Simplified instructions for Squeezebox Radio Wi-Fi fix (wlanpoke)

[P Nelson]

Not so much limited interest, from my point of view, but rather awaiting results of research. Following which, figuring how best to introduce the logic implemented by wlanpoke into the firmware, if that is appropriate.

However, as I don't experience the issue, it would be rather difficult to validate the result...

I understand not making wlanpoke part of the firmware given that the interference problem is not universal, and wanting to do more testing.

What validation of the results is needed to conclude the fix should be added to the community firmware? The other idea I mentioned previously is to create something (applet?) through the plug-in interface that would install the wlanpoke fix. However, I have not gotten a response on the feasibility. I would reach out to POMdev to create an easier implementation path, but I do not have the necessary skills and knowledge.

Thanks for the response!

Paul

[mrw]

Not sure why WinSCP does not want to work with the stock firmware vs the community firmware, assuming SSH might be an issue.

Ah ha ! Possible light bulb moment: the stock firmware SSH requires the use of older, now outdated, key exchange and cipher algorithms. I guess that a modern WinSCP might not enable these by default. Certainly modern OpenSSH doesn't.

I don't know how one persuades WinSCP to use the older algorithms, but someone will. In openSSH I would be saying something like:

KexAlgorithms +diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
Ciphers +aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,aes256-cbc

[P Nelson]

Ah ha ! Possible light bulb moment: the stock firmware SSH requires the use of older, now outdated, key exchange and cipher algorithms. I guess that a modern WinSCP might not enable these by default. Certainly modern OpenSSH doesn't.

I don't know how one persuades WinSCP to use the older algorithms, but someone will. In openSSH I would be saying something like:

KexAlgorithms +diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
Ciphers +aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,aes256-cbc

User error on my part. The instructions said, "Under Session, for the file protocol, choose SCP." I was using SFTP which worked on the radio with the community firmware, but not on the radio with the default firmware. Using SCP was the solution.

Paul

[mjl33]

@rojikewl

Thanks for the clear instructions and for taking the time to do this write up. I've just tried this on one radio that I know for sure has a wifi issue. So far so good. We'll see how many days I can go without experiencing disconnects. I've be using a Vonnets wifi adapter that did the trick but it takes up more room on the countertop and those runway it lights has are very annoying. It will be nice to have the radio's wifi working again.

[rcolotto]

UE Radio?

Hi all
I just installed this on one of my SB radio's. Seems to be working fine! Thanks a lot!!

Might this also be working on the UE (Ultimate Ears) Version of the Radio?

Regards
Ronny

[P Nelson]

Hi all
I just installed this on one of my SB radio's. Seems to be working fine! Thanks a lot!!

Might this also be working on the UE (Ultimate Ears) Version of the Radio?

Regards
Ronny

If you mean a radio branded with the UE logo that has been converted to the SB Radio software, then I can confirm wlanpoke will work. If you mean a UE radio running UE software, then I cannot confirm wlanpoke works. Perhaps POMDev can provide information.

[rcolotto]

If you mean a radio branded with the UE logo that has been converted to the SB Radio software, then I can confirm wlanpoke will work. If you mean a UE radio running UE software, then I cannot confirm wlanpoke works. Perhaps POMDev can provide information.

I meant the Radio with the UE Software.

[mjl33]

Hi all
I just installed this on one of my SB radio's. Seems to be working fine! Thanks a lot!!

Might this also be working on the UE (Ultimate Ears) Version of the Radio?

Regards
Ronny

I installed this on a UE branded radio. I first converted it to use the Squeezebox software. Then I went ahead and installed wlanpoke. It's been running fine for over 24 hours. There have been zero wifi dropouts.

[Jogga]

Thank you!!!

I just want to send a big thanks to the community members that came up with this solution for the wifi problems and also took the time to write down the detailed installation instructions for dummies!
I had given up hope for my SB Radio and retired it completely when I discovered this fix in the forum. Now my SB Radio works perfectly again!

[Barrypg]

This solution worked!

