to/from two separate devices to be able to saturate it - a single device on a gigabit link will only be able to use 1/2 the 2G link. The first option is simpler though.