Bugzilla – Bug 2436
Ad-hoc uses b only?
Last modified: 2008-12-18 11:38:58 UTC
Haven't confirmed this myself - customer reports ad-hoc mode won't connect when laptop is set to only allow 802.11g.
what make/model/rev is the network card on the laptop?
Intel 2200bg card in a Dell Inspiron 8600. Driver version is 9.0.2.25
NW: does this problem happen if you set the card to use b and g?
With b and g on, the connection always uses b. Well, I think it does. Intel's Proset wireless program only shows b and 11 Mps. Windows also shows 11 Mbps.
It appears that this is a limitation of the wifi standard and is disabled in the current firmware. Some details here: http://labs.pcw.co.uk/2005/03/adhoc_wireless_.html We'll need to do additional testing to see if we can turn on g support reliably.
What kind of testing would you like to do, Dean? With FW41+, this looks to me like adhoc just doesn't work anymore.
Subject: Re: Ad-hoc uses b only? Hm, that's bad. Ad Hoc needs to work. The official spec for Ad Hoc limits the rate to 11Mb, but some devices do support higher speeds.
I can second that Ad-Hoc does not work in FW 41. I've upgraded to Slimserver 6.2.2 dated 4/17, it then proceeded to upgrade the FW to 41. After that, my SB2 will no longer connect to Slimserver. Also tried 6.2.2 dated 4/20, no luck. BTW, How do I downgrade to a working FW? Just reinstall an older biuld I have?
Safest to install an older build, I'm afraid. The release 6.2.1 should still work; it has firmware 28. If you feel adventurous, 1) check to see if your old firmware is still available in C:\Program Files\SlimServer\server\Firmware (if you're using windows). 2) edit the squeezebox2.version file and change all the '41's to '28's (or whatever your old firmware version was) Sorry for the inconvenience. It's definitely our highest priority on the firmware to get this fixed.
Thanks. I have an older 6.2.2, dated 3/15, that was working. I'll give that a try, if not, then 6.2.1. My older versions were no longer available. Hopefully things will be working smoothly again with new FW's.
I tested firmware 48 (now available as part of the 6.2.2 Slimserver download), and ad-hoc networking is usable once again. However, I can't close this bug, because the original bug is that ad-hoc only uses 802.11b, which is still true. The target milestone has been set for 6.5, which will be a few months yet, I'm afraid.
This bug is fixed in firmware 56. It is currently undergoing internal testing. You will be notified again when it is made part of a nightly release.
The fix is in the current nightly 6.5 release ONLY. Firmware 58 will NOT work with 6.3.1 I'm afraid. Note, also, due to a temporary error, there is not a Windows nightly yet today. Give us a couple hours :( I'd love to get some feedback on this feature; I'm particularly concerned that it might not work on all network cards.
I've since gone the way of using a router. I'd give it a try if it were easy enough for me to re-enter my password in the network setup. It's particularly tedious because I'm disabled and have a hard time with it. Doesn't help that I use a 63 character ASCII key... BTW, didn't the SB2 'remember' passwords when switching between connection modes before? Hopefully I can get someone to give me a hand and I can post some feedback soon.
This bug has been fixed in the 7.3.0 release version of SqueezeCenter! Please download the new version from http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html if you haven't already. If you are still experiencing this problem, feel free to reopen the bug with your new comments and we'll have another look.