[slim] Suitability of Network Powerline Adapters?
I have had my duet now for a 12 days and most of the time it does work fine. However, at other times it is very difficult to get the SB to connect properly to my networked PC, and at other times (rarer) I get drop out of signal for several seconds. While playing, the music stops and the starts again say 10 seconds later. I'm not sure whether it is resuming where it left off or restarting the track. It has been suggested that my problems are due to weakness of wireless signal at the SB. I have been monitoring this (only when connected obviously!) and find that it can very between 2% and 49% without any apparent changes introduced by myself. This can occur over periods of minutes. I have tried channels 1, 6 and 11 and they all seem to be similarly variable. Someone has suggested I try a couple of boxes which can be plugged into a local mains socket and then connected with an ethernet cable to the router at one end and the SB at the other. Can anyone tell me whether this should work adequately for music streaming and also whether it does so in practice? What makes and models might be recommended? My router is a Linksys WRT54GL and my PC runs XP with a SiS 900-based PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter card. My music is coming from iTunes. Any ideas welcomed. -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=46241 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Suitability of Network Powerline Adapters?
Thanks for this funkstar. Maybe I should try putting the router on the floor. The SB is on the floor below but not in the room below. The signal has to go through one floor and two walls. I'll give it a go. funkstar;290876 Wrote: Powerline ethernet is generally more reliable than wirless as it is less suseptable to outside interference. Actual performance however can vary a lot depending on the configuration of your mains layout. Having said this though, even poorly performing powerline ethernet should be able to handle the low bandwidth needs of streaming audio. Something else to try is moving your WRT54GL to a different location. even moving it from the floor to about the same height as the SB (assuming they are on the same floor etc.) can have a difference. It's worth playing around with that and experimenting, it doesn't cost anything for that :) -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=46241 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Suitability of Network Powerline Adapters?
Thanks for this Iain. Good to know someone has tried it successfully. [EMAIL PROTECTED];290865 Wrote: I changed my PC to a new Apple last year and foundthat I experienced the same peoblem you mention. If I monitored the wireless signal, it stayed above 75% all the time, yet I still experienced hanging or drop out. The problem was exasperated if running more than 1 squeezebox at a time even though 1 is connected via ethernet! (strange). Â*I decided to go down the Homeplug route to try to eliminate this. I bought 2 x 85mb from Maplins @ £39.99 each and can report that since then no drop out whatsoever. Its been great.Â* I would also like to mention I upgraded to SC7 with no problems and am happily using IPeng on my I Pod touch which is amazing.Â* Iain. -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=46241 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Lost Squeexebox
Thanks for these comments Jim. I am also inclined to think that it is something to do with my wifi signal strength. This morning I logged it varying between 2% and 48% in the course of 30 minutes without me making any changes. Once it connects it can usually sustain the streaming of music even down to a quoted 2% strength. It often has problems connecting in the first place, presumably when the signal is very low - but of course I cannot check this until it connects. I got NetStumbler but it says 'no wireless adapter found'. Not sure what that means or what it needs me to do. I tried changing channels anyway, tried 1,6 and 11 all seem the same. I guess there must be something in a neighbour's house which is intermittently interfering. They certainly have a wifi network. JimC;289142 Wrote: If I had to guess, I'd say that you have external interference that's reducing your wireless signal strength. 2.4GHz is a very crowded spectrum, with all kinds of devices competing for bandwdith and signal. If possible, I would use either NetStumbler (for Windows, get it '*here*' (http://www.netstumbler.com/)) or iStumbler (for Mac, get it '*here*' (http://www.istumbler.net/)) and look at the wireless networks in your area. Try to find a channel that's either a minimum of 4 steps apart from other routers and use that. If you can't find one, look for a channel between the channels used by the two weakest router signals in the list and use that. The other nice thing is that both of these apps can graphically display signal strength so you can see any fluctuations in what's being received by the antenna in your computer. You can compare that to changes in the Controller's signal strength to see if they match, which would help isolate whether this is a Controller- or network-specific issue. -= Jim -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=45940 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Lost Squeexebox
Thanks for this SuperQ. Good to have some ideas of things to try. I'm afraid I am not very clued up on the jargon of networking though. Could you point me somewhere I can find out about changing channels? I can move the SB receiver locally to a more exposed position rather than surrounded by my HiFi stuff. I'll give it a try. Thanks again -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=45940 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Lost Squeexebox
Thanks Davis and SuperQ I've shifted the SB receiver to be on the top of all my HiFi stuff, so it's a bit closer to the router which is on the floor above. It is now also less surrounded by nearby HiFi equipment which does seem to have been shielding it - my signal strength has now gone up to between 46% and 51% and the SB got online at the first attempt without any intervention after having been switched off. So, fingers crossed, that was the problem. Thanks again -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=45940 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Lost Squeexebox
Oh Dear! I spoke too soon. A few hours later and I had the same problems. Difficulty to get the SB to connect to the network and when it finally did, the signal strength was again down to 10% without my having moved anything. I can't understand how it is changing so much. I'm certainly not going to mess around trying to run a cable. That was the whole reason why I bought the SB - because of the wireless connection. I'm only going down one floor and sideways about 20 ft. Admittedly it's through a floor and a wall - but hey surely it can manage that? -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=45940 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Lost Squeexebox
I sometimes get the following message from my controller. couldn't connect your SB to your wireless network. Make sure it is within range of your wireless network. (Lost Squeezebox) I can usually overcome this by switching off and on again, or if this doesn't do it, by doing a factory reset. When the SB is working, all seems pretty normal. The signal strength for the player is between 10% and 30%. But overnight the gremlins get in! :-) I have a new SB Duet, wireless network with Linksys wireless router WRT54GL (802.11g), Squeezecenter 7.0.1, controller updated regularly. I think maybe there is a preferred order in which to get the equipment started, but not sure. Any help appreciated. Thanks Mike -- copernical copernical's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16717 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=45940 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
