Disable WLAN on Squeezebox Touch

[mozart_puccini]

I want to use the Squeezebox with a CAT/RJ45 Ethernet cable and would like to completely switch off the WLAN radio of the Squeezebox Touch.

Can anyone tell me if this is an option? If not, how could I best turn WLAN off, I wont use WLAN in the future, so it could be a one-time off and forever

Thanks for your help.

[jstraw]

I want to use the Squeezebox with a CAT/RJ45 Ethernet cable and would like to completely switch off the WLAN radio of the Squeezebox Touch.

Can anyone tell me if this is an option? If not, how could I best turn WLAN off, I wont use WLAN in the future, so it could be a one-time off and forever

Thanks for your help.

I'm not challenging your desire...but I am curious about what motivates it. What's the benefit from having Wifi actually shut off on the unit?

[JohnSwenson]

There is nothing in the touch menus that will do that, but there is a way to do it. You ssh into the touch and type the command:

iwconfig wlan0 txpower off

This shuts the radio off completely. Unfortunately it goes away when you unplug the touch. To always have it turned off you need to edit one of the config files so the command gets run at every boot.

To do this, ssh into the touch then do:

cd /etc/init.d
vi rc5.local
(press the 'i' key and then type
iwconfig wlan0 txpower off
(press the escape key, type
:wq (thats colon key, w key, q key)

This creates the rc5.local file which will be run every time the touch boots, the iwconfig line turns off the transmitter.

This will stay in place until you load new firmware.

That should do it.

John S.

[mozart_puccini]

Helo, John
thanks for the valuable information and the solution to my idea. I will try this and I hope I succeed.

Mozart_Puccini

[mozart_puccini]

I know that many of you may ask why I would have the desire to switch off WLAN, what a st... request. Well it may be a unusual idea but it has some reason: my 5 year old wants to play the Sbax touch in her room and I (as a physisist) have seen studies on WLAN/GPRS/UMTS and I just feel that I DONT WANT to expose a child to unnecessary digial waves as long as a CAT5/6 is just in the room. Why poise the air if a cable can eliminate all the pulute.

Yes, you may disagree with what I think, but thats ok and we should all use WLAN/UMTS in a way we want it. I use it, but only where I need it!!
Thanks

[NewBuyer]

There is nothing in the touch menus that will do that..

So the Touch doesn't automatically disable the wifi when an ethernet cable is plugged into it, like the SB/Transporter units do? If so, that's disappointing...

[JJZolx]

So the Touch doesn't automatically disable the wifi when an ethernet cable is plugged into it, like the SB/Transporter units do? If so, that's disappointing...

I would think that it does, just like all other Squeezeboxes have.

[Mnyb]

I would think that it does, just like all other Squeezeboxes have.

That would make sense small cpu why load drivers that are not needed.

As linux noobish here is is easy to check if the wifi is running ?

[usch]

I would think that it does, just like all other Squeezeboxes have.

Not all of them, the SB1 definitely doesn't. I had to remove the WiFi modules to shut them off. But yes, I would indeed expect that all newer SBs do that.

As linux noobish here is is easy to check if the wifi is running ?

Your router or access point should be able to tell you. That's how I found out that my SB1s were still trying to connect via WiFi even though they were already wired.

[flattermann]

That would make sense small cpu why load drivers that are not needed.

As linux noobish here is is easy to check if the wifi is running ?

I've just checked it on the Radio:

# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:20:XX:XX:XX
inet addr:192.168.178.50 Bcast:192.168.178.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3809 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2764 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:412734 (403.0 KiB) TX bytes:393217 (384.0 KiB)
Base address:0x8000

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:04:20:XX:XX:XX
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:27 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:12832 (12.5 KiB) TX bytes:93 (93.0 B)

So the WLAN is really still activated.

If you really want to deactivate WLAN, it's maybe the best to remove the kernel module.

To remove the WLAN kernel module (Atheros) for the Radio:

# rmmod ar6000

(See "lsmod" for a list of loaded modules)