I had 2 Squeezebox Radios I'd given up completely on, as they stopped connecting every few minutes to Wifi. I thought they'd be paper weights. I ran this solution on both and so far, there have been no more dropouts. I'll keep my ears open and if anything changes I'll update. But for now, it seems to be working on both radios so thank you for providing this detailed wifi fix!

At some point in the past two years, my three Squeezebox Radios suddenly lost their ability to stay connected to Wi-Fi. To get them reconnected I would have to reboot them, but they would always lose their connection again in as little as five minutes. They would almost never stay connected for more than 40 minutes at a time. I was using a common Linksys router, and nothing in my setup had changed. The Radios basically became glorified clocks displayed in my home. My two Squeezebox Touch units were unaffected, but the loss of the Radios caused me to use the Touches less as well.

A few days ago I finally installed POMdev's wlanpoke on each Radio. This fix has breathed new life into them--they now stay connected without the need for frequent reboots. POMdev, I'm grateful—thank you very much.

In preparation to install the fix, I noticed that about six months ago, in his (?) first (and so far only) post on this forum, mankan requested that someone write "instructions for dummies" for wlanpoke. Having recently struggled through the user manual as a non-technical user, I agree that such instructions are necessary, so I am taking a stab at writing them by describing, step by step, how I installed wlanpoke on my three Squeezebox Radios. If anyone notices any problems with my instructions, please let us know. I'm afraid that most non-technical users may have given up on their Radios by now, but I hope these instructions help someone.

Please note that these instructions are for installing the fix without enabling the logging (extensively documented in the user manual) that it provides for troubleshooting purposes. I chose to disable the logging in the hope that the fix would simply work. Since it does, I don't anticipate having to enable logging.

Now for the instructions. I used a Windows computer on the same Wi-Fi network as my Squeezebox Radios to do the following:

1. Download wlanpoke: Go to https://github.com/PomDev2/wlanpoke , click on the green button labeled Code and then click on Download ZIP. Save the file wlanpoke-main.zip to your computer.

2. Open Windows Explorer and locate the downloaded file wlanpoke-main.zip. Right-click on the file, and select "Extract All". This will extract the contents of the compressed file to a folder named wlanpoke-main.

3. Enable the Radio's SSH server by navigating as follows:
Home | Settings | Advanced | Remote Login
and selecting Enable SSH. When you do this, make a note of the Radio's IP address, which is displayed on the screen in the following message: "The root password for this device is 1234 and you can connect to it on address [IP address]"

4. Back on your computer, download WinSCP from the page https://winscp.net/eng/download.php and install it.

5. Launch WinSCP. A login window should open (if you need to open a login window manually, click on the "New Session" tab toward the top left). Under Session, for the file protocol, choose SCP. For the host name, enter the IP address you saved in step 2. Leave the port number unchanged. For user name, enter "root". For password, enter "1234". Click on "Login". You will see one or two warnings asking if you want to proceed. Answer Yes. If you get an error message that says "Error getting name of current remote directory," dismiss it by clicking OK.

6. The WinSCP window now displays your computer's files and folders on the left and your Squeezebox Radio's files on the right. On the Squeezebox Radio side, navigate to the root directory (the folder at the very top of the hierarchy). You can do this by clicking on the root directory button that is shown above the list of files, to the left of the home button. Now, navigate to the folder named "etc" by double-clicking on it. Now click on the New button, which is just below and to the right of the root directory button. Choose "Directory", and for "New folder name", type "wlanpoke". Once the wlanpoke folder has been created, double-click on it to display the contents of the folder, i.e. nothing as of yet.

7. In your computer files (displayed on the left-hand side of WinSCP), navigate to the contents of the folder wlanpoke-main, created in step 2. Select all 11 files and drag them to the opposite side of the WinSCP window to copy them into the wlanpoke folder. (Answer yes and/or OK to any scary-sounding confirmations.)

