Constant Traffic on Home WIFI Network When Control Panel Running.

[PhilMassey]

I have my E1.31 network on its own wired adaptor, static IP. The home local network is WIFI and DHCP,  on separate subnets. I use MIIP so the machine is always connected to the internet. All the E1.31 controllers are unicast. LOR 6.2.6, Win 11 pro.

If I monitor the WIFI in TaskMan and play a sequence, the activity immediately shows about 5 Mbps on the WIFI network which remains more or less constant even after the playback stops. Closing the Control Panel is the only way to stop the traffic.

The wired E1.31 network typically shows about a megabit only during playback

It makes no difference if my phone is connected to control panel or not.

Why doesn’t the WIFI network traffic stop when there is nothing playing?

[k6ccc]

Hmmm, my kind of question...

Can you supply a network drawing showing what is connected to what and how?  I'm curious what is showing up on the WiFi at all.

This time of year, my server (show player) is sending data to five universes on a dedicated E1.31 LAN.  As far as I know, that traffic is not getting onto any other LAN (nor should it be)...  Everything fixed in place is wired so the WiFi is only used for the phones, once in a while a laptop, and several dozen IoT devices...

 

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

I have seen this behavior as well. Its not a WIFI vs wired thing at all.

I have a single E1.31 network setup and after running a sequence in the player, my network usage also hangs around 5ish MB when a show is done. Disabling the show player does not stop it. If I modify my DMX network IP address to an invalid address (ping fails,) the network usage will be zero. But if I change it back to the correct address without closing the control panel, then I see data being sent back out again.

I haven't verified if the controller is getting those packets and if its just overhead or essentially sending black to those pixels.

[PhilMassey]

Thought it might interest you. Like you, I can see no reason for any traffic on the WIFI side.

After playing any sequence I see the 5 Mbs traffic on the WIFI. Ending the playback does not stop the traffic. ONLY closing the control panel will stop it. It does not start when CP is reloaded,. only when and after playback.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/nq31ce4nx1fz1f2fohpp1/Screenshot-2023-08-02-140028.jpg?rlkey=pvcjc3rpc3wdtxvgo0mebj4r7&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dvqj79jdsosk8d0a0sl4h/Screenshot-2023-08-02-142108.png?rlkey=m07bufndpt6z70kj48a23uzjz&dl=0

[PhilMassey]

Just 

9 minutes ago, Jeremiah Ackermann said:

I have seen this behavior as well. Its not a WIFI vs wired thing at all

Just to clarify. All the E1.31 traffic is Wired on its dedicated network. There should be no pixel traffic on the WIFI. I could understand it if it were on the light network, heartbeat or something, but why on the separate WIFI.

[k6ccc]

Can either of you look at the traffic to see what it is?

I just remoted into my server and sure enough, the show play was running and there was a pretty constant 328Kb/s of traffic on the E1.31 network.  Disabled the show player with no change, but as expected it went to zero when I exited the show player.  Restarted the control panel and enabled the player and still essentially zero traffic on the E1.31 network.  I did NOT see any change in traffic on the other LAN - only on the E1.31 network.

Gotta run for lunch...

 

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

27 minutes ago, PhilMassey said:

Just 

Just to clarify. All the E1.31 traffic is Wired on its dedicated network. There should be no pixel traffic on the WIFI. I could understand it if it were on the light network, heartbeat or something, but why on the separate WIFI.

I assume you have two network adapters setup on a laptop, where each have their own subnet? You could double check by using the command prompt and the ipconfig command.

Once you do, you could see if you have any networks whose IP address would be directed to one network adapter or the other.

[PhilMassey]

Its a desktop with a wired port and a WIFI  adaptor card. Two subnets as my original post.

Wired is Lights only, 192.168.1.1. No internet.

WIFI Lan is 192.168.11.1

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by PhilMassey
got the ip's backward.

[TheDucks]

193 is not a private (class C) network

Also Make sure your PC does not bridge networks

[PhilMassey]

Fat fingered the address. Should be 192

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

1 hour ago, PhilMassey said:

Its a desktop with a wired port and a WIFI  adaptor card. Two subnets as my original post.

Wired is Lights only, 192.168.1.1. No internet.

WIFI Lan is 192.168.11.1

 

Sorry, missed the two subnets in OP. I get the same behavior without any WiFi and a single network adapter. So I don’t think it has anything to do with WiFi or multiple adapters. I would double check if one of your E1.31 controllers are accidentally on 192.168.11 since your wired and WiFi is 1 vs 11. Unplugging your wired and then scan your networks. I am betting it will show at least one controller with green status. When I tired this out, control panel was giving me a green even though I had zero controllers connected. It just so happened I had a laptop connected on the network that got assigned the same IP address. E1.31 status is simply based on if the device at that IP responds to a ping.

 

Regardless, there is data being sent by control panel once a sequence plays (I didn’t do a show, just an override sequence). I got it to stop once I changed the IP address to an invalid IP address and then it came back after reverting that.

 

I haven’t had time to check what data is being sent though.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Jeremiah Ackermann

[PhilMassey]

 

7 minutes ago, Jeremiah Ackermann said:

Sorry, missed the two subnets in OP. I get the same behavior without any WiFi and a single network adapter. So I don’t think it has anything to do with WiFi or multiple adapters. I would double check if one of your E1.31 controllers are accidentally on 192.168.11 since your wired and WiFi is 1 vs 11. Unplugging your wired and then scan your networks. I am betting it will show at least one controller with green status. When I tired this out, control panel was giving me a green even though I had zero controllers connected. It just so happened I had a laptop connected on the network that got assigned the same IP address.

No worries. 

All 10 controllers are on the 001 wired network.