Duet worked fine for years, now keeps disconnecting

[sfgorman]

I have 2 squeezeboxes on my network, a squeezebox2 and a duet. Both are hardwired ethernet. I have been using squeezeboxes for about 7 years, and never had any issues. Until this past week.

The duet now keeps disconnecting. This happened 3 days ago for the first time. I run Squeezebox Server on my always-on fileserver in the basement, which runs windows 7 ultimate and also holds my media drives. I do most of my control through the web interface from various PCs in the house, only occasionally using the duet remote. 3 days ago, I went to put on some music in the living room, and noticed that the duet receiver was not listed as one of the players in the server web interface. Only my squeezebox2 was listed. I fiddled around a bit (don't remember everything I did), unplugged the duet receiver and plugged it back in, refreshed the server interface, and eventually the duet receiver was recognized again and I was able to use it. Odd little glitch, didn't think much of it.

Then last night, the same thing - the duet receiver was not in my dropdown of players in the server web interface. Unplugging and replugging the duet receiver did not help this time, I tried multiple times. Also tried resetting my router and repowering my switches. No luck. Throughout all of this, if I ran the "network health" diagnostic from the duet remote, it always checked out fine, and "Server info" under diagnostics also showed everything ok - it was detecting my server just fine on the correct IP, and showed "OK" for "Ping" and the ports. But it just wouldn't connect to the library - the player was not showing up in the server web interface, and if I tried to access "My Music" from the duet remote, it said "Connecting to FILESERVER" (name of my library), and then resulted in an error: "Problem Connecting - We couldn't connect to Fileserver". Grasping at straws, I then proceeded to upgrade the server software to the latest Logitech Media Server version (Logitech Media Server Version: 7.7.2 - r33893), and updated the firmware through the duet remote (Duet firmware 7.7.2 r9663). Didn't help, still not connecting. I finally chose "Restore Factory Settings" on the duet remote and went through the annoyance of entering the network password and the mysqueezebox.com username and password (and I'll NEVER understand why that is required since I have no use whatsoever for mysqueezebox.com and always use a local server!) through the remote interface. And finally, after the factory reset and reentering this information, it worked again. The duet remote could browse music from the server, and the server web interface included the duet receiver in the dropdown of players.

Then tonight, same problem all over again - only the Squeezebox2 was showing up in the player list, no duet receiver. Again, "network health" diagnostic from the duet remote checked out fine. "Server info" under diagnostics also showed everything ok - it detected my server on the correct IP, and showed "OK" for "Ping" and the ports. But it would not connect to the library. So back to factory reset, except this time even that didn't work! After the reset, when I go to "Choose Player" on the remote, only my squeezebox2 is showing up. It doesn't even see the duet receiver. Further, "server info" under diagnostics is now not finding my server, everything says "not connected" under Logitech Media Server, but says "OK" under mysqueezebox.com (to add insult to injury). Also, "network test" on the remote now gives the error: "network tests are not supported by the server which this palyer is currently attached to". I have tried stopping and restarting Logitech Media Server, resetting my router, repowering the duet receiver - nothing helps.

One thing that is different this time - on the duet remote, "mysqueezebox.com registration" is showing as "registered", whereas I am certain that before the factory reset I did yesterday, it was "not registered". I am guessing that after I did the factory reset last night and entered the mysqueezebox.com login information, it registered the remote - there is a third device showing up in mysqueezebox.com, whereas before there were only two. When I did the factory reset this evening, I did not have to re-enter the mysqueezebox.com login information, because it was already stored on the remote and allowed me to continue with that account info (so much for "restore factory settings" - it is remembering at least 1 setting! I have a sneaking suspicion that poor mysqueezebox.com integration is the cause of all of my issues.)

