network problems

[dad]

have had a wireless squeezebox for nearly a year with no probs, desktop running broadband from usb connection and laptop using wifi all from wanadoo now orange livebox then a few weeks ago wifi stopped working and squeezebox stopped working along with internet for laptop although both said they were receiving signal, 3 long and very expensive calls to technical assistance plus various so called fixes but eventually they abandoned me and my problem so went to france telecom shop and they exchanged the livebox and after install wifi resumed usb had never been a major problem, however squeezebox still would not work, keep getting dchp error if no wep entered and ssid although listed counts down and then indicates a problem non specific if wep entered. Then the following day wifi went off again for no apparent reason on the laptop. This has probably made your eyes bleed reading it but i am seriously contemplating throwing the whole lot underneath the next passing tractor

[MrSinatra]

ur problems seem to be all ISP related, and have nothing to do with the SB.

my guess is until you get reliable net from your isp, on your router and laptop and whatever else, you won't get good results from the SB.

luckily, u can still use the SB for local tunes.

[dad]

thanks for the post and you are right the isp is naff but not easily changable for reasons which would probably bore you to death, anyway things have moved on, wifi is now back but is prone to dropping but the sb is still not setting up, it now says cannot find dhcp server and use a static address but everything i tried still comes back to a problem press left or right to try again also the net mask? is 255.255 when i saw somewhere it should be 255.255.255, 0000 is the gateway number and the sb ip is a 169.xxx number, the annoying thing is this has worked great since july 2005 there must be someone who can explain what is going off and what i need to do, even the slim devices support seem to be struggling, is there no expert out there?

[MrSinatra]

have you tried not using dhcp?

try inputting all the info urself manually... the ip, the subnet, etc...

or, try connecting it via ethernet cable.

have u called the SD people?

[dad]

thanks again and i am going to sound like a real dork but i not only do i not know how not to use dchp but the sb says it cannot find it anyway and if i use a static address what do i use can you help me with a walkthrough like i am a complete computer ignoramus which i did not think i was till now

thanks

[MrSinatra]

unfortunately, u and i are of similar talents.

i realize the call may be expensive for you, but i would call their support line, they walked me right thru the manual setup. (i ended up using a static ip, not dhcp)

u might try using skype to mitigate phone costs. www.skype.com

sorry i'm not more help. -mdw

[dad]

I just got an email from slim devices support and to be fair they have tried however bottom line is buy another wireless access point and forget the livebox altogether so tomorrow i will try and get a netgear wifi device. It does go against the grain as i already pay for the router/modem and it worked with the sb for nearly a year without a hicup and i think that is the thing that upsets me the most, well thanks anyway i just hope this expenditure works or i will be really rattled. I did give them my skype address but they did not take me up on it.

[dad]

I just felt it fair to advise those who have tried to help me and for those who may have a similar experience in the future that the sb is now functioning again, in fact so are all my wireless toys, the problem seems to be a conflict with browser software which was still on the laptop before wanadoo became orange and the new orange software for the wireless would just not install properly, so if you have a livebox and a wireless problem, e-mail me at andrewwroberts@hotmail.com or skype technocretin for details