Most people might think that any old network card will do! and they would be wrong, particularly if your talking about a Network Interface Card (NIC) that is integrated into your motherboard. This will be a problem for your MediaPortal PC if you plan to copy files to it while MediaPortal is running and/or recording live TV, and you only have a low specification PC.

What do you mean by integrated?

An integrated network card is one that cannot be removed from your PC.

But that is a good thing isn't it?

No, an integrated NIC does not have its own processor to handle the data that is sent and received over the network.

So why is that a bad thing?

Because the processing must be done by the main CPU in the PC, which adds extra load to the system.

How will I know if my system is affected by this problem?

If you copy a large amount of data to your MediaPortal PC while it is running, and the video or sound begin to stutter or jerk, then your system is being affected by this problem

How do i fix the problem?

Install and configure network card in a PCI or PCI-x slot and disable your integrated card

Is there anything else I should know?

This will be a problem with hard wired and wireless network cards. You could try excluding the directory you are copying the files to from on access file scans from your anti-virus scanning software.

Further Info

• Network Cards
  • Gigabit Networking