8. The purpose of this step is to change permissions for the shell scripts to "executable". In the menu bar at the top of the WinSCP window, click on Commands, and then click on Open Terminal. Then, for each of the following two lines of text, copy the entire string of text, paste it into the field labeled "Enter Command" in the console, and click on the Execute button:
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/*.sh
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/rcS.local.example

9. Click on Close to close the terminal window. The Squeezebox Radio side of the WinRCS window should still show the contents of the wlanpoke folder. Right-click on the file rcS.local.example and click on Copy. Next, navigate to the folder /etc/init.d by clicking on the root directory button (to the left of the home button) and then double clicking first on the etc folder and then on the init.d folder. Right-click in the white space below the list of files and then select Paste. A confirmation dialog box titled Duplicate will appear. Remove the characters ".example" from the end of the target remote path so that it now reads "/etc/init.d/rcS.local" and click OK. You should see that the file rcS.local has appeared in the list of files on the Radio. Right-click on the file rcS.local, select Edit, then select Edit again.

10. Now that you have the rcS.local file open, edit the last line (/etc/wlanpoke/wlanpoke.sh &) by placing the characters -x followed by a space character before the final ampersand. In other words, edit this line so that it reads as follows (this edit is to specify that you don't want any messages to be sent to a logging server):
/etc/wlanpoke/wlanpoke.sh -x &

11. Close the file editor. When asked if you want to save the file, click on Yes. Answer Yes again if asked if you want to continue with the connection, and click OK to dismiss any error message.

12. Close WinSCP, answering Yes when asked if you want to terminate the session without saving a workspace.

13. Disable the Radio's SSH server by navigating as follows (the manual doesn't say to do this, but I disabled it because I don't know if leaving it enabled constitutes a security risk):
Home | Settings | Advanced | Remote Login
and deselecting Enable SSH.

14. Restart the Squeezebox Radio (I believe this is necessary to activate the fix). Your Radio's Wi-Fi connectivity should now be back to normal, for the most part. Repeat for each additional Squeezebox Radio you are once again lucky enough to own.

[Barrypg]

I spoke to soon. Unfortunately, the solution didn't work for me.

I tried this solution on 2 Squeezebox Radios and at first, I thought the fix worked. Then, after less than 5 minutes, the radios dropped off wifi again at random times. I tried restarting them both a couple of times, but the same behavior occurred.

At some point in the past two years, my three Squeezebox Radios suddenly lost their ability to stay connected to Wi-Fi. To get them reconnected I would have to reboot them, but they would always lose their connection again in as little as five minutes. They would almost never stay connected for more than 40 minutes at a time. I was using a common Linksys router, and nothing in my setup had changed. The Radios basically became glorified clocks displayed in my home. My two Squeezebox Touch units were unaffected, but the loss of the Radios caused me to use the Touches less as well.

A few days ago I finally installed POMdev's wlanpoke on each Radio. This fix has breathed new life into them--they now stay connected without the need for frequent reboots. POMdev, I'm grateful—thank you very much.

In preparation to install the fix, I noticed that about six months ago, in his (?) first (and so far only) post on this forum, mankan requested that someone write "instructions for dummies" for wlanpoke. Having recently struggled through the user manual as a non-technical user, I agree that such instructions are necessary, so I am taking a stab at writing them by describing, step by step, how I installed wlanpoke on my three Squeezebox Radios. If anyone notices any problems with my instructions, please let us know. I'm afraid that most non-technical users may have given up on their Radios by now, but I hope these instructions help someone.

Please note that these instructions are for installing the fix without enabling the logging (extensively documented in the user manual) that it provides for troubleshooting purposes. I chose to disable the logging in the hope that the fix would simply work. Since it does, I don't anticipate having to enable logging.

Now for the instructions. I used a Windows computer on the same Wi-Fi network as my Squeezebox Radios to do the following:

1. Download wlanpoke: Go to https://github.com/PomDev2/wlanpoke , click on the green button labeled Code and then click on Download ZIP. Save the file wlanpoke-main.zip to your computer.

2. Open Windows Explorer and locate the downloaded file wlanpoke-main.zip. Right-click on the file, and select "Extract All". This will extract the contents of the compressed file to a folder named wlanpoke-main.

