Thanks Pete and Maya.

Both computers have gigabit ethernet, but I am plugging them together without a router - do you think that could be the problem? 

 If you only have two computers in your system, a switch is unnecessary.

Have you disabled any wireless networks on either computer?

DG

no, they're both on. I'll try switching them off...

ok, well that's a bit embarrassing... it seems the Mac and PC were only talking to each other via wifi. That would explain the performance issues...

Can anyone help me get them talking to each other via ethernet? I've currently got the Mac set up using auto DHCP (currently no IP set), 1000baseT, full-duplex flow-control and standart (1500) MTU, but the PC doesn't see the Mac on its network...

Getting these two to talk to each other has actually been the biggest pain in setting all this up - it would be great if there was a tutorial on this somewhere...

actually, I'm not using a cross-ove ethernet cable, so without a router I'm guessing that may be the problem.

I'm posting this stuff in the hope that it may be of help to someone else, rather than to demonstrate what a complete numpty I am!

Nope, the cable shouldn't be the problem. I'm not networking expert so can't help you with that, but you must set both machines to static IP. So many users have had problems when not doing that.

DG

Thanks DG,

that assumes I've managed to set up a LAN, which currently I haven't! I've checked the drivers, tried different cables: nothing. It says there's nothing connected to the port...

ok, I finally got it working. Well, not quite...

Hint: if either the PC or Mac tell you the ethernet cable isn't plugged in (and helpfully describe what such a cable should look like), that's not the problem (probably). Incidentally, I'm NOT using a crossover cable.

Basically I had to keep playing with the Mac's ethernet settings until it picked up a DHCP address and then change it to 'manual address' (keeping the one it had picked up). However, it won't connect at 1000baseT, only 100base, which obviously doesn't work with VEP. I have confirmed that both computers have gigabit ethernet, so I'm going to try a router and then another card in the PC...

I'm slowly making progress.

Firstly, Cat5e cables aren't necessarily gigabit compatible! I now have Cat6 cables and am getting a gigabit connection. I've also bought a Netgear GS108 gigabit switch, which I saw recommended in this thread: http://community.vsl.co.at/forums/p/24040/161549.aspx, although I don't think I needed it to connect only two machines (but hopefully I'll get this working someday and then I can buy some more slaves...).

I found this for setting a static IP in Windows 7: http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/2009/11/26/windows-7-static-ip/ - I set mine to 169.254.1.3 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 (nothing for the other fields).

(scorefrog, this may help you) I got help from a tech guru and let the Airport assign it's own DHCP IP address (192.168 etc), then set the Mac's ethernet port 1 to manual IP (169.254.1.2). This means I can have wifi for the internet and a separate connection via ethernet. 

Unfortunately, now I'm only getting 100Mbps... My tech guru is coming over on Thur, so I'll update this then.

I believe the principle is the same whether you're using wifi or ethernet. The key is to let the internet port find it's DHCP - probably a 192.168... number and then fix an IPv4 for the LAN on the other port using a different set of numbers - in my case 169.254... That way the two connections don't get confused.

That seems to work for me, other than the fact I'm still only getting 100Mbps. I have found this thread relating to similar problems (I have an Asus P6T motherboard), so I think it may be more than just a setup issue for me:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=4&model=PCI-AS2940UW&id=20090826090739625&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

I will keep trying and once I get it working I will post a clear description of what to do, in case it's of any help to anyone else.

Done it!

I remembered that the gigabit connection was working as soon as I plugged the new cable between the Mac and the PC, so I took the Netgear switch out and it went back to 1Gbps. I have no idea why. I then plugged the Netgear back in and it stayed at 1Gbps.

Still nothing showing up in the VEP Server window in Cubase on the Mac, though, so I had another look at the firewall in Windows, and sure enough not all the VEP options were being allowed through. I checked all of those and now it works.

I'm using an asio buffer of 128 in Cubase and 2 buffers of latency in VEP with perfectly acceptable playability. I'll build up a big arrangement and see if there are any further issues, but currently it looks like it's going to work. Awesome! 

I have written up these notes which I hope will help someone. I don't know if this method will work on another system and I don't know about the security aspects of setting up your PC with these settings, so please exercise caution and let me know if there are any errors or bad practices here. I have also posted it as a 'permanent' page here: http://www.drumasters.com/vep.php

HOW TO SET UP A PC SLAVE FOR VIENNA ENSEMBLE PRO (or Plogue Bidule etc)

I don't know if all these steps are necessary, but this is what worked for me. I'm using one PC running Windows 7 64 bit Pro with 24GB RAM to run all my orchestral sounds (about 400 midi channels so far) with a Mac Pro 8-Core running OS 10.6 Snow Leopard and Cubase 5. I looked into Bidule as an alternative, hence including some info at the end, but decided to use VEP for now. The VEP manual covers how to get it working in your DAW - this tutorial is just to help get your Mac and PC talking to each other.

SET UP SHARING ON THE PC

Click Start, Computer, Local Disk (C:). Right-click, Share With, Advanced Sharing. Click 'Share'. Click Network and Saring Center and set Home or Work and Public profiles as follows:

Turn on network discovery
Turn on file and printer sharing
Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders
Use 128-bit encryption
Turn on password protected sharing 

HOW TO SET UP A GIGABIT LAN (Local Area Network) between a Mac and a PC*.

