[SlimDevices: Beginners] Questions after using duet for 3 weeks - should I buy more?

[86atc250r]

Unsure on the reception - I have pretty good wireless coverage at my
house as well and haven't experienced any trouble (I lose only one
"bar" at the extreme end of the house).     

With wireless gear being as cheap as it is, seems like if you were
experiencing trouble the solution that makes the most sense would be to
buy another $50 router or two & use them as additional AP's (simply shut
off DHCP & wire a LAN port to any other switch in your network) to boost
your coverage.  If you're opposed to any hardwire between APs/routers,
you can WDS link them together wirelessly with the right hardware (I
suggest Linksys WRT54GL since Buffalo routers are no longer avail in
the US, they allow for the use of various extremely flexible/powerful
aftermarket firmwares).   Much cheaper/easier than experimenting with
other wireless music devices and/or hoping software may help in the
future.

Slow controller -- My library is about half your size but I'd call the
controller anything but slow.  Mine picks up my list of albums in just
under a second, same for artists.   I'd suspect something is very wrong
if it's taking yours 30s to pull data across based upon my experience.

Squeezecenter slow - again, Squeezecenter runs great for me.   It's
sounding like you're maybe running on slow or mis-configured
hard/software.  My setup is a 3.06ghz P4 w/512mb RAM running XPSP3. 
The same box also is the living room media center running GBPVR & is my
main audio and video storage.    It's hardwired to a 100TX port on my
main wireless router.   It's a little low on the memory side, but the
system is also several years old (I'm thinking it's older than my son
who is almost 5 now) - runs squeezecenter well though.

IR & Headphone jack.   As you may have noticed this product is very
much an "enthusiast" product - the fact alone that it's open source is
a big clue in that regard.  However it also shows well as a consumer
product.   The IR & Headphone jack neither are critical or essential to
the system or it operating properly as a "consumer" level product.  
Both are goodies that even if never implemented don't diminish the
product's function or value.  It's cool that they're there and someday
may be put to some really interesting use by either SD or the
community.

In fact, I believe when I first got my controller I tested the IR as
working with my SB3 (maybe with the wireless disconnected?  Can't
remember - IR & wireless control together is just asking for trouble
when within line of sight of an IR device)...

Firmware - I believe that the firmware in all the SD products can and
is periodically updated.    In fact, the firmware in this early
controller I've got works better than much of the stock firmware in the
consumer level wireless routers I've dealt with.

Good luck with your decision.   I'd definitely look into why it's
taking your controller so long to populate with artist/album lists. 
I'd imagine sorting out why Squeezecenter is slow in your application
will go a long way towards solving your slow controller problem.


-- 
86atc250r
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