gian Wrote: > Mark, > we have no neighbors... I mean, we have a 17 acres garden on the back, > and our home is lake front. We do have a cordless phone, but that does > not seem to hurt the PC connection to the AP.
Hmm. Yeah, I think it's safe to say you have no outside interference. Regarding the cordless phone, the 2.4 GHz models can and do impact wireless performance. Remember, a PC isn't doing what a Squeezebox is doing. A PC will hit the Internet for some data, then pause, then hit it again, then pause. Even LAN performance is much the same. Buffering and the inevitable pauses take care of any wireless shortcomings. With SlimServer/Squeezebox you need a constant stream, which can be very high bandwidth if you're using lossless formats. The SB3 buffer does what it can but you will notice any shortcomings very quickly. Regarding what laptops report in terms of signal strength, keep in mind they use different performance criteria, different methods of measurement and a different OS. I find they're usually overly-optimistic. Thanks for the network test report. It's telling us your server is fine, it's the wireless connection that's the problem. A signal strength of 40-50% is so-so, but a buffer fullness of less than 10%, 100% of the time is unworkable. So some suggestions: - is this network report with a cordless phone active? If not, does it get even worse with the phone active? - you indicate your phone line isn't long enough to relocate the AP to a higher location. Do you have a longer phone cord? Is the AP near your computer desk? Could you put the AP on the top shelf? - try changing wireless channels to 1 or 11, 13 for the UK. You indicate you have a laptop, install NetStumbler and graph signal strength as you change channels. You'll find some channels better than others. - does the AP have antennas you can reorient? Radio waves will propagate horizontally from the antennas, so if your Squeezebox is on the same level, keep the antennas vertical. If your Squeezebox is on another level, reorient one or both antennas horizontally. Experiment with various angles of each antenna and graph the signal strength with NetStumbler. I find it's easiest to "punctuate" the graph by grasping onto the antenna with your hand for a second or two just before you make a change. This will drop the strength down quite a bit and make a gap in your graph which makes it easy to spot before-and-after differences. -- Mark Lanctot ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Lanctot's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2071 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=26203 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
