[pulseaudio-discuss] pulseaudio network and wireless problem

[Lennart Poettering]

On Fri, 20.07.07 14:14, Scido (domi_mailing-list at yahoo.it) wrote:

> Hi all,

Hi!

> I've got a problem when using pulseaudio server via wireless.
> Here's the situation:
> 
> 1- PC A - pulseaudio server, connected by cable to other PCs using a switch
> 2- PC B - a notebook, connected to LAN with cable o wifi
> 
> When I use amarok (on my notebook PC A) and pulseaudio server (on PC A) using 
> the cable, everything is fine. When I use wifi connection, each some minutes 
> sound goes away and returns after 1/3 seconds as if connection is lost. I 
> tried to change every option in daemon.conf, but nothing changes.
> Can you help me to understand what it's wrong?

Looks like you have a very flaky wireless connection, with too many
lost packets. Please check your antennas or look for conflicting WLANs
set up nearby, like Jon already suggested.

The native PA protocol uses TCP for network data transfer. If one of
the transmitted packets is lost TCP can deal with that but will queue
subsequent packets for a while before the missing packet is
retransmitted. Basically that means that PA is no fun to use if you
transmit your audio over a network with non-trivial packet loss.

Somewhere far far down on my TODO list is an item where I want to redo
the protocol based on RTP/UDP which might improve the situation. Right
now however PA is only used in local networks where packet loss is
practically non-existant so this is not a high priority. 

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering                        Red Hat, Inc.
lennart [at] poettering [dot] net         ICQ# 11060553
http://0pointer.net/lennart/           GnuPG 0x1A015CC4