[gbeard]

Hi head-drives!

I have ordered a wired Squeezebox to remotely serve music to my living room system. I decided not to buy the wireless version due to comments I read about some difficulty the WL SQB had with streaming lossless AIFF files. The wired version+bridge is about the same price as the WL version except they are not in stock

.

Soooo, I have also decided to add a wireless access point to my wired network router, rather than replace it with a WL router due to the potential slowing of my cable modem ethernet network .

Here is what I am planning at this point, observations and experiences are welcomed:

A Netgear 54mps wireless access point connected via ethernet to my Netgear router, wirelessly streaming to a Netgear 54mps wireless bridge connected via ethernet to the Squeezebox. Since this is a casual listening system, I am considering buying one of the cheap new digital recievers and using a digtal coax connection from the SQB directly to it for D/A conversion and amplification. Sounds like a spiffy deal to me, what say you?

Thanks, gb

 

[SteveC]

I couldn't comment on the bridges etc as I use wireless.

The digital out from the squeezebox I think is very good compared with the analogue - even 128k mp3 streams sound pretty good to me into a Linn AV5103. I do have a problem with dropped streams occasionally. There is a convoluted way to get stuff like BBC R4 to the squeezebox but I didn't manage to leap all the hurdles, so use shoutcast and iTunes a lot.

The wireless squeezeboz is only 802.11b but I don't think that's relevant in your case.

 

[gbeard]

Originally by SteveC Quote:

The wireless squeezeboz is only 802.11b but I don't think that's relevant in your case.

Yes, I had forgotten the reason I went with the wired version. I thought if I did that and used a 802.11g 54mps bridge to an Ethernet unit I would have more and faster data transfers. Hopefully fast enough to play lossless files without terrible drop outs. So my set up would still be wireless except for a foot of Cat 5.

I am assuming you like the Squeezebox? I was thinking about the Apple Airport Express, but without a coax digital out, and remote, I just couldn't figure out why I'd like it better except for speed. The slimserver is supposed to work with itunes. I hope it does...

Thanks, gb

 

[schapman]

you're right on the wireless.. as soon as you connect a 80211.b device to a 802.11G network.. the whole wireless LAN slows to 802.11b speeds. you might however need a wireless brige on each end and not the access point on one side as I don't know if the netgear access point supports bridging.

 

[SteveC]

Yes, gb, slimserver works with iTunes. I like the slim thing, though the interface can be a bit flaky. So long as one doesn't do things it doesn't like, it's fine

I've heard said that with more modern cards etc the whole network doesn't nec. slow down from g to to b speeds but I can't confirm that.

Hiccups in transfer are difficult to diagnose (for me) but I suspect they are due to the ADSL box or the outside world, rather than internal network speed. Even full uncompressed audio should be a fraction of b speed, no?

 

[gbeard]

shapman,

I am a bit newbie about the whole wireless thang (ok complete newb), so are you saying I can use a bridge connected to my router rather than an access point? If so, then a bridge is also considered an access point right?

Thanks, gb

 

[schapman]

Welcome to the ugly world that is wireless

As far as speeds go, the newer stuff is usually 802.11A, which only works at 54mbit. It also works at 5.8GHz so there is far less interference from things like microwaves and portable phones. However, the range on it suffers because of the frequency (though you can easily cluster a bunch together as they are more tolerant than 802.11G with channel interferance) and they also cost more.

If you want to have a slimdevice plugged into a wireless device, and have it connect across a space over wireless, you are entering the realm of bridging. You'll end up doing:

Slimdevice-->ethernet-->non-root brige -->wireless--> root bridge-->ethernet-->the rest of your LAN (preferably a switch here, or a router if you don't want all the broadcast traffic going over the LAN)

When you are using a bridge, its working just like you had an ethernet cable hanging through the air connecting the two devices.

AFAIK, the slimdevice only transmits audio right? so you might want to just use the wireless version and let that do some 802.11b action. Though I just glanced at the slimdevices page, and the slimdevice will support 802.11G. This might be the best solution because when you do bridging, you get a lot of LAN traffic going across it unless you have routers set up on both ends (which will up the cost) From an 802.11G connection, you should expect to see about 18mbps across it pretty reliably. With 802.11b.. you'll get the same drop. There is a lot of overhead with wireless.

My recommendation is to switch the order to the one w/ an 802.11G connection and get a decent access point. 18mbps is 2.25 megabytes per second so you shouldnt have a problem with throughput. And since slimdevices uses linux + open sourced software for the device, there will always be improvements for you.

Sorry if this is a bit of a rant.. but I'm typing in between doing work

 

[gbeard]

Ok shapman, you win. I am not "wireless" enough to go through all that hassle. I should know by now that nothing with a computer is as simple as it seems. It all sounded good in the beginning.

So a wireless squeezebox and a wireless access point with an ethernet connection to my existing router should do the trick. I am going to call them tomorrow and change my order. I was trying not to make things complicated and succeeded in making it more so...

And yes, SteveC it should be good to go!

Thanks to you both for your help. I'll let you know in a few weeks how I made out.

Cheers, gb

 

[schapman]

I'm just lucky that I got paid at work to figure it all out Companies money + Cisco support = much easier learning.

You should however look into authentication and encryption.
128 bit encryption is not really good enough if you want to protect your data. At the very least make sure you have the highest WEP on, and at least MAC authentication (though that can be spoofed).

 

[gbeard]

Hi all,

I have had my squeezebox about a week, but it took me a couple days to get the wireless gear set up. I know, I know, but I am not a computer expert!

It appears very well built, and works like a charm. I ended up getting a Wireless version and added a wireless access point (hardwired to my ethernet router) in the middle of my house about 30 feet from the squeezer. I have an toslink cable running from it to my Yam DSP-A1 which in turn feeds a niles speaker switcher that runs a few rooms of speaks throughout the house.

I have yet to rip any lossless stuff, but I have been listening to some 320kb Mp3s and they sound fair to good, although it is obvious things will get better with the AIFF files.

I didn't expect the Squeeze to sound like my big rig, but judged on its own it seems to be an awesome product. I don't quite understand the SlimServer software yet, but the SBX itself works intuitively and so far, flawlessly. The Shoutcast radio is very cool too. I hope I can figure out a way to sync it with playing back audio through itunes on my computer...

Anyway, my preliminary findings can only point to one thing--this little box works, and is way cool too!!

Cheers, gb