I am beyond frustrated. The squeezebox2 works just fine and is on the same network, so this would not appear to be a networking issue. Other reason it does not seem to be a networking issue - doing the duet factory reset got it to work last time, without me changing any network configuration or resetting any routers. The factory reset brought it back to life for 1 day, now it is dead again and cannot be revived by another factory reset.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[w3wilkes]

Did you factory reset both the controller and the receiver? To factory reset the receiver you must hold the front button until you get the fast red blink and then release the button. From the controller you need to select the player (by MAC address) and then the controller should load the server info to the receiver via a ad hoc wireless connection between the controller and the receiver. The controller should see that the receiver is plugged to a ethernet connection and ask if you want to configure the receiver to be a wired or wireless connection to your network. When all done and the receiver has connected to your network and then to your Squeezebox server the receiver should be left with the dim white LED on the button. For a meaning of the LED colors on the receiver see;
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph...button_and_LED
This definition of the LED colors forgets to mention that there are 2 solid whites. One is dim white which is connected to Squeezebox server or MySB.com and the other is bright white which is connected and playing.

[sfgorman]

Alright, I finally figured out that the light on the front of the duet receiver doubles as a button. Never had to use that before in the several years I've owned the thing. Anyway, I held that button down to reset the duet receiver, and now it connects! EXCEPT... I am getting "rebuffering" pauses constantly (every 30 seconds or so) when I play FLACs, but not for MP3s. The duet receiver is hardwired, and my server runs on a quad core Intel i7 system, so this is not a matter of network bandwidth OR processing bandwidth. What is going on here?

Could it be that the duet receiver is using the wireless connection even though it is hardwired? Is there a way to tell that the device is using the hardwired connection? How can I be sure?

EDIT: thanks w3wilkes for your response, didn't see it until after I posted!

[sfgorman]

w3wilkes - Thanks! The controller didn't ask if I wanted to be wired or wireless. Is there a way to tell how it is configured?

[w3wilkes]

On the web UI to your Squeezebox server you should go to Settings and on the settings page select the Information tab. If the receiver shows a signal strength it is actually connected wireless even though you've got the ethernet cable connecting it to your router. This could be why you've got the buffering problem. You could also be having a physical ethernet connection issue (check your run for faults). If you find you're connected wireless you will need to do a factory reset on the receiver (hold button until fast red blink) and then go through complete setup on the receiver. You'll know if you got it right if during setup it asks if you want the connection to be wired or wireless.

[w3wilkes]

If after all this reseting and going through setup you get another disconnect. Take note of the LED color on the button on the receiver and compare it to the chart. It may give a clue.

[sfgorman]

Thank you!! Previously a wireless signal strength was being shown on the server information tab for the receiver, indicating it was not using the ethernet connection. Did several factory resets on the receiver and the remote, and just could not get it to ask me the "ethernet or wireless" question. Disconnected and reconnected the ethernet, no luck. Plugged the ethernet cable into a different port on the switch, no luck. Power cycled the receiver, then did another reset of both the receiver and the remote, then it finally asked the "ethernet or wireless" question. I chose ethernet, and then it couldn't connect. Tried 3 or 4 times, no luck. Reset the router, no luck. Reset the 2nd (wireless) router that I have configured as a WAP + switch (the first router does all of the DHCP), and for some reason that did the trick. Or it just randomly decided to work that time. Anyway, I am now connected via ethernet, confirmed by there being no wireless signal strength shown on the server information tab for the duet receiver.

A frustrating experience, really appreciate your help getting me through it!

[Mnyb]

Realize I'm to late but there are two kinds of reset press the button untill it slowly flashes red ,you have reset the network config .
Hold button a while longer untill it flashes red fast you have done a complete factory reset .

Sometimes it does make a difference

[w3wilkes]

You're very welcome! The Duet can be a finicky device, but there's no alternative in my opinion (unless it was a Touch with the Duet controller). I think I've seen most of the problems a Duet can throw at you over my 3.5 years with them.

[Mnyb]

Mine worked fine all years i used it I had no real problems with it .

But the idiotic one button UI can surely be improved for a similar future product .
it makes actually changing something afterwards frustrating.

Hint : a web interface on the product, a mundane thing like changing the DNS setting should not require a factory reset and walking trough a wizzard or using static-ip or [insert what ever]

Hint 2: not even on SqueezePlay devices can you simply edit a setting via gui ,you must do some "network wizzard thing " argh but much much better .
On the SqueezePlay products you ssh and edit the files instead .