RESOLVED - Sluggish Refresh Time

[belanger]

The 3G limit is imposed by Apple. App Store apps can only stream around 10 KB/s over 3G or they will not be approved. iOS devices allow developers to query  what type of network they are connected to for throttling purposes. If your iPad is connected via WiFi then iCam will not be throttled.

It sounds like you have a lot of moving parts on your network, with multiple WiFi networks (as per your post before it was edited) and the ability to connect via a VPN. The fact that it works fine when using your VPN means that there is likely some other issue / configuration on your local network / system that is causing the problem.

I would start with a completely standard vanilla setup (temporarily disabling all advanced firewall / security software / network packet shaping and filtering settings) with a simple NAT-ed network connection and work backwards to find the culprit. Start with the best-case scenario using your fastest available WiFi network (which never provide their maximum advertised bandwidth anyway) and go from there.

I'm at my mother's house now, it can't be more vanilla that you can ask for.  I'm having the same issue here and if I open my VPN it works flawlessly.

Bottom line, whenever I test this regardless of the router "iCam <-> iCamSource" locally lags (no NAT needed here) and nothing is complicated here at all.  It's the most simple scenario you can ask for, isn't it?

If you have no other clue, please tell me how to get myself a refund.

Pierre

[OUAnthony]

You set up icamsource and a camera on your mom's computer, then connected your iPad to her network...and the same issue occurred? Weird! Hope you get it figured out. iCam is awesome/helpful once it's set up and working correctly. The fact that it's working correctly when you enable your VPN is strange. How do you connect to the VPN? Do you have to install software for it? If so, did you try connecting iCam before installing it on your mom's computer? Is it possible the VPN software is interferring? I'm not familiar with VPN's and how they work.

Also, you were talking about the bitrate when using a hi-def camera....icamsource downsizes the images to a max of 640 x 480 to achieve that bitrate. So having cameras with resolutions set to greater than 640 x 480 will only cause your computer to work harder and possibly slow down the number of images being sent in a given amount of time. Granted, it sounds like your computer is more than capable of processing the hi-res images at more than 2/sec with no problem.

[Stefan]

If you are on a more "vanilla" network and are still experiencing the same issue it may be software on your local computer that is somehow effecting the traffic when you are not connecting through your VPN.

What security / firewall / anti-virus software do you have running on your computer?

If you would like a refund for an Apple App Store purchase you can click the "Report a Problem" link in your e-mail receipt that you received for iCam or from within your iTunes account's purchase history. Developers are given the ability to issue refunds direct to customers on the Android Market, but not on the Apple App Store.

[belanger]

You set up icamsource and a camera on your mom's computer, then connected your iPad to her network...and the same issue occurred? Weird! Hope you get it figured out. iCam is awesome/helpful once it's set up and working correctly. The fact that it's working correctly when you enable your VPN is strange. How do you connect to the VPN? Do you have to install software for it? If so, did you try connecting iCam before installing it on your mom's computer? Is it possible the VPN software is interferring? I'm not familiar with VPN's and how they work.

Also, you were talking about the bitrate when using a hi-def camera....icamsource downsizes the images to a max of 640 x 480 to achieve that bitrate. So having cameras with resolutions set to greater than 640 x 480 will only cause your computer to work harder and possibly slow down the number of images being sent in a given amount of time. Granted, it sounds like your computer is more than capable of processing the hi-res images at more than 2/sec with no problem.

I have my laptop and iPad with me.

Pierre

[belanger]

If you are on a more "vanilla" network and are still experiencing the same issue it may be software on your local computer that is somehow effecting the traffic when you are not connecting through your VPN.

What security / firewall / anti-virus software do you have running on your computer?

If you would like a refund for an Apple App Store purchase you can click the "Report a Problem" link in your e-mail receipt that you received for iCam or from within your iTunes account's purchase history. Developers are given the ability to issue refunds direct to customers on the Android Market, but not on the Apple App Store.

I agree it could be something on the computer but I don't know any such type of "anti-virus / firewall" that would delay packets every second.  I already ask you this but didn't get a clear answer from you.  What is the "sleep" logic in iCamSource?  Is it based on 1 second or not?

The fact that I'm from Canada makes no difference, right?  The fact that I'm using Bell Canada (which is also a cellular provider) makes no difference as well in the "logic" of how your both applications slows the traffic or not, right?  That is a change when I open my VPN I'm coming out in the USA but w/o the VPN I'm coming out from Bell network.

This said, I tried on 2 computers.  One has AVG anti-virus and the other one is "MS Security Essentials".  There are no special firewall rules, I mean it's "basic" stuff.

I'll wait for the refund, I'm not there yet - I do like what I see when I'm on the VPN.  Maybe you or I will think of something and figure it out.  It can't be that hard, it's all logic.

