SB3 constantly dropping connection

[ovonrein]

I have a SB3 in our bedroom that drives me nuts. It's on f/w 132 and shows a WiFi signal strength of 70%. Yet it cuts out "Cannot connect to server" all the blooming time. No other player in the house is quite that bad (though the SB3 in our living room - virtually in ear-shot of the router - also occasionally has problems). I can power-cycle the player and it will ALWAYS fix the immediate problem - there is no WiFi coverage or interference problem in our house. Our SB2 and SBR - both miles away from the router - are just fine. Is there something that I should know about the wireless interface of the SB3s that would help improve our situation? Thanks.

[jo-wie]

Eventually you should vote for

http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=16944

[ovonrein]

What - not even a wireline network solves the problem? I am not a 100% that my problems are as severe as described in the bug report, but they are incredibly irritating. What Squeeze's position on this? Anyone knows?

[tedfroop]

Have you used inSSider or something similar to check you environment?
How many networks are there nearby?
Whats between the router and the device?
Have you tried another device in the same place?
Have you run network tests to see what you maximum throughput is with network test?
What other traffic is your router handling (wired and wireless) when the drops occur?
Whats the total throughput of your router? (see www.smallnetbuilder.com)

I have an SB2 and an SB3 and neither has a problem. Even in the neighbor two doors down garage 80 feet away.

One big thing I found long ago though. Make sure your server is wired. Why? I don't know but experience from having my server and player connecting through wireless says a wired server is more stable.

[ovonrein]

No, I cannot say that I have done any of this analysis. My server is wireline to the wireless router, so if I understand well, then you are suggesting that I use a inSSider equipped laptop around our bedroom to see what it can sniff out over the wireless interface? Thing is, I use a wireless laptop in my bedroom quite regularly w/o any problem. Also, bear in mind that power-cycling the SB3 always resolved the issue (for a wee while). So if interference (or contention) was at the heart of the issue, then surely power-cycling would not help at all? Generally, the WiFi load is quite low when this happens. Mostly it is only loaded with the very music streams that then stop when the SP3 pukes - no big load, really. I also use no encryption on my WLAN so that max bandwidth may actually come close to the advertised spec. The physical distance between router and SB3 is no more than 8m. There is a wall, but as I wrote, WLAN strength is 70% - no big deal really. I might have to substitute the SB2 for a while, to see whether things improve. As I say, I also have some issues with the SB3 in the living room, which is a mere 3m away from the router.

[garym]

No, I cannot say that I have done any of this analysis. My server is wireline to the wireless router, so if I understand well, then you are suggesting that I use a inSSider equipped laptop around our bedroom to see what it can sniff out over the wireless interface? Thing is, I use a wireless laptop in my bedroom quite regularly w/o any problem. Also, bear in mind that power-cycling the SB3 always resolved the issue (for a wee while). So if interference (or contention) was at the heart of the issue, then surely power-cycling would not help at all? Generally, the WiFi load is quite low when this happens. Mostly it is only loaded with the very music streams that then stop when the SP3 pukes - no big load, really. I also use no encryption on my WLAN so that max bandwidth may actually come close to the advertised spec. The physical distance between router and SB3 is no more than 8m. There is a wall, but as I wrote, WLAN strength is 70% - no big deal really. I might have to substitute the SB2 for a while, to see whether things improve. As I say, I also have some issues with the SB3 in the living room, which is a mere 3m away from the router.

a couple of points based on my experience. A laptop has MUCH better wifi antenna. So even in the same spot a SB player is usually weaker strength. And surfing the web or emailing puts a lot less stress on the system than streaming audio. If a packet or two gets dropped or delayed, you wouldn't notice this on your laptop while web surfing.

I have a 900 sq ft one level weekend home. with only two sheetrock/wood stud internal walls between my new kitchen SB RADIO and the router, and about 20 to 25 feet at most, I get sometimes only 45 to 50% WIFI strength on Radio but get 95-99% on my laptop in same location. I added a second WIFI access point just yesterday to improve signal to RADIO, and got it up to 85% (it's now only 6 feet from the AP, with one sheetrock internal wall between).

I've also found in the past that local WIFI interference could be temporarily solved with a reboot of everything. Not sure of the engineering behind this, but in my case, I had an interfering neighbor wifi on close by channel but it only sometimes caused things to mess up. changing the channel helped a lot.

p.s. except for the radio in the kitchen of the weekend home, ALL my SB players, and I have several, are now wired via CAT6 or wired via a MoCa (ethernet over CATV wiring).

[ovonrein]

A laptop has MUCH better wifi antenna. So even in the same spot a SB player is usually weaker strength.

Agreed - the wifi adapter in the old SB1 was a total joke. The SB2s appear to have the best wifi capability of all slim products (it is still my favourite slim product), with the SBR coming second I think.

If a packet or two gets dropped or delayed, you wouldn't notice this on your laptop while web surfing.

Neither would I expect to notice this on the SB players. Buffering takes care of the audio and retransmits should be quick enough not to be noticable during remote interaction. And yet ... the thing craps out time and again.

I've also found in the past that local WIFI interference could be temporarily solved with a reboot of everything. changing the channel helped a lot.

Tried this on numerous occasions, never solved anything for me. And I am in a very rural location, not a wifi hot spot.

ALL my SB players ... are now wired.

Yeah, I hear you. And, frankly, it sucks that we should have to do this. My question is WHY have the slim products such awful wifi adapters?!?

[hcanning]

I'm glad it's not just me whose two Squeezeboxes (SB2 and SB3) both do the 'cannot connect to the server' trick occasionally since updating to 7.5.3. They're both connected via a wired ethernet connection, too...

[Millwood]

Do you by any chance have a reasonably old router? I ask because I had the same kind of experience. Since my laptop worked fine, I never suspected the router. I eventually replaced it, and now everything is rock solid.

I know it's not free to do this on spec, and YMMV. But if all else fails ...

[ovonrein]

I dunno about "old" but "sh*t" I would subscribe to It's a Belkin N router w DSL modem. Coverage is reasonable and speeds are ok with no encryption. The SB3 was on the blink all night last night. Pulled the plug in the morning and there was peace and quiet after that for a few hours. I don't think it's the router - after all, the SB3 quite happily reports 70% signal strength. I thought at some point it was down to DHCP leases expiring, but I switched the SB3s to static IPs and it made no difference at all.