Router issues

[Big AAC]

Hi Guys, newbie so please go easy

I picked up an SB3 yesterday and generally i'm really happy, however i seem to be having issues sustaining a connection between my SB3 and my router (at least i think thats what the problem is). The SB is now sitting about 2 feet away from the router and still it seems to drop every 5 minutes, sometimes the screen will go blank and come bck to life after 10-20 seconds, other times it goes blank and stays blank until i hit the arrow keys on the remote which then takes me back to the Squeezebox Setup page where i have to connect again.

Strangely i have gone through a new setup a couple of times and each time it connects to the wireless network (WPA password is correct etc.) but it fails to find the IP address automatically(DHCP) and i therefore i have to self assign.

So basically my question is......what are the best settings to use with the Netgear DG834PN and SB3, i'd REALLY(!!!!) would like to get this up and running consistantly.

I must also say i'm having the same issue with internet radio, the stream seems to cut. buffer quite a bit, but i'm not sure if this might not be my internet connection (although BBC listen again works fine when used directly on my PC??!?)

Any help from you guys would be really appreciated, thanks



Andrew

EDIT: I'm using Vista Ultimate 32 and the frmware version on my NETGEAR is V1.03..30

EDIT2: Wireless signal is constantly at 100% by the way.

[Big AAC]

***UPDATE***

OK, so having played around with it a bit more it seems to work pretty much flawlessly (was playing BBC5live for around 90 mins uninterupted) when i have WPA or WEP disabled (i.e. no encryption). The second i turn these on the player seems to have a mind of its own, symptons include:

Tracks randomly restarting
screen going blank
the track countdown stalling and only showing in 5-10 increments
Timed Out
connection reset by host
no response from the remote at all

Generally i'm luckyif i get 5 minutes without problems which for £200 isn't great.

Now i'm sure its something i am doing wrong as but having said that there does appear to be a load of unanswered questions surrounding the compatibility of the SB£ with this router


I'm really starting to thnk i may have to return it which is a shame and i hope i can (with your help) work this out but it just seems like a total minefield at the moment and i'm little reluctant to just leave my wireless unencrypted.

Any help would really be appreciated, if there is any info which i haven't included let me know and i'll be sure to post it up here

[Big AAC]

MORE INFO


SlimServer Version: 6.5.4 - 12568 - Windows Vista - EN - cp1252
Server IP address: 192.168.0.2
Perl Version: 5.8.8 MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
MySQL Version: 5.0.22-community-nt

The IP address for this player is: 192.168.0.3:25158 (not sure what the 25158 part is???)

The ethernet MAC address for this player is: 00:04:20:12:40:45

VERSION INFO

Player Firmware Version: 81

[pablolie]

any firewall software somewhere?

[Phil Leigh]

At the risk of being flamed from here to eternity:

1) I have never used WEP or WPA on my router - and I have used wi-fi pretty much since it was invented. I use MAC address limiting. I have never felt less than 100% secure.
2) You are using Vista which may be the cause of your problem, in conjunction with your router.
3) the problem does not lie with the SB hardware AFAICS
4) There are reports of incompatibilities with Netgear Series 8 routers - make sure you upgrade to the latest router firmware and use an alphanumeric key.

[Big AAC]

At the risk of being flamed from here to eternity:

1) I have never used WEP or WPA on my router - and I have used wi-fi pretty much since it was invented. I use MAC address limiting. I have never felt less than 100% secure.
2) You are using Vista which may be the cause of your problem, in conjunction with your router.
3) the problem does not lie with the SB hardware AFAICS
4) There are reports of incompatibilities with Netgear Series 8 routers - make sure you upgrade to the latest router firmware and use an alphanumeric key.

Hi Guys

Pablolie - only windows firewall, no third party apps. slimserver is also set an an exception.

Phil - I have not used MAC filtering before and am not too familiar with it, any pointers? I've read many issues on here with the DG series of Netgear routers and i'm coming to the conclusion that this may be the problem but i'm determined to try and get it working. Its not like it doesn't work, its just that it seems to be constantly 'connection timed out'

I'm using he latest firmware (updated yesterday) and always use numbers and letters in my WEP/ WPA passwords.

really stumped to be honest.....

