One of all Clients cannot connect to radiostation

[otto_unnormalverbraucher]

@all Thanks for the many goosd advices.

@d6jg

Are all Pi's on WiFi?

Nope, the pi running the server is wire. the others are all WiFi. I live in a house with loads of steel in ceilings and walls, so I have to repeat the WiFi in various directions to network the house.

Is something interfering with the WiFI?

The only thing I could think of (apart from walls and ceilings) is a DECT-repeater sitting next to the WiFi-repeater. Yes, I will definitely investigate this.

Are all connected to the same AP/Router?

Two of them (bathroom and dining-room) are connected to the same repeater. dining-room has no drop-outs

As you have swapped them around you can rule out hardware and this appears to be location specific. Is something interfering with the WiFI?

Yes, I do not think, it is related to hardware, as I swapped the Pi upstairs with bathroom, it showed the same problems as bathroom. It must be sth. with the network.

@bpa

For the record. This is very old from Nov 2016 - many many bugs fixed since then.

I have updated to the newest version now. It is "Squeezelite Max2Play v1.0.3 based on v1.8.7-999" - still not the newest one.

What model Pi is this ?
What model router ?

All Pis are 3b+ with HiFiBerry AMP2 Cards. The routers/repeaters are AVM Fritz!Box 7490 connected to the internal Lan, and AVM Fritz!Repeaters 3000 and 310. They mesh and the Pis are connected this way: Squeezebox-server <-> LAN <-> 7490 AP <-> 310-repeater <-> Pis

@mrw

I have found that a signal 'level' consistently better than -60 (i.e. in the -50s) is good for my wifi health and my frustration level. Levels at the higher -60s and -70s seem to give rise to intermittent connectivity/discovery problems, and you do seem to have some flurries of that in the spreadsheet. What do the statistics show in a "good" location ?

That's a good point. I ran statistics on the upstairs pi, which shows no glitches, and the level is between -56 and -43 constantly. Retries never above 6. This player gets its packets repeated twice (AP - Repeater1 - Repeater 2 - Pi)

perhaps an antenna would help.

This is a very good idea and I will try to get an antenna asap. Is the model you linked working out of the box?

@all Hey guys, thanks again for your help. I will try to follow your advices in a structured way, and get back here, when I have new information.

[otto_unnormalverbraucher]

@all Thank you all for the quick responses

mrw wrote:

Do I understand you to mean that the problem is in the bathroom ?

Yes, I swapped the Pi's and the otherwise working Pi went to dropping out, when sitting in the Bathroom.

I have found that a signal 'level' consistently better than -60 (i.e. in the -50s) is good for my wifi health and my frustration level. Levels at the higher -60s and -70s seem to give rise to intermittent connectivity/discovery problems, and you do seem to have some flurries of that in the spreadsheet. What do the statistics show in a "good" location ?

Good point. After having read your suggestion I have already ordered an antenna for the Pi to increase signal reception. If using it will not help, I will move the repeater that the Pi is connected to closer to it and we'll see, if this solves the problem.
The Pi upstairs is working fine. Its signal gets sent repeated twice and level is between -56 and -43, retries never exceeding 6.

bpa wrote:

What model Pi is this ?
What model router ?

All Pi's are 3b+ with HiFiBerry AMP2 cards and proper power-supply. The Router/AP is an AVM Fritz!Box 7490 and three AVM Fritz!Repeaters (2x 3000 1x 310)

For the record. This is very old from Nov 2016 - many many bugs fixed since then.

I have updated squeezelite to "Squeezelite Max2Play v1.0.3 based on v1.8.7-999". Have asked the people there, if I can update to the newest version.

d6jg wrote:

Clearly it’s a network related problem. Are all Pi’s on WiFi?
Are all connected to the same AP/Router?

I live in a house with a lot of steel in walls and ceilings, thus I have to repeat the WiFi in order to get a good signal in all rooms. The situation is:

Internet <-> LAN <-> Squeezelite-Server on PI <-> LAN <-> Router <WiFi> Repeater <WiFi> Pi's (one working fine, the other, bathroom, glitching).

@all: Thank you guys for your advices. I very much appreciate your help here. I will now try to investigate further and get back here, if I have new information.

[mrw]

Is the model you linked working out of the box?

Yes, it does. There may be better devices available, but it does ‘just work’ with a Pi, which is why I bought it. Mind you, I only have a single Wi-fi access point/router. I have no experience of the new-fangled mesh type systems, or wi-fi 6, etc.

[otto_unnormalverbraucher]

Ok, it took me some time to properly sort out all problems regarding the connectivity of my raspis, thus the long delay before posting the solution.

It showed, that it definitely was about bad connectivity (thank you @mrw for the tip). I bought a WiFi-dongle, which did not fix the problem, and then I had to buy powerline adapters, to ensure that the bathroom pi is connected all the time. Using ethernet over electrical wiring made the WiFi for this particular pi obsolete and let the drop outs fall to zero. I now can listen again to the radio station mentioned in the headline.
The lesson learned here is, that bad WiFi connectivity can result in quite strange effects on the software-side.

Again I want to thank all the guys, who helped and advised.