Squeezebox dropouts - another question

I think I did the math a while back and determined that bandwidth of wireless G was potentially problematic for high res files, which is one reason I have not tried it. I do not think SB touch can use newer higher bandwidth wireless protocols, but a newer faster router might help if contention with other network traffic is an issue. ANything that can be done to isolate the music server and players on teh network from other devices, including use of dual bands if possible, can only help.

Unless I'm mistaken, the SBT only does "G." It won't do "N." You also have to consider that much of that bandwidth is being eaten up by security packaging.

I've found that running hi res works best if you use a wired connection.

I really don't think it's your computer. I mean, yes, there can't be any hiccups in the computer's running the SB server, but it doesn't take a whole lot of horsepower to do that.

I'm running SB Server on a Synology NAS and it only has a 1 ghz processor with 256mb of ram.

The other option is use powerline networking. That should give you higher bandwidth and a more reliable wired connection. I used it for a while to stream 1080p movies until I got my wireless N router and HTPC. Be careful though, there is a lot of junk powerline network adapters out there.

Hi Matt,

Good points by the others, especially about the possibility that other wireless devices may be competing for bandwidth. If you haven't already, try turning off all other devices in the house that may be wirelessly communicating with the router, or else putting them on the 5 GHz band if possible. For that matter, try turning off all wireless devices in the house that may utilize the 2.4 GHz band, regardless of what they may be communicating with.

Also, try changing the wireless channel that is being used, within the 2.4 GHz band. The manual for the router should explain how to do that.

Also, try disabling encryption if it is presently enabled.

Regarding wireless-G compatibility with 96 kHz/24 bit/2 channel music data, if that is what you are trying to play, the corresponding rate for the music data itself is 4.608 megabits per second. Error detection and correction information, packet headers, control words, encryption, and packet retries when and if needed, all consume bandwidth in addition to that. An optimally functioning wireless-G link, IME, will typically provide rates in the 12 to 20 mbps area, which should be adequate. But there isn't a great deal of margin to accommodate bandwidth competition, RF interference, or less than optimal performance by any of the hardware that is involved.

A point of information regarding one of the earlier comments: If a wireless-G device, such as the Squeezebox, is connected to a wireless-N router, the speed with which the router communicates with other wireless-N devices will not slow down to wireless-G rates. It will communicate with other N devices at N rates, while communicating with G devices at G rates. Although of course the G device will tie up the network for a greater amount of time than it would if a given amount of data were communicated at N rates. N is different in that respect than wireless-G, where the presence of a slower wireless-B device will cause all communications on the network to slow to B speeds.

Regards,
-- Al

Al,

Thanks for providing the bandwidth details for Wireless G relative to high res audio format. I did those estimates awhile back and reached a similar conclusion, though the numbers had long since gone in one side and out the other of my head.

SO there is hope perhaps, but things must be running fairly optimum end to end, not a lot of margin for error or inefficiency.

Making sure the SB is configured to use lossless compressed FLAC format for transmission should only help further. I think that is the default for example for CD resolution .wav files that I use regularly, but not sure if that is the case for high res file formats having not tried. All should be configurable as needed using SB system administrative/configuration tools provided.