Numerous "Rebuffering Failed" messages on new SB Touch

[chemguy]

I just purchased a SB Touch to add to my SB family of two receivers (Duets). The Touch was installed in the same location as one of the receivers (which I moved into another room for a new set-up). Since the switch, I am getting several losses on the Touch with rebuffering messages - typically four to five an hour. Most of the time, the rebuffering gets stuck at 2-3%. Several seconds later, the message "Rebuffering Failed" appears, and the music continues playing. This is happening while streaming 16 bit 44kHz FLAC files. When I go into Information on the Menu, it shows the Touch has a wireless signal strength of anywhere between 85-100%, including the time during rebuffering. The Touch is in the exact same location as my Duet receiver previously was, but I never had rebuffering problems to this extent before. (The possible exception is when streaming certain Internet radio stations). Essentially, my Duets have worked flawlessly over the two years I have owned them. When I did a network test @2000 kbps over a 30 minute period, it produced a tall green bar at 100% with a very small red line at 0% (the dropouts I suppose) in the test history section.

Facts:
The music is being streamed from a desktop PC (2.4 GHz and 2 GB RAM) using Windows Vista 32 bit. The Touch firmware is 7.5.1-r9218. Squeezecenter version is 7.5.2-r31632. The router is a Linksys WRT54G and I have it running on channel 6. I have tried switching to channels 1 and 11, but it does not seem to help. Of course, I would like to try connecting the Touch to my router via Ethernet, but this is not a practical or easy solution unless I go with "ethernet over power" which at this point, I am considering.

I am confused because the wireless signal is always very strong at the Touch even during rebuffering. Performance does not seem to be affected by microwave or cordless phone use. Music just randomly drops out. To my knowledge, nothing has changed since the Duet was replaced by the Touch, except the reliability of reproducing music. If I am missing something that I should check, please let me know. I know there are tons of threads out there regarding rebuffering issues and I think I've read many of them. I'm just really disappointed because I was hoping the Touch would provide a better listening experience.

[Mnyb]

Wifi is mysterius , Touch is normally better than SB3 or reciever ? but antenna orientaation vs router can have impact.

To rule out eventual server problems or other problems, test it with a short ethernet cable use headphones or a pc speaker or something just to try.

Another factor now you have more squeezeboxes.

Does this happen when the Touch is the only player playing are they synced or something ?

Is the server PC wired to the router now that you have 3 players it migth be a really god idea to wire the server, as otherwise you get double wifi hops your system uses the double amount of wifi bandwidth (as if you had 6 players).
Also if that computer does other things that compete for the connection, you can get congestions.

[chemguy]

Thank you for your suggestions, Mnyb.

I will definitely try to hook up a short Ethernet cable and listen via headphones. Just to confirm, this will require me factory resetting the Touch and setting it up from scratch for Ethernet. Is that correct?

To answer your other questions, these dropouts happen when the Touch is operating alone. Generally, I only have one system on at a time.
Last night, after experiencing more dropouts with the Touch, I decided to swap the Duet back in its place. Guess what happened? No more dropouts with the Duet, even though it showed the Duet at a lower wireless signal strength. Go figure. I then moved the Touch to the basement system. Surprisingly, it ran without a hiccup for over two hours. It seems there must be some mysterious interference in the room where I have installed the Touch. But that interference only affects the Touch. This is so odd. I would have thought the Touch would be more immune to wifi interference.

Generally, I do not synch my Squeezeboxes. However, a week ago, I decided to do a comparison of the Duet and Touch so I synched them and hooked them up to the same system to do an A/B comparison. This was in the room where I am apparently getting the "mysterious" interference. Dropouts occurred with both when they were synched.

My router is wired to my PC so I don't think this is a problem.

You mentioned "Also if that computer does other things that compete for the connection, you can get congestions." What kind of things would this involve?

Again, thank you for taking the time to help me out with this dilemma.

[Mnyb]

this will require me factory resetting the Touch and setting it up from scratch for Ethernet. Is that correct?

Yes


You mentioned "Also if that computer does other things that compete for the connection, you can get congestions." What kind of things would this involve?

That was if the PC itself was on wifi if it's wired there should be no problem.



Have you ever restarted that router btw ? they tend to like that.

Also set it to g mode only not b/g !

You don't own some really old thing thas needs 801.11b ? b mode slows down the whole wifi to that level

If linksys has any special proprietary sleed bost tech turn this of too.

Don't hide ssid don't filter mac adresses use WPA2 security or non at all (WEP is broken it's cracked years ago)

Also on the Touch you have settings > advanced > network test

if you press on the top bar you can select different rates to test it must do 1000 for reliable flac streaming .

[JohnSwenson]

One other thing to try: change the streaming type.With FLAC you can either stream FLAC and have the Touch decode, or decode in the server and send PCM to the Touch. Check which way your server is currently configured and try the other way, see if it makes any difference.

John S.

[chemguy]

One other thing to try: change the streaming type.With FLAC you can either stream FLAC and have the Touch decode, or decode in the server and send PCM to the Touch. Check which way your server is currently configured and try the other way, see if it makes any difference.

Thanks John. I will try this but I just want to be sure I understand the correct settings. In SB server, I've gone to Adavanced - File Types. Beside FLAC, it currently says the following:
FLAC: native
MP3: disabled
PCM: flac
The options are to change FLAC from native to disabled and PCM from flac to disabled. How should I set these up?

[chemguy]

Have you ever restarted that router btw ? they tend to like that.

I do this at least once a month if not more often.

Also set it to g mode only not b/g !

I always have it set to G only.

You don't own some really old thing thas needs 801.11b ? b mode slows down the whole wifi to that level

No, everything in the house is 8011.11g

If linksys has any special proprietary sleed bost tech turn this of too.

Not sure I understand this one.

Don't hide ssid don't filter mac adresses use WPA2 security or non at all (WEP is broken it's cracked years ago)

I have Wireless MAC filter disabled and I use WPA2 Personal security.

Also on the Touch you have settings > advanced > network test
if you press on the top bar you can select different rates to test it must do 1000 for reliable flac streaming .

This is the odd thing. When I have one of the drop outs, I've gone immediately to the network test and streamed at 2000. It shows only a green bar at 100%. This is during the drop out! I just find this so odd.

[chill]

this will require me factory resetting the Touch and setting it up from scratch for Ethernet. Is that correct?

Yes

I had similar mysterious rebuffering problems the other night. Nothing really to add to the discussion at the moment, except that I'm sure I managed to switch over to a wired connection without doing a factory reset. Can't remember the exact menu location, but one of the menus gave me a wireless and a wired option, and I simply selected wired.

[chemguy]

Just an update:
I borrowed about 20 feet of Ethernet cable from where I work and wired the router to the Touch last night. Everything worked fine. No hiccups or dropouts for three solid hours. I'll do more experimentation over the week, but I'm cautiously optimistic. So...this just seems to confirm it is a wireless issue with some mysterious interference that only the Touch seems to be sensitive to.

Now I have to decide whether I pay someone to run cat 6 cable through walls and floors/ceilings (which I'm not comfortable about doing myself) or go with something simpler (and possible cheaper) like ethernet over power. Any comment on the latter? I don't know much about this technology. I'm sure it would be effective if the network only involved computer communication but I could use some opinions as to whether it would work well with cleanly streaming large flac files to a SB Touch, even some at 24 bit and 96k.

[krochat]

... or go with something simpler (and possible cheaper) like ethernet over power. Any comment on the latter?

I use the ActionTec MegaPlug 200 powerline ethernet adapter for 4 drops (two to Touches, one to router, one to wireless access point) and find them wonderfully reliable.

Kim