3. Enable the Radio's SSH server by navigating as follows:
Home | Settings | Advanced | Remote Login
and selecting Enable SSH. When you do this, make a note of the Radio's IP address, which is displayed on the screen in the following message: "The root password for this device is 1234 and you can connect to it on address [IP address]"

4. Back on your computer, download WinSCP from the page https://winscp.net/eng/download.php and install it.

5. Launch WinSCP. A login window should open (if you need to open a login window manually, click on the "New Session" tab toward the top left). Under Session, for the file protocol, choose SCP. For the host name, enter the IP address you saved in step 2. Leave the port number unchanged. For user name, enter "root". For password, enter "1234". Click on "Login". You will see one or two warnings asking if you want to proceed. Answer Yes. If you get an error message that says "Error getting name of current remote directory," dismiss it by clicking OK.

6. The WinSCP window now displays your computer's files and folders on the left and your Squeezebox Radio's files on the right. On the Squeezebox Radio side, navigate to the root directory (the folder at the very top of the hierarchy). You can do this by clicking on the root directory button that is shown above the list of files, to the left of the home button. Now, navigate to the folder named "etc" by double-clicking on it. Now click on the New button, which is just below and to the right of the root directory button. Choose "Directory", and for "New folder name", type "wlanpoke". Once the wlanpoke folder has been created, double-click on it to display the contents of the folder, i.e. nothing as of yet.

7. In your computer files (displayed on the left-hand side of WinSCP), navigate to the contents of the folder wlanpoke-main, created in step 2. Select all 11 files and drag them to the opposite side of the WinSCP window to copy them into the wlanpoke folder. (Answer yes and/or OK to any scary-sounding confirmations.)

8. The purpose of this step is to change permissions for the shell scripts to "executable". In the menu bar at the top of the WinSCP window, click on Commands, and then click on Open Terminal. Then, for each of the following two lines of text, copy the entire string of text, paste it into the field labeled "Enter Command" in the console, and click on the Execute button:
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/*.sh
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/rcS.local.example

9. Click on Close to close the terminal window. The Squeezebox Radio side of the WinRCS window should still show the contents of the wlanpoke folder. Right-click on the file rcS.local.example and click on Copy. Next, navigate to the folder /etc/init.d by clicking on the root directory button (to the left of the home button) and then double clicking first on the etc folder and then on the init.d folder. Right-click in the white space below the list of files and then select Paste. A confirmation dialog box titled Duplicate will appear. Remove the characters ".example" from the end of the target remote path so that it now reads "/etc/init.d/rcS.local" and click OK. You should see that the file rcS.local has appeared in the list of files on the Radio. Right-click on the file rcS.local, select Edit, then select Edit again.

10. Now that you have the rcS.local file open, edit the last line (/etc/wlanpoke/wlanpoke.sh &) by placing the characters -x followed by a space character before the final ampersand. In other words, edit this line so that it reads as follows (this edit is to specify that you don't want any messages to be sent to a logging server):
/etc/wlanpoke/wlanpoke.sh -x &

11. Close the file editor. When asked if you want to save the file, click on Yes. Answer Yes again if asked if you want to continue with the connection, and click OK to dismiss any error message.

12. Close WinSCP, answering Yes when asked if you want to terminate the session without saving a workspace.

13. Disable the Radio's SSH server by navigating as follows (the manual doesn't say to do this, but I disabled it because I don't know if leaving it enabled constitutes a security risk):
Home | Settings | Advanced | Remote Login
and deselecting Enable SSH.

14. Restart the Squeezebox Radio (I believe this is necessary to activate the fix). Your Radio's Wi-Fi connectivity should now be back to normal, for the most part. Repeat for each additional Squeezebox Radio you are once again lucky enough to own.

[P Nelson]

I tried this solution on 2 Squeezebox Radios and at first, I thought the fix worked. Then, after less than 5 minutes, the radios dropped off wifi again at random times. I tried restarting them both a couple of times, but the same behavior occurred.

