Let me spoil this up-front by pointing out that (a) I'm not criticising my lovely SB3, nor SlimServer and (b) this seems to have a happy ending... but this is a tale of how frustrating and infuriatingly incomprehensible wireless network f*ckups can be.
Tonight, some newly-ripped flacs just would not play on my SB3 - they started skipping within about a minute of start of play. So I turned on Network Health etc, and the front bit said this: Control Connection : OK Streaming Connection : OK Signal Strength : OK Buffer Fullness : Low Server Response Time : OK Now, how can Buffer Fullness be Low (near the beginning of a 4-minute-plus flac file), but all the others OK? The more detailed server and players stats told pretty much the same story: everything's fine, but the buffer's not filling up fast enough. Why not? My laptop in the same room reported my wireless strength as Excellent, 54mbps. Dashed upstairs to look at the server; no sign that it's having any trouble doing its job. (OK, only using Windows Task Manager...) My laptop noticed a couple of other networks around, but pretty low-strength signals (confirmed by Network Stumbler); and skipping was still happening after they dropped out. (Yes, I have read the wiki pages. No, I haven't had the courage yet to change channel away from 11. But the problem remained even when no other networks were visible.) I was starting to think about enabling bitrate limiting - the last-but-one resort. (Last resort is to dig out the CDs... and hope my aged player doesn't start skipping too!) Then, a few minutes later, my wireless connection suddenly disappeared (though the first evidence was failure to load an SS web page, so for a second I thought the server had died, until the laptop reported No Network). Dashed upstairs again, unplugged the router, resisted the temptation to smash it against the wall... several deep breaths later, plugged it back in. Waited for it to wake up, and then for everything else to notice it. (I'd turned off the SB3 too, though I'm not sure that was necessary.) Since then, all has been fine. (For an hour now, at least.) I still have no idea what really went wrong. Maybe the router was generating a load of junk; maybe something else was. Clearly, Signal Strength does not equal or even necessarily correlate with Actually Useful Information Bandwidth. I probably need some better diagnostic tools. Next time, turning the router off and on again will be the FIRST thing I try. And if that doesn't work, then I *will* smash the little fecker off the wall. I don't buy these things just to waste my days trying to get them to work! Sigh, wireless! It really is a black art. I really am coming round to the view that somewhere there is a WiFi Daemon, whose role is to randomly screw up your network until you perform some sacrifice, such as giving up being in a good mood! So I'm not looking for help - though if anyone recognises this situation and has a better idea of what's happening, I'd like to know. I should add that I'm usually delighted with WiFi - it's made a huge difference to our home entertainment - and wouldn't want to discourage anyone from taking the plunge. But when it does go wrong, it can be bloody frustrating! -- Brian -- Brian Ritchie ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brian Ritchie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2319 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31330 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
