Streaming protocols/Sreaming over Ethernet

[P-man]

Hi all

So im doing my final year project at uni and ive researched streaming protocols such as RTP, HTTP etc but i dont know how streaming is handled over a home network.

For instance, if you have a shared folder on a remote machine and you navigate to a directory with audio files in, then you open that file in a media player on the client machine, what protocol is used? if any? (i use the word client to just denote the machine accessing the remote one)

Ive got a feeling its probably just sent over TCP or UDP as fast as the media player wants it and doesnt use real-time protocols.

Any ideas is much appreciated.

 

[P-man]

Hmm ive just downloaded a network monitor and it seems a lot of activity is over SMB relating to the music file im playing so guess ill have to look into it.

 

[P-man]

Thanks everyone.

It does seem like generic UDP is my best option. The real-time protocols seem to have far too much depth considering how much time ive got to get something working.