Are you running a router with WiFi 6 (802.1ax)? Others have turned off WiFi 6 and resolved the problem. However, if it is a neighbor, then the solutions are more problematic. Before, I installed wlanpoke, I bought a Wifi to ethernet bridge; TP-link travel router is what I used. Others have used the Vonets VAP11G-300.

see:

https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?112167-Wi-Fi-6

[Starminder]

In preparation to install the fix, I noticed that about six months ago, in his (?) first (and so far only) post on this forum, mankan requested that someone write "instructions for dummies" for wlanpoke. Having recently struggled through the user manual as a non-technical user, I agree that such instructions are necessary, so I am taking a stab at writing them by describing, step by step, how I installed wlanpoke on my three Squeezebox Radios. If anyone notices any problems with my instructions, please let us know. I'm afraid that most non-technical users may have given up on their Radios by now, but I hope these instructions help someone.

Thank you so much for these instructions! I had to do this on EIGHT radios, and after the first two I was able to just execute on the rest. However, I thought it would be a good idea to have a step by step cheatsheet at the very least. Here is my condensed version. Uploading the fix is much less daunting once you've done it once.

Even Simpler instructions for Squeezebox Radio Wi-Fi fix (wlanpoke)

1. PREP RADIO: Enable SSH: Home | Settings | Advanced | Remote Login | Enable SSH. IP ADDRESS: _____________________

NOTE: THIS STEP CAN BE SKIPPED IF RADIO IS RUNNING 8.01 firmware or later. (You still need the IP Address though)

2. DOWNLOAD WLANPOKE: https://github.com/PomDev2/wlanpoke and extract it.

3. DOWNLOAD WINSCP: https://winscp.net/eng/download.php and install it.

4. LAUNCH WINSCP:
Protocol - SCP
Host name – IP ADDRESS OF RADIO
User Name – root
Password – 1234

NOTE: IF SESSION DISCONNECTS, JUST RECONNECT AND PRESS ONWARD.

Go to \etc and create new directory wlanpoke.
Upload wlanpoke files to new directory

5. CHANGE PERMISSIONS:
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/*.sh
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/rcS.local.example

NOTE: AFTER THESE COMMANDS ARE COPIED INTO WINSCP, THEY ARE IN THE DROPDOWN MENU.

6. Copy rcS.local.example to /etc/init.d.
Rename to rcS.local.

7. Edit rcS.local change last line to /etc/wlanpoke/wlanpoke.sh -x &

8. Close WinSCP session.

9. Restart the Radio.

10. REPEAT Steps 4 through 10 for each radio.

[peteskye]

Many Thanks

At some point in the past two years, my three Squeezebox Radios suddenly lost their ability to stay connected to Wi-Fi. To get them reconnected I would have to reboot them, but they would always lose their connection again in as little as five minutes. They would almost never stay connected for more than 40 minutes at a time. I was using a common Linksys router, and nothing in my setup had changed. The Radios basically became glorified clocks displayed in my home. My two Squeezebox Touch units were unaffected, but the loss of the Radios caused me to use the Touches less as well.

A few days ago I finally installed POMdev's wlanpoke on each Radio. This fix has breathed new life into them--they now stay connected without the need for frequent reboots. POMdev, I'm grateful—thank you very much.

In preparation to install the fix, I noticed that about six months ago, in his (?) first (and so far only) post on this forum, mankan requested that someone write "instructions for dummies" for wlanpoke. Having recently struggled through the user manual as a non-technical user, I agree that such instructions are necessary, so I am taking a stab at writing them by describing, step by step, how I installed wlanpoke on my three Squeezebox Radios. If anyone notices any problems with my instructions, please let us know. I'm afraid that most non-technical users may have given up on their Radios by now, but I hope these instructions help someone.

Please note that these instructions are for installing the fix without enabling the logging (extensively documented in the user manual) that it provides for troubleshooting purposes. I chose to disable the logging in the hope that the fix would simply work. Since it does, I don't anticipate having to enable logging.

Now for the instructions. I used a Windows computer on the same Wi-Fi network as my Squeezebox Radios to do the following:

1. Download wlanpoke: Go to https://github.com/PomDev2/wlanpoke , click on the green button labeled Code and then click on Download ZIP. Save the file wlanpoke-main.zip to your computer.

2. Open Windows Explorer and locate the downloaded file wlanpoke-main.zip. Right-click on the file, and select "Extract All". This will extract the contents of the compressed file to a folder named wlanpoke-main.

