Five weeks ago I switched from using my Squeezebox 3 wirelessly to powerline ethernet, specifically a pair of Netgear XE104 85 Mbps wall-plugged switches. I selected the Netgear XE104s based upon a review by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal. I had already decided to try the powerline ethernet solution, but his article helped me to select which unit to buy.
Installation on a Macintosh/iTunes system was painless and took less than 10 minutes. I am delighted to report that for me powerline ethernet has been a resounding success. In the last five weeks I have not had one instance of dropouts or stuttering. This has been paradise compared to my experience with wireless. I had purchased my Squeezebox 3 in February 2006, and was using it wirelessly. About 70% of the time it worked beautifully, but 30% of the time it was totally unreliable. My only regrets are that: 1) I spent an extra $50 on the wireless/ethernet Squeezebox combination, 2) I wasted so much time struggling to get wireless to work, and 3) it took me so long to find a solution. This was extremely frustrating, and I would not have persevered if I did not think that the Squeezebox was one of the best audio devices I have purchased It is obvious from the Slim Device forum that many people have had a lot of problems with wireless streaming. Of course, you dont hear from people for whom it is working perfectly, and they indeed may be the majority. But from my perspective, wireless is simply not ready for prime time. (Incidentally, I had the same problems earlier when I used the Airport Express to stream music, but eventually Apple figured out how to solve the stability problems. It is a pity that Slim Devices has so far been unable to do the same, since it is a far superior product to the Airport Express.) On a final note, after finding Nirvana, I decided to buy another Netgear XE104 for my other Squeezebox 3. However, since Mossbergs article came out, the price of the unit has gone up, and many online retailers are out of stock. -- Omri ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Omri's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6506 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=27990 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
