Bugzilla – Bug 2631
Wireless signal strength, setup parameters - difficult to change & VPN
Last modified: 2008-12-18 11:38:39 UTC
The wireless signal strength reported by the Squeezebox 3 seems to be poor. It is either an incorrect reporting, or (more likely) is that the reception/RF ability of the device needs improvement. Hopefully, this is able to be done through firmware, or else i may consider returning the unit. With the device in my living room, and the AP in the office, putting a laptop right next to the slim device, my laptop reports 4 bars, very good to excellent wireless signal and a healthy 24Mpbs rate. However, the slim device and the server both report i have less than 50% strength at the device. Subsquently, the device has trouble connecting or has connected, but then drops off and re-connects.
I have noticed several times that the squeezebox v3 has trouble when wanting to change the wireless parameters....If i change parameters from my AP (something like move the key type from 'shared' to 'auto' or back again - the squeezebox suddenly can not connect to the network after saving these settings. Yet a laptop in the same room, adapts to these changes and is still connected. I try to go back to the very start menu and connect again, yet it still can not connect - it seems that internally, the device has saved some parameters which is preventing it from connecting...Only when doing a full factory reset can i get the device to really search for the network again and connect. I noticed a similar problem when i started an applicatiion that created a VPN to my business network. After doing some work, i disconnected the VPN, but noticed that the squeeze3 was not connected...I tried to reconnect again, and found that i would not connect. I looked at the current settings, and noticed that it did not have a correct DNS, Gateway setting and had a very strange IP address not applicable to my home network (ie not visible). No wonder it could not connect!!...However, going back to the very first menu and trying to connect to a wireless network again would not work - again, it seemed that these internal parameters had been saved somewhere by the device and the network was not being fully searched/refreshed. Again, only by doing a full factory reset, could i get the device to re-search the network and establish valid IP address, gateway address and DNS.
Did some more experiments with wireless sign. strength. Using WPA encryption, i have a laptop and the squeeze box 3 about 4 feet from the Linksys WRT54GS AP. The squeeze box reports 85 to 92% sig. strength, the laptop has 5 bars. However, on my AP set up pages, the AP reports 2 clients - the latop is at -52 rssi and the squeeze box is at rssi -62!!! So, while this varies, the laptop and the squeezebox definitely have differing signal levels whilst being next to each other, the squeezebox seemingly quite lower! Brett
(In reply to comment #1) > I have noticed several times that the squeezebox v3 has trouble when wanting to > change the wireless parameters....If i change parameters from my AP (something > like move the key type from 'shared' to 'auto' or back again - the squeezebox > suddenly can not connect to the network after saving these settings. > Yet a laptop in the same room, adapts to these changes and is still connected. > I try to go back to the very start menu and connect again, yet it still can not > connect - it seems that internally, the device has saved some parameters which > is preventing it from connecting...Only when doing a full factory reset can i > get the device to really search for the network again and connect. > I noticed a similar problem when i started an applicatiion that created a VPN > to my business network. After doing some work, i disconnected the VPN, but > noticed that the squeeze3 was not connected...I tried to reconnect again, and > found that i would not connect. I looked at the current settings, and noticed > that it did not have a correct DNS, Gateway setting and had a very strange IP > address not applicable to my home network (ie not visible). No wonder it could > not connect!!...However, going back to the very first menu and trying to > connect to a wireless network again would not work - again, it seemed that > these internal parameters had been saved somewhere by the device and the > network was not being fully searched/refreshed. Again, only by doing a full > factory reset, could i get the device to re-search the network and establish > valid IP address, gateway address and DNS. I have had this same problem. Unit was connected, then it mysteriously disconnect, now I can't get it to connect again using the same 128-bit WEP key that worked before and is working on 3 other wireless devices on my network. Swapped out the SB3 that would not connect with a 2nd unit I had ordered...which works fine. Any resolution on this issue? A "factory reset" doesn't solve the problem, and I can't get it to do a new firmware search.
Please update to the latest nightly 6.2.2 release which has a large number of wireless fixes. If you are still having issues, please reopen this bug.