I have just spent a frustrating few days sorting out my wireless setup and thought I'd share the results in case they are helpful to anyone.
I have an SB2 and SB3, and until recently the SB3 was wired and the SB2 wireless, talking to a Belkin F5D7130 wireless access point running with MAC filtering and no encryption. I acquired a Nokia N770, with the idea of one use being as a Slimserver remote. However I discovered that the 770 only worked correctly if it was in the same room as the WAP, irrespective of channels used - there are about four other WiFi access points (on different channels) nearby; we also have a DECT cordless phone system that probably uses the same band, and the 770 seems to be particularly sensitive to stray wireless activity.
As a temporary measure I took the WAP and put it in the living room using the SB3's enet cable, and tried to set the SB3 up for wireless. I failed, and succeeded only in blowing up the wireless card in the SB3, probably as a result of power cycling (power on the unit and no display - however the TOSlink LED was still working: support suggested removing the card and it sprang back to life).
With a new wireless card I set the SB3 up successfully, but after playing more than a few seconds of FLAC it would start stuttering - music for half a second, pause for half a second, music for half a second... etc. It would play Internet Radio fine, however, and even .wma files (transcoded to mp3 by LAME). Evidently the buffer was underflowing, suggesting poor wireless bandwidth. The SB2 upstairs, however, continued to work perfectly throughout.
Talking to tech support suggested a possible SB3 driver issue, which is currently being worked on, but when we discussed the fact that the N770 was still a bit flakey even across the room from the WAP, I concluded it might be time to invest in a different WAP, and the tech support rep told me he had experienced excellent range with the LinkSys WAP54GX MIMO unit. It also certainly looked good on paper, and I ordered one.
Over the weekend I decided to look into the SB3 problem in more detail, and on examining the IP config carefully noticed that the Network Mask was incorrect - 255.255.255.248 instead of 255.255.255.0. This was almost certainly finger trouble as a result of doing configuration after midnight. Correcting this setting resulted in the SB3 working perfectly. I found it really strange that this config error produced the results it did.
The WAP54GX duly arrived yesterday and I installed it last night. Another part of the discussion with tech support had involved WiFi security and the fact that MAC access lists were bad news, WPA2 was the way to go, so I decided to go with that, with AES.
Everything suddenly seemed to work. The N770 worked all over the house. My iBook worked instantly, both SBs were happy. Well, almost everything. My wife's Toshiba laptop with Atheros 5004 card would not play ball. Sorting this out took a half-hour call to a Toshiba level-1 support rep who knew almost nothing about WiFi: I was finally referred to a level-2 guy who gave me the solution in 10 seconds: it doesn't do it, no updated drivers or anything, and apparently no easy answer.
I tried running the WAP in WPA1 mode with TKIP (SBs do not support AES via WPA1). Everything worked, including the Toshiba... except the Nokia, which now would not not talk to the WAP, despite prodigious signal strength.
Setting the LinkSys WAP to 'mixed' WPA1/2, AES+TKIP mode caused everything to fail except the iBook. Indeed, whatever config I tried, the iBook always seemed to be able to access the WAP!
I ended up setting up the LinkSys WAP54GX to WPA2/AES so that everything except the Toshiba worked, and placing the Belkin WAP set to WPA1/TKIP in a poor location near my wife's office so it's unreadable outside the building but usable inside.
So, everything now works... but I would love a simpler setup using only the LinkSys WAP54GX (which on the showing of under 24 hours appears to be simply brilliant), if anyone has any ideas.
I hope this is some help to people navigating the stormy waters of WiFi...
--Richard E
I have an SB2 and SB3, and until recently the SB3 was wired and the SB2 wireless, talking to a Belkin F5D7130 wireless access point running with MAC filtering and no encryption. I acquired a Nokia N770, with the idea of one use being as a Slimserver remote. However I discovered that the 770 only worked correctly if it was in the same room as the WAP, irrespective of channels used - there are about four other WiFi access points (on different channels) nearby; we also have a DECT cordless phone system that probably uses the same band, and the 770 seems to be particularly sensitive to stray wireless activity.
As a temporary measure I took the WAP and put it in the living room using the SB3's enet cable, and tried to set the SB3 up for wireless. I failed, and succeeded only in blowing up the wireless card in the SB3, probably as a result of power cycling (power on the unit and no display - however the TOSlink LED was still working: support suggested removing the card and it sprang back to life).
With a new wireless card I set the SB3 up successfully, but after playing more than a few seconds of FLAC it would start stuttering - music for half a second, pause for half a second, music for half a second... etc. It would play Internet Radio fine, however, and even .wma files (transcoded to mp3 by LAME). Evidently the buffer was underflowing, suggesting poor wireless bandwidth. The SB2 upstairs, however, continued to work perfectly throughout.
Talking to tech support suggested a possible SB3 driver issue, which is currently being worked on, but when we discussed the fact that the N770 was still a bit flakey even across the room from the WAP, I concluded it might be time to invest in a different WAP, and the tech support rep told me he had experienced excellent range with the LinkSys WAP54GX MIMO unit. It also certainly looked good on paper, and I ordered one.
Over the weekend I decided to look into the SB3 problem in more detail, and on examining the IP config carefully noticed that the Network Mask was incorrect - 255.255.255.248 instead of 255.255.255.0. This was almost certainly finger trouble as a result of doing configuration after midnight. Correcting this setting resulted in the SB3 working perfectly. I found it really strange that this config error produced the results it did.
The WAP54GX duly arrived yesterday and I installed it last night. Another part of the discussion with tech support had involved WiFi security and the fact that MAC access lists were bad news, WPA2 was the way to go, so I decided to go with that, with AES.
Everything suddenly seemed to work. The N770 worked all over the house. My iBook worked instantly, both SBs were happy. Well, almost everything. My wife's Toshiba laptop with Atheros 5004 card would not play ball. Sorting this out took a half-hour call to a Toshiba level-1 support rep who knew almost nothing about WiFi: I was finally referred to a level-2 guy who gave me the solution in 10 seconds: it doesn't do it, no updated drivers or anything, and apparently no easy answer.
I tried running the WAP in WPA1 mode with TKIP (SBs do not support AES via WPA1). Everything worked, including the Toshiba... except the Nokia, which now would not not talk to the WAP, despite prodigious signal strength.
Setting the LinkSys WAP to 'mixed' WPA1/2, AES+TKIP mode caused everything to fail except the iBook. Indeed, whatever config I tried, the iBook always seemed to be able to access the WAP!
I ended up setting up the LinkSys WAP54GX to WPA2/AES so that everything except the Toshiba worked, and placing the Belkin WAP set to WPA1/TKIP in a poor location near my wife's office so it's unreadable outside the building but usable inside.
So, everything now works... but I would love a simpler setup using only the LinkSys WAP54GX (which on the showing of under 24 hours appears to be simply brilliant), if anyone has any ideas.
I hope this is some help to people navigating the stormy waters of WiFi...
--Richard E
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