Pierre

[belanger]

I turned off the firewall, still the same.  Local = sluggish with VPN it works flawlessly :-/

Pierre

[belanger]

There's 1 thing I didn't check from the network capture that I did yesterday.  I just did another capture...

I believe that the 1 second latency is introduced by the iPad2 NOT iCamSource.  Why?  There are 8 packets of 1077 data length (I guess this is the video, right?) that are send from iCamSource to the iPad.  Right after those 8 packets, there's the 1 second delay and then the iPad2 sends the following packets (I guess you can decrypt it).

7f:cd:d3:cf:c5:81:26:9d:4b:a7:c4:38:c0:b2:fe:4f:9d:27:8a:5b:c0:a8:02:16:00:00:e2:68:31:cd:ef:7e:1e:3c:48:a9:fb:22:c7:c4:7a:c3:1e:63:ad:7b:ee:de:3a:00:00:00:01:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:07

So iCamSource is waiting for that packet before the stream continues.

Pierre

[Stefan]

The only piece of information that determines whether or not the frame rate is throttled is whether or not the iOS device reports that it is connected via WiFi. It doesn't matter what country you are in. Is your iPad a 3G iPad? Or is it just a WiFi iPad?

Let's try taking your computer out of the equation.

I have started a temporary test iCamSource with the login skjm and password test2012 that I get multiple frames per second over local WiFi. If you attempt to connect to it from your iPad do you see the "sluggish" video?

The video is from a public IP camera, and you can get a good idea of the frame rate from the JPEG artifacts changing in the image.

[belanger]

A WIFI only iPad, so no 3G here for sure.

Using the temporary account the refresh is perfect.

There's 1 test I haven't done yet, it's to connect from a remote site to my camera.  Not sure if this will make a difference or not to understand the issue.

There's no filtering, qos or whatsoever on this WIFI at my mother's place -- even mine at home doesn't have any restrictions, for sure not on any of the local traffic.

If I provide you with a network capture log, is there a way for you to see if the iPad is in "3G slow mode".  I know the app checks if the iPad is in WIFI mode or not, what if there's a bug in iOS?!  I just don't understand why the iPad is waiting 1 second on the local network.

I might go drive around later to try to find an opened WIFI to see if I find something else.

Pierre

[Stefan]

Yes, if you have Wireshark capture logs I can look at them tomorrow to see if there's anything indicative of the cause of this issue. You can e-mail them to support@skjm.com ... Just reference this forum post in your e-mail. (I won't be able to see if it thinks it is in "3G" mode but maybe I will be able to see something useful.)

Also, FYI, the MJPEG URL I was using with the iCamSource (I have since closed it) is http://k133-202.mgmt.purdue.edu/mjpg/video.mjpg?resolution=320x240 if you wanted to try it out on your iCamSource.

I am assuming you are running the latest version of the iCamSource and that you have all of your Windows updates installed. What version of Windows (XP / Vista / 7) are you running?

One thing you could also try is to plug your computer in to your router's Ethernet port (assuming one is available) and try connecting to your computer when it is hard-wired instead of connected via WiFi.

If you are able to find another WiFi network to connect from while driving around that would also be useful, or tomorrow you could run your iCamSource with a temporary test login and password and I could try and connect to see if I can replicate the issue.

[belanger]

Windows 7 64bits fully up-to-date
iCamSource v2.4.3

I tried the computer via WIFI and directly connected -- I tried that here at my mother as well as at my house.

Yes tomorrow I'll try to find an "external" WIFI to try that as well.

Expect the capture file later...

Thank you,
Pierre

[belanger]

#################################################
# UPDATE : 2012/01/03
#
# iCam is great software and I'm getting really great support.
#
# For those of you following this thread, I wanted to update this post now
# because Stefan is definitely a hard worker decidated to fix this issue.
# Today we've made good progress in the understanding of the issue that
# I reported.
#
# 2 Thumbs up to iCam!
#
# We'll keep you posted.
#
# Pierre
#
#################################################

[OUAnthony]

I told ya they provide great support! So what is the issue? Bug in iCam/icamsource? Issue with your computer/network? Just curious.

#################################################
# UPDATE : 2012/01/03
#
# iCam is great software and I'm getting really great support.
#
# For those of you following this thread, I wanted to update this post now
# because Stefan is definitely a hard worker decidated to fix this issue.
# Today we've made good progress in the understanding of the issue that
# I reported.
#
# 2 Thumbs up to iCam!
#
# We'll keep you posted.
#
# Pierre
#
#################################################

[Stefan]

Technically it was a bug in the iCamSource that for some reason only reared its ugly head on some machines but not others. I believe I have it figured out, so we should have a fix released shortly for those users effected.