I've been debating posting this for about a month now because I wanted to avoid embarassing Slim. However, this is looking increasingly more evident to me...
The SB2 used an OEM Atheros wireless mini-PCI card. This is obvious from the internal photos, particularly this one: http://www.slimdevices.com/photos/inside_squeezebox2/9.jpg Atheros is a very large wireless supplier and has chips not only in wireless NICs but routers/APs as well. Sure there were wireless problems, in fact my SB2 could not (and for all I know, still can't) connect with my old SMC2804WBRP-G router. However the SB3 seems to have way, way more wireless problems, particularly in terms of compatibility. A few months ago I read a 'review' (http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?page=5&articleid=779&cid=6) where they opened the SB3 up and found a no-name Chinese OEM wireless NIC inside, from a vendor named 'TP-LINK' (http://www.tp-link.com/product/show.asp?ProductNO=389). Has SD changed wireless suppliers? Would this explain the sudden spate of wireless problems? Now my SB3 works fine with my new Linksys WRT54G router, so I'm not complaining, and I certainly don't want to embarrass SD, but it's just making more and more sense. I do not want to question Slim's decision to reduce part costs. They are under pressure (from us!) to keep the SB3 at the same price as the SB2. However, their support costs and number of returned units must have increased tremendously, so one wonders whether anything was really saved? Now, a standard is a standard, and the card complies with the 802.11g standard...but there's some wiggle room within the standard. Given that this forum itself is operated by SD, I feel bad for saying this, but it explains a lot I think. If anyone from Slim feels I have unfairly "called them out" or unjustly accused them of cutting corners I will quickly delete this thread, or they may wish to do so - I won't be upset, all that I ask is they don't ban me. But I think we owe it to the users, some of whom have had enormous problems, to bring this matter to light. Everyone wants a more reliable Squeezebox, and with all the scrambling to try to solve wireless issues I'm amazed that I was the only one who seemed to notice that little tidbit in the article. OK, here we go, pressing "Submit New Thread", hopefully the sky doesn't fall down and hopefully Sean, Dean, Dan, Chris and the others won't hate me. :-( -- Mark Lanctot ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22554 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
