Radio wifi problems-MEGATHREAD!

[wonder boy]

UPDATE

So...I reset to factory my router and the radio, reinstalled the latest radio firmware again and incredibly the radio has behaved impeccably now for around 60 hours or so. It streams, it turns on/off, it connects to LMS when my server is turned on and happily sits there when server is off. Not tried mysb.com but I don't use it anyway.

I don't understand why it wasn't working and don't understand why it does now, strange that just 1 of my 5 players behaved in such a way?

Could wireless card be loose and by moving radio so it was sat next to me while I meddled have helped?

Hey ho, as always, many thanks for all contributions!

[wonder boy]

So...after some apparent success things are back to how they were. Yesterday the radio hung so I re-connected but this time with a static IP address and all was good.

This afternoon it dropped off again for no obvious reason. It wouldn't re-connect to LMS (Touch, SB3, Booms never faltered) but was showing as connected in the router, albeit at 0 mbps!

Using inSSIDer there are one or two users on channels 1, 6 and 11 near me so now trying channel 9. I know it gets overlap but I will try it. Failing this I will need to ethernet the radio.

Other devices fine, and there does seem to be more threads here and elsewhere discussing radio wifi issues than any other player.

Could it be the wifi card in the radio is the 2.4g equivalent of a 7 stone weakling and as soon as any other signal shows up it yields?

[garym]

So...after some apparent success things are back to how they were. Yesterday the radio hung so I re-connected but this time with a static IP address and all was good.

This afternoon it dropped off again for no obvious reason. It wouldn't re-connect to LMS (Touch, SB3, Booms never faltered) but was showing as connected in the router, albeit at 0 mbps!

Using inSSIDer there are one or two users on channels 1, 6 and 11 near me so now trying channel 9. I know it gets overlap but I will try it. Failing this I will need to ethernet the radio.

Other devices fine, and there does seem to be more threads here and elsewhere discussing radio wifi issues than any other player.

Could it be the wifi card in the radio is the 2.4g equivalent of a 7 stone weakling and as soon as any other signal shows up it yields?

not sure about the radio WIFI relative to the other players. Back in time, there were more WIFI issues posted about the duet receiver, which seemed to me to have the worst WIFI reception. But of course they don't make it any more and sell more Radios than any other SB player. So I'm not sure if the "more reported for Radios" means anything other than there are more radio owners these days.

But anyhow, I think trying to avoid interfering channels is a good approach. Also make sure the router and radio is not next to microwave, wireless telephone (I had all kinds of weirdness with my router loosing connection when using phone until I changed to DECT 6.0 phones), etc.

WIFI is odd, as a few minor tweaks can vastly improve (or make worse) the WIFI signal.

[wonder boy]

Thanks for your reply. Radio dropped twice since posting my update for no obvious reason, would there be a log of this anywhere, nothing in router log?

Now trying ethernet which I can do easily but so annoying!

Router is next to a phone but has been for more than a year and radio only recently developed issues.

Also, no other wifi devices fail like the radio does. Interesting reading how many people have very similar issues to me where their other players are robust but the radio drops often and refuses to re-connect without a reboot of router and player.

[garym]

Thanks for your reply. Radio dropped twice since posting my update for no obvious reason, would there be a log of this anywhere, nothing in router log?

Now trying ethernet which I can do easily but so annoying!

Router is next to a phone but has been for more than a year and radio only recently developed issues.

Also, no other wifi devices fail like the radio does. Interesting reading how many people have very similar issues to me where their other players are robust but the radio drops often and refuses to re-connect without a reboot of router and player.

Yep, probably not the phone. I think at least temporarily trying ethernet for a bit will at least be a good test that it is in fact the WIFI and not something else with the Radio.

The two radios I use are both WIFI and it is interesting that both of them report fairly poor (less then 80% strength) even though they are within 10 feet of a WIFI AP. But this said, I don't have any problems with them dropping signal or turning off etc. One of these is synched to my main player and is on probably 7 or 8 hours per day, month in and month out. I've used 7.5.4 through 7.7.1 on these radios (currently everything is on 7.7.1).

But one other thing. I set both of my radios (actually all my SB players) up to have static IP addresses (not just "reserved" IP addresses within my router). Not sure if that matters at all, and probably shouldn't, but it is something that is perhaps different on my RADIO use.

[garym]

in your SbS/LMS Settings, set the logging level (advanced tab in settings) to debug for your server log. Then after it has some dropouts, go in to the Settings > information tab, bottom of page and look at your server log.

[bobertuk]

Only just seen this thread so sorry for the late reply.

I had the same problems when using a BT HH3 - wireless connection dropping almost every day. Needed to reboot the hub to get Radio back onto network. Tried all sorts of things to 'cure' the problem but in the end gave up and swapped out the HH3 for a Netgear router - Netgear WNDR4500 in my case as I have BT Infinity. Haven't had the problem since!

Had other disconnection issues with the HH3 as well. It looks pretty but does seem a bit (very?) flakey.

Bob

[wonder boy]

garym-thanks, radio was static IP for a couple of days, but still dropped and couldn't re-connect on it's own. Will have a look at logging this.

bobertuk-interesting comments, HH3 is not bad on the whole, we are in a bungalow with the hub in the centre of the building, I would guess radio is about 20ft away from router. The one you bought looks a beast of a router, I had a netgear for a couple of years and it was excellent, but last January I too went with BT infinity hence the hub.

[Pascal Hibon]

My Radio also works flawless. Being the owner of several different devices (SB3, SB Boom, SB Touch and SB Radio) I can say that the wifi radio used in the SB Radio is a very good one. It is the device that sits the furthest away from my Access Point but it has the best signal strength of all SB devices.

Reading through this post, I strongly believe you are experiencing network issues. I guess you have a few devices in your network with static IP addresses while others use DHCP. It is very well possible that your IP address pool in the DHCP server overlaps with the static IP address range in use. That can cause IP address conflict at random (probably due to DHCP lease renewals).
You should be able to see the logs of your DHCP server when devices request an IP renewal. If you start to experience connectivity issues when those renewals occur then that would confirm that you have an overlap between your static IP address pool and your DHCP IP address pool.

You are using IP addresses in the 192.168.1.XXX range and this is a range that is widely used by network devices as a default. I guess your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0. I would advice to set your DHCP pool starting from 192.168.1.201 to 192.168.1.250. Then reboot all devices in your network and monitor for issues again.

[garym]

Only just seen this thread so sorry for the late reply.

I had the same problems when using a BT HH3 - wireless connection dropping almost every day. Needed to reboot the hub to get Radio back onto network. Tried all sorts of things to 'cure' the problem but in the end gave up and swapped out the HH3 for a Netgear router - Netgear WNDR4500 in my case as I have BT Infinity. Haven't had the problem since!

Had other disconnection issues with the HH3 as well. It looks pretty but does seem a bit (very?) flakey.

Bob

I've read many, many posts indicating SB problems because of BT HH3 that were solved with a new router.