[SlimDevices: Beta] Re: going downhill quick

[stephenkca]

jonheal;154410 Wrote: 
> Some folks seem to be having fits getting wireless streaming working.
> While there are numerous variables that contribute to wireless
> connections either working well or not, and without -really- knowing
> anything about its inner workings, I contend that wireless streaming is
> still a bit of a black art.
> 
> That having been said, if you're willing to spend another $75.00 on an
> experiment, you may have the same success I've had.
> 
> I have a wired (not wireless) Squeezebox. On my network however, I have
> two Linksys WAP54G access points. One is in the basement and the other
> is on our second floor, 20' feet above it.
> 
> I have an ancient, piece-of-crap, Mac B&W G3 attached to the access
> point on the second floor. SoftSqueeze is running on it. I have NO
> dropouts streaming either Internet radio or my FLAC collection from the
> basement PC. Now this, it seems to me, definitely qualifies as a
> worst-case scenario. (Although SoftSqueeze itself beats the crap out of
> the puny G3 processor.)
> 
> On one occasion, I took the Squeezebox and the second floor access
> point outside for a party. From there, line of sight for the signal was
> through about 90' of dirt and concrete. I had no dropouts for hours
> streaming FLACs. Finally, around 11:00 PM, I started getting some
> dropouts, which I blamed on the neighbors clogging the airwaves. There
> are several wireless networks near me.
> 
> So, if you're willing to invest in a $75.00 experiment, get an access
> point, and see if that works better.

I live in a 135 year old granite fieldstone house with walls that are,
at a minimum, 22 inches thick.  Doing wired to the second floor or the
outside deck would be nightmarish, but at the same time Wifi doesn't
exactly propagate well through solid stone.  I was having intermittent
connection issues with my USR8054.

Home grade Wifi access points and routers all seem to have 2db gain
antennas.  I bought a pair of 5db gain antennas for about US$20 each--I
think they were USR branded, but anything will do, as most everything
uses reverse BNC connectors--screwed them in, et voila, the problems
disappeared.

One friend in England set up his basement Wifi router with a
directional 9db gain antenna pointing straight up into the house.  9db
could probably service the whole neighbourhood, but since it is
directional there isn't a lot of signal leakage to annoy the
neighbours, though I guess helicopter pilots could piggyback on his
network from a long way above his house :-).


-- 
stephenkca
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