Bugzilla – Bug 4570
'Bridge Network' setup option vanished
Last modified: 2007-10-02 12:11:37 UTC
I was trying to setup bridged networking. Was running some 6.5Beta of Slimserver and the SB2 was on firmware that came with (62). Followed instructions about going into settings and turning on bridge as part of network setup, which I did. As bridging didn't seem to work though, decided to get the latest non-test release before asking around. Installed Slimserver 6.5 (6.5.0 - 9916 - Linux - EN - utf8) and SB2 was upgraded to firmware 64. After SB2 firmware upgrade, looking in 'current settings' (press Left 5 seconds) shows that bridging was on, but it was still not working. Power cycled SB2 and did factory reset. Reconnected to wireless LAN OK, but there is now no 'Bridge Network' option in this process! It doesn't matter if cable (and PC at the other end) is connected to the ethernet port or not, have tried both with and without. I know the crossover cable is working as it's been tested with two machines. Discussion about this here: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?p=160420#post160420
Seems to be working for me on FW64. I see you note in the message thread that you've tested the cable with some PCs and it's good. That's a good troubleshooting step. The other common issue to be aware of is this: the firmware won't show the bridge if it doesn't think anything is connected to the other end. Make sure the device on the other end is really connected and powered on as you try to enable the wireless bridge function. Let me know how it goes.
Yes, there is another device (tried both laptop and desktop machine) on the end of the cable when SB2 is powered on. The 'LINK' light on the other device's ethernet port is on. Everything really _should_ work. I can't help thinking that something in FW62 has caused the SB2 to become confused, and now FW64 is installed whatever internal flags, etc. that were stored by FW62 are confusing it. You would think that factory reset would fix this but it clearly doesn't. I have two SB2 devices, both on the same firmware and both been through the same upgrade procedure. Aside from I did not try and bridge on one of them using FW62. The SB2 that I did not attempt bridging on when it was on FW62 _DOES_ show the bridge option on power up. However, even though this says that bridging is on, when a laptop is connected it cannot get IP with DHCP. Even when IP is manually connected it cannot ping other devices on the network. Is there another firmware I can try? As I've already said, there needs to be some better diagnostics around this.
Hmm there are some other bridging issues I'm looking at (bug 4557). I wonder if they're related. I will at least keep both in mind as I research them.
What wireless encryption are you using? Bridging does not work correctly with WPA/WPA2 (see bug 3660). This is fixed in firmware SB 71/TR 26. It is currently undergoing internal testing and should be released soon. This does not explain why one of your Squeezeboxen does not display the bridging menu. Please try the new firmware when it's released, and let us know if that works for you. Thanks.
Yes, I'm using WPA so this explains some of it. There is something very funny with one of my SB2s though. For example, this evening one of them just stopped working, blank screen. Factory reset does not help and now it refuses to connect to the AP. Are there known instances of hardware problems or other things causing this? Perhaps where it is sat is sometimes in a 'wireless blackspot'? Funny though, that it was working fine for a long time before this.
where are we on this one?
Robin, it is certainly possible that your failed squeezebox has some kind of hardware failure. Connecting to a known-good power supply and trying the ethernet port on the back of the unit are good troubleshooting ideas. You may want to contact our support team at support@slimdevices.com
Robin is there any update?
Please reopen if there is new information.