3. Enable the Radio's SSH server by navigating as follows:
Home | Settings | Advanced | Remote Login
and selecting Enable SSH. When you do this, make a note of the Radio's IP address, which is displayed on the screen in the following message: "The root password for this device is 1234 and you can connect to it on address [IP address]"

4. Back on your computer, download WinSCP from the page https://winscp.net/eng/download.php and install it.

5. Launch WinSCP. A login window should open (if you need to open a login window manually, click on the "New Session" tab toward the top left). Under Session, for the file protocol, choose SCP. For the host name, enter the IP address you saved in step 2. Leave the port number unchanged. For user name, enter "root". For password, enter "1234". Click on "Login". You will see one or two warnings asking if you want to proceed. Answer Yes. If you get an error message that says "Error getting name of current remote directory," dismiss it by clicking OK.

6. The WinSCP window now displays your computer's files and folders on the left and your Squeezebox Radio's files on the right. On the Squeezebox Radio side, navigate to the root directory (the folder at the very top of the hierarchy). You can do this by clicking on the root directory button that is shown above the list of files, to the left of the home button. Now, navigate to the folder named "etc" by double-clicking on it. Now click on the New button, which is just below and to the right of the root directory button. Choose "Directory", and for "New folder name", type "wlanpoke". Once the wlanpoke folder has been created, double-click on it to display the contents of the folder, i.e. nothing as of yet.

7. In your computer files (displayed on the left-hand side of WinSCP), navigate to the contents of the folder wlanpoke-main, created in step 2. Select all 11 files and drag them to the opposite side of the WinSCP window to copy them into the wlanpoke folder. (Answer yes and/or OK to any scary-sounding confirmations.)

8. The purpose of this step is to change permissions for the shell scripts to "executable". In the menu bar at the top of the WinSCP window, click on Commands, and then click on Open Terminal. Then, for each of the following two lines of text, copy the entire string of text, paste it into the field labeled "Enter Command" in the console, and click on the Execute button:
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/*.sh
chmod 755 /etc/wlanpoke/rcS.local.example

9. Click on Close to close the terminal window. The Squeezebox Radio side of the WinRCS window should still show the contents of the wlanpoke folder. Right-click on the file rcS.local.example and click on Copy. Next, navigate to the folder /etc/init.d by clicking on the root directory button (to the left of the home button) and then double clicking first on the etc folder and then on the init.d folder. Right-click in the white space below the list of files and then select Paste. A confirmation dialog box titled Duplicate will appear. Remove the characters ".example" from the end of the target remote path so that it now reads "/etc/init.d/rcS.local" and click OK. You should see that the file rcS.local has appeared in the list of files on the Radio. Right-click on the file rcS.local, select Edit, then select Edit again.

10. Now that you have the rcS.local file open, edit the last line (/etc/wlanpoke/wlanpoke.sh &) by placing the characters -x followed by a space character before the final ampersand. In other words, edit this line so that it reads as follows (this edit is to specify that you don't want any messages to be sent to a logging server):
/etc/wlanpoke/wlanpoke.sh -x &

11. Close the file editor. When asked if you want to save the file, click on Yes. Answer Yes again if asked if you want to continue with the connection, and click OK to dismiss any error message.

12. Close WinSCP, answering Yes when asked if you want to terminate the session without saving a workspace.

13. Disable the Radio's SSH server by navigating as follows (the manual doesn't say to do this, but I disabled it because I don't know if leaving it enabled constitutes a security risk):
Home | Settings | Advanced | Remote Login
and deselecting Enable SSH.

14. Restart the Squeezebox Radio (I believe this is necessary to activate the fix). Your Radio's Wi-Fi connectivity should now be back to normal, for the most part. Repeat for each additional Squeezebox Radio you are once again lucky enough to own.

I have modified both my "smartradios" and thanks to your ingenuity they are back in service - the wifi dropping issue has been driving me crazy! you are a star!

[slurmsmckenzie]

Thanks!

Just to add my thanks to rojikewl and POMdev for this, solved an issue with a radio sat next to a new microwave which would knock it off the wifi whenever it was in use. Just tested the fix and it restored wifi in less than a minute, excellent!