Massive frame drops for an unknown reason

[Fifth]

Wired or wireless, every network test I do between my Steam Link and my PC results in 80% or more lost frames.
Launching it results in massive lag spikes whenever I move around in the menu. If I leave the Steam Link alone for a few seconds, it goes to a perfect 60fps and operates seamlessly.... until I try to select another menu option. As soon as I do, the screen freezes and my ping skyrockets until I give it a few seconds to chill.
Any ideas how to fix this? I'm a total network noob.

From the streaming_log.txt:

...
Lots of this
...
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] CLIENT: Marking frame 17978 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedReset
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] CLIENT: Marking frame 17979 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedReset
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] CLIENT: Marking frame 17980 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedReset
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] CLIENT: Marking frame 17981 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedReset
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] CLIENT: Marking frame 17982 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedReset
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] CLIENT: Marking frame 17983 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedReset
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] CLIENT: Marking frame 17984 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedReset
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] Dropping queued frame before encoding
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] Dropping queued frame before encoding
[2017-01-08 03:23:44] Dropping queued frame before encoding
...
{
	"GameNameID"		"Steam Big Picture"
	"TimeSubmitted"		"1483863824"
	"ResolutionX"		"1920"
	"ResolutionY"		"1080"
	"CaptureDescriptionID"		"Steam D3D10 NV12 + libx264 main (4 threads)"
	"DecoderDescriptionID"		"Marvell hardware decoding"
	"BandwidthLimit"		"15000"
	"FramerateLimit"		"0"
	"SlowGamePercent"		"0"
	"SlowCapturePercent"		"0"
	"SlowConvertPercent"		"0"
	"SlowEncodePercent"		"0"
	"SlowNetworkPercent"		"3.2758712768554687"
	"SlowDecodePercent"		"0"
	"SlowDisplayPercent"		"0"
	"AvgClientBitrate"		"165.21923828125"
	"StdDevClientBitrate"		"101.12813568115234"
	"AvgServerBitrate"		"6044.22802734375"
	"StdDevServerBitrate"		"0"
	"AvgLinkBandwidth"		"100000.0078125"
	"AvgPingMS"		"40.852024078369141"
	"StdDevPingMS"		"76.389205932617188"
	"AvgCaptureMS"		"0.79549503326416016"
	"StdDevCaptureMS"		"0.56191158294677734"
	"AvgConvertMS"		"0.0051647871732711792"
	"StdDevConvertMS"		"0.13111241161823273"
	"AvgEncodeMS"		"8.1406774520874023"
	"StdDevEncodeMS"		"1.7899396419525146"
	"AvgNetworkMS"		"7.6033186912536621"
	"StdDevNetworkMS"		"27.142303466796875"
	"AvgDecodeMS"		"1.5820817947387695"
	"StdDevDecodeMS"		"0.50579714775085449"
	"AvgDisplayMS"		"0.083250261843204498"
	"StdDevDisplayMS"		"0.17833022773265839"
	"AvgFrameMS"		"39.119686126708984"
	"StdDevFrameMS"		"24.880716323852539"
	"AvgFPS"		"82.666847229003906"
	"StdDevFPS"		"85.421585083007812"
	"BigPicture"		"1"
	"KeyboardMouseInput"		"0"
	"GameControllerInput"		"1"
	"SteamControllerInput"		"0"
}

I've currently got the Steam Link wired into my router and connected via HDMI to one of my desktop monitors to try to fix the issue.

[slouken]

This log shows almost complete network failure. I'm not sure why you'd see this with a wired network though. Is both your PC and your Steam Link connected to a common router via ethernet? Maybe try power cycling the different routers involved in your network, one at a time, to see if that fixes things?

[Fifth]

Thank you for your prompt reply, I apologize for not responding in kind! It got late and I passed out. Attempting the power cycling solution- but yes, my PC and my Steam Link both are connected to the same router via ethernet. Will post followup shortly.

[Fifth]

Powercycling failed to change anything. Full log of last test here: http://pastebin.com/kQ2ZMiMn

[slouken]

That still shows massive network issues. Can you try to ping the Steam Link from the PC both before starting to stream and while the stream is going? On a directly connected network you should see ping times of a millisecond or less. It could be the network cables, or possibly driver issues on windows.

Out of curiosity, do you have a laptop or something that you can plug in to try streaming to, just to eliminate the Steam Link from the equation?

[Fifth]

Pinging the Steam Link both before starting the stream and while the stream is going both have <1ms response times, so that seems to be okay.

Discovered an interesting factor: if I alt-tab out of Steam Big Picture mode on the host computer while streaming, I drop down to about 20 fps connection, but everything is smooth- no lag spikes. Any known problems relating to full screen devices?

(Latest log, just for completeness sake: http://pastebin.com/RMtnyJN3 )

I'll try to stream to another box on the network, post results in a few.

[Fifth]

Streaming to another box results:
Streaming a windowed, easy to run, game (Nidhogg) - Streamed (apparently) flawlessly. A few dropped frames in the log, though.

Streaming a windowed, slightly more difficult to run game (L4D2) - Same problem as what I was encountering with the Steam Link, though slightly better. Logs reflect the same issue.

Streaming a fullscreen, easy to run game (BattleBlock Theater) - Streamed fairly, but I did have several dropped frames. Game was playable, however, and I did not encounter the locking up that I had encountered previously with the Steam Link/L4D2.

[Fifth]

I flicked through my router's settings again- does UPnP settings on the router matter at all for the Steam Link? They were disabled, so I enabled them to try to fix the connection issues, but it doesn't seem to have changed much.

[Fifth]

Possible breakthrough- Taking my desktop out of the equation and substituting the box I was streaming to seems to avoid the locking up issues that I was encountering. I'll do some more research and post results.

[Fifth]

Yup, problem appears to be the computer I was trying to stream from. Tried it on a comparable (but newer) machine and had no problems.