[Phil Leigh]

I'm not familiar with Netgear kit, but MAC filtering works by defining a set of MAC addresses (ie physical pieces of equipment, uniquely identified by their MAC address) that are allowed to access your network - anything else doesn't get beyond the router. I'm sure there'll be a config screen somewhere in your router setup software where you can define that...probably under "wireless network access"

That pretty much secures your network from intrusion unless you encounter someone prepared to do MAC spoofing, which is pretty advanced hacking IMHO! Anyway, the security services can break WEP/WPA when they want to.

This may be your only option until the Netgear firmware and/or SB firmware are working together.

[mflint]

"MAC spoofing ... pretty advanced hacking"

Not so. It's opening a dialog in Windows (or in MacOS, or Linux, or the correct menu in Squeezebox Network Config) and entering the new MAC address. There's nothing especially advanced about it, other than finding a suitable address to imitate. And that can be done by sniffing network traffic. And with wireless, you don't need any physical access to the network to sniff network traffic...

For some time, I've had the opinion that you don't need to make your network impenetrable from the outside. Your network just needs to be harder to crack than your neighbour's network.

(The average drive-by WiFi hacker is just after bandwith, not your 200Gigs of Flacs or your digital photos)

MAC filtering, as a security mechanism, is poor in a world where many (most?) new routers ship with WEP or WPA encryption enabled out-of-the-box.

As to the original poster's specific problem, are there other sources of interference nearby? Other routers, microwave ovens, neighbours using electric drills, etc?

Matthew

[NeilF]

"MAC spoofing ... pretty advanced hacking"

Not so. It's opening a dialog in Windows (or in MacOS, or Linux, or the correct menu in Squeezebox Network Config) and entering the new MAC address. There's nothing especially advanced about it, other than finding a suitable address to imitate. And that can be done by sniffing network traffic. And with wireless, you don't need any physical access to the network to sniff network traffic...

For some time, I've had the opinion that you don't need to make your network impenetrable from the outside. Your network just needs to be harder to crack than your neighbour's network.

(The average drive-by WiFi hacker is just after bandwith, not your 200Gigs of Flacs or your digital photos)

MAC filtering, as a security mechanism, is poor in a world where many (most?) new routers ship with WEP or WPA encryption enabled out-of-the-box.

As to the original poster's specific problem, are there other sources of interference nearby? Other routers, microwave ovens, neighbours using electric drills, etc?

Matthew

The router & firewall would either connect or not connect... So it's nothing to do with MAC address or firewalls etc

Have you connected the SB3 via a network lead to the router, instead of wirelessly? See if that resolves the issue or not. (Wire it up, and then on turning on the unit cursor to the wired connection instead of wireless connection option)


Also, at the time of using your SB3 are you doing anything on the server/PC? Try not to during testing! At least for the moment!

During testing set your view to show the buffer! Go into SlimServer>Player Settings for Squeezebox & set one of the "Nothing" or empty "NOW PLAYING INFORMATION" dropdowns to "Show Buffer Fullness", and click the "current" radio button to the left it as well before clicking "CHANGE" just below it. When playing a track the bar will now show your buffer and give you a good idea of the data input behaviour into the unit.

[Big AAC]

Just tried moving the SB3 into another room and when encryption was disabled i was getting a constant connection with signal strength between 55-60% Worked flawlessly with both .mp3 stored on my hard drive and streaming via AlienBBC.


Then i turned on MAC filtering (added the SB3 MAC address to the trusted network and switched on access control via my router) and it borked within 2 minutes, constantly losing connection (screen went blank) and then either comes back and starts the tune again or merely stalls altogether.


Totally bizarre but it seems ANY type of encryption/ filtering is interferring with the signal/ connection.

I'd like to try a static IP but in all honesty it seems a little beyond me and the fact that it finds an IP address automatically leads me to believe this may not solve anything??!?

There is clearly something that it doesn't like and the fact that i have found a setting which appears to work (albeit with WPA/WEP/MAC filtering disabled)i am now determined to make it work, just hopefully in a way that doesn't leave my wireless conection open for anybody to use.