* I have and ASUS P6T ATX motherboard with built-in ethernet running a Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller driver. If you have a separate ethernet card or a different driver the PC instructions may differ slightly, although the principals will be the same.

First, check the ethernet cable! Some Cat5e cables are suitable for Gigabit connections, some aren't - it should have the word 'Gigabit' on the cable if it is. To be certain, spend a little more and get a Cat6 cable, then you'll be sure. I've never had a problem with cables before, but this one tripped me up for a while.

If you're only going to use one slave, you only need one cable (regular, not crossover). If you think you may expand to more slaves, get a Gigabit switch (or router, but don't use your cable modem that you also use for wifi - you'll see why later) and an extra cable. The Netgear GS series works (I have the GS108); I have heard that D-Link switches don't always work, but I haven't tried them, so that may not be true.

SWITCH OFF WIFI ON BOTH COMPUTERS!

This is where I went wrong for a long time - I thought I was connected via LAN but they were actually communicating via wifi. You can switch it back on later, but let's get the LAN working first.

Connect the Mac and PC to the Gigabit switch. If you're lucky it will all work. But it probably won't, so...

SETTINGS ON THE MAC (credit to Chris White for this)

Go to System Preferences, Network, Ethernet 1 (if you have a 2-port machine and assuming you've used port 1):

Configure IPv4: Manually
IP Address: 169.254.1.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
[everything else blank]

Click Advanced and then Ethernet:

Configure: Manually
Speed: 1000baseT
Duplex: full-duplex, flow-control
MTU: Standard (1500)

SETTINGS ON THE PC

Click Start, Control Panel, Network and Internet, Network and Sharing Center [sic], Change Adapter Settings (in the left side-bar). Double-click on Local Are Connection - this should bring up the LAN status panel where you can see if you're connected and at what speed (you can also use the Windows Task Manager to monitor this, but you can't change any of the settings there).

Ideally you'd see something like this:

IPv4 Connectivity: No Internet Access
IPv6 Connectivity: No Internet Access
Media State: Enabled
Duration: [time]
Speed: 1.0 Gbps

Click on Properties and in the Networking window (which should have just popped up) double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) (it's in the list of ticked items).

Now we're going to fix the PC's IP address, so the Mac (which we fixed when we set the IPv4 address to manual) will always know where it is.

Click 'Use the following IP address':

IP address: 169.254.1.3
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
[everything else blank]

Click 'OK'. Now you should be back to the previous window (Local Area Connection Properties). Under 'Connect using:' click Configure which will launch the driver panel. Click Advanced, scroll down to (and click) Speed and Duplex and set the value to 1.0 Gbps Full Duplex.

You may need to restart everything (and check all the settings have been saved if it doesn't work). Now when you click Start, Control Panel, Network and Internet, Network and Sharing Center you should see your PC connected to an Unidentified Network via the Local Area Connection (in blue). If you click on that, the status box pops up and you should see a connection speed of 1.0 Gbps.

IF YOU ALSO WANT TO USE THE MAC'S BUILT-IN AIRPORT FOR WIFI

Go to System Preferences, Network, Airport.

Click Advanced then TC/IP:

Configure IPv4: Using DHCP
If there's no IP address click Renew DHCP Lease.
Make sure the IP address starts with 192.168 - if it doesn't you might want to start by setting the Airport and then go back to the ethernet settings above.

What we're trying to do is get the wifi (internet) set up on the 192 address and the ethernet on the 169 address so there's no confusion.

It's best to make sure VEP is working before turning any wifi back on.

TO RUN PLOGUE BIDULE ON A SLAVE

You can't use rewire if you're using Bidule on a slave, so you'll need MIDIoverLAN on both machines. You can download a free trial to see if it works for you. ipMIDI is an alternative but you can only get 20 sets of 16 midi channels with that, as opposed to 64 in MIDIoverLAN.

When you install MIDIoverLAN you'll need to find the control panel on both machines (probably in Applications, MusicLab, MolCp3, MolCp3CtrlPanel on the Mac and C: Program Files, MusicLab, MolCp III, molcpcfg on the PC) and set up every port to accept incoming and outgoing midi, as required. It's a bit laborious, but self-explanatory.

You'll (obviously?) need an audio card or device in order to hear anything. Most people I know send ADAT outs to their Pro Tools rig on a separate Mac. If MIDIoverLAN is set up and an audio device is connected, Bidule will automatically give you ins and outs when you open a new session. It's then pretty easy to add Kontakts with all your samples. Bidule is great if you want to get more creative or if you want your audio to go somewhere other than back to your composing DAW. VEP is great if you just want everything to play within the DAW via ethernet.

thanks this helped speed up my connection a lot but I still get a spinning wheel for a second when connecting to my pc slave (the mac slave is instant) . Any ideas why that might be . I have a solid 1gbps connection and fixed ips 169.254.1.1 etc... as you describe.

@scorefrog said:

... although the mac has 2 ethernet ports i simply cannot configure a setup where I can have Internet Access (via one of the Ethernet ports) and VE Pro (via the other ethernet port) because Internet requires Dynamic IP Method and I have to sacrifice Internet therefore in order to get VE Pro working. My work Arround is another Ethernet Setup which I switch when I wnat to use VE Pro and switch back when I need Internet Access. Therefore I'd love to have a brief solution how a Mac Pro User can have VE Pro at the same time!

RE: Static IP - here's what I did: sys preferences>network>ethernet>advanced tab.  >Manually: select MTU at Jumbo (9000).