Wireless Signal with (2) Squeezebox V1s

[buck]

Howdy all!
Sorry that I havent spent any time on this forum - and now I come begging for help.
I have had a Squeezebox Version 1 for for a few years now and I love it. I recently bought another Version 1 one from eBay and I seem to have an issue. With my first Squeezebox, I get great signal strength - 78-85%. It is located 1 floor below my wireless router (Linksys WR54G) The new one that I bought will not get above 10% strength, even with it located in the same room as the router.
Both are at firmware version 40 and I am running a semi recent build of SS 6.5.5 (It seems to wreak havoc when I try to play my FLAC files also. Really stutters because of the low strength)
My firewall is setup to allow all trafic from the IP address range that I allow DHCP on the router to assign.
My other devices on the network seem to be just fine. (2 laptops - one with built in wireless card one with a Belkin PCMCIA card wireless G. A desktop Dell machine using a USB Belkin wirelessG adaptor. A Nintendo Wii -- anyhow a bunch of stuff that is working just fine)
It sounds like it would be a Squeezebox issue, and if that is the case - does anyone have any idea as to how I may remedy? (Even if it's not a SB problem - any advice would be appreciated)

Again, thanks for taking the time to read this. And thanks in advance for any advice.

Buck

[peter]

buck wrote:
> have an issue. With my first Squeezebox, I get great signal strength -
> 78-85%. It is located 1 floor below my wireless router (Linksys WR54G)
> The new one that I bought will not get above 10% strength, even with it
> located in the same room as the router.
>

Sounds like a hardware problem to me. Perhaps the antenna lead has come
loose on the SB1. You could open it up and have a look. Or buy a
wireless bridge and use that to connect it to your wireless network.

Warning: This advice comes from someone who never opened up any SD
devices except for his SliMP3. I had trouble putting that one back
together

Regards,
Peter

[buck]

I may have to do just that. I'll let you know how it goes.

And regarding the wireless bridge. Good idea, but I'd rather get this little guy working the way it was intended. It's going to be a very mobile piece of hardware when summer time comes along. :-)

Thanks for the reply!

Buck

[buck]

Well, I opened it up and took a look. All connections appeared OK, but I reseated the antenna lead anyhow. No luck. I then removed the wireless LAN PC Card and started the SB. I next reinserted the PC Card and restarted. No luck.
Shucks.
Anyone else have any ideas? Does anyone know if any other PC LAN cards are acceptable? Are they available as replacement parts through Slim Devices/Logitech?

Thanks again!

Buck

[jt25741]

Well, I opened it up and took a look. All connections appeared OK, but I reseated the antenna lead anyhow. No luck. I then removed the wireless LAN PC Card and started the SB. I next reinserted the PC Card and restarted. No luck.
Shucks.
Anyone else have any ideas? Does anyone know if any other PC LAN cards are acceptable? Are they available as replacement parts through Slim Devices/Logitech?

Thanks again!

Buck

Wireless cards in these things do fail. I had a similar situation with slightly different facts. In my case, my 2nd SB had basically the same high level of signal as my other unit -- but was constantly losing signal and connection. I tested identical locations with the same effect. I sent it in, explained the problem -- and it was fixed under warranty. Works fine again, no issues. I have had many many 802.11 products over the years, and not one has failed. I found it strange the SB did in this manner -- and am hoping this is not a weak point in the product family. I have grown to love them so much, I don't want them breaking on me every year. So far my other unit has not a hitch.

Anyways, suspect yours may be out of warranty -- so it may not be cost-effective to fix it vs replace it. You can call them, and possibly get an estimate?

Others may have significantly better advise..so keep looking at this thread. Good luck.

[buck]

Anyways, suspect yours may be out of warranty -- so it may not be cost-effective to fix it vs replace it. You can call them, and possibly get an estimate?

Others may have significantly better advise..so keep looking at this thread. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply! I obtained this unit off of ebay for a fairly good price. I think it would be cost-effective in this case to fix it. I have confirmed that it is the Wireless PC Card. I swapped it out with the one in my other Squeezebox and it worked flawlessly. Just to check, I put the one from the low signal unit in my original and got the low signal results.
I just put in a request for information to Slim Devices regarding the availability of the Wireless PC Card. I'll be hoping for goog news. Cross your fingers for me! :-)

Thanks again for the replys!

Buck

[buck]

Well,
I got a response from Logitech/SlimDevices. They wanted $90.00 plus shipping to replace the LAN card. It is against their policy to simply send a replacement part so they required the Squeezebox to be sent to them. I Googled the part number off of the back of the card and found a few retailers online. I ended up buying the card for $14.99 plus shipping. (19.99 actually since I paid for the mini-antenna that I didnt need that the card normally requires.)
Anyhow,
the new card works great. I get 90% signal and no more issues. Thanks for the help!

Buck