NFS or SMB for best performance ?

Thank you for your response. Are you saying each device should have their own personal IP addresses?

 

And if so, why should this practice be done exactly? I’m genuinely curious. Thanks again for your assistance.

 

I allocated DHCP to handle the range 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.200 automatically, so items like iPads, various phones, home lighting etc.
From 192.168.1.201 to 253 is the manually assigned range or fixed. So all my sources are within this high range including my Zidoo UHD3000. Never had a problem losing sources after a total power down. Router is an ancient Netgear R7000.

 

PS! Don’t forget to turn off DHCP in the Zidoo network page. So my IP address for my Zidoo is indicated on the Zidoo network page is 192.168.1.218 and again in the router. Prior to Mark Swift’s advice everytime I switched off power, I lost all of my sources. At the time Sydney was having quite a few power outages due to the massive high rise apartments going up in my suburb and just about everywhere! So it was pretty annoying.

 

Yes. Windows certainly works better that way and has done so for quite a while. I was very frustrated with losing access to printers, NAS', laptop and media players (previous to Zidoo) just because the power went off or router and/or main PC were re-booted. Then a new (sometimes random) IP address was allocated and various software could suddenly not find the hardware.

All hardware has a unique MAC address and giving each one its own IP from the router makes Windows' job to consistently identify hardware, simple.
It really has saved a lot of hassles by allocating a fixed IP to hardware (except for mobile phones and tablets, which don't seem to have the same network issues)!