Wireless dropouts

[pmerrill]

Definitely something funny about the wireless. I have two Logitech SqueezeBox Booms connected to the internet via wireless 802.11g connection. On 1.4.6 they seemed to work fine, now on 1.4.7 I find after a few days they have dropped off the router and cannot connect unless I power them off and power then back on, then they connect. Strange...

[pmerrill]

A bit more information, doesn't seem to be a dropout but could be a combination of issues.

If I look at the router configuration I can see that the Boom is connected (according to connected host page). However, if I try and connect to the internet from the Boom it can't find the site mysqueezebox.com. If I power cycle the boom it comes back but the does the same thing as little as 5 minutes later.

I note that with the old stock firmware, the channel was set to Auto, so the router hunted for the best channel. With gargoyle you need to pick a channel, so I chose 6. It appears from a wifi sniffing tool that 6 is particularily crowded with other routers in the neighbourhood, so I chose 2 instead as there is less crowding.

So far, the boom has not dropped out for 20 minutes, so we'll see what happens thoughout the day.

Three questions...
1. Could this be the cause of the problems the Boom is experiencing? Connecting but somehow not being able to send packets to the router, or get a response back?
2. Is OpenWRT capable of having a channel setting to Auto (like the 1043nd stock firmware)? If so, can it be put into the Gargoyle interface?
3. If OpenWRT is not capable, then does anyone know if it's on a future build list?

[mix]

I guess my suggestion would be to make sure you have the latest firmware on the Squeezebox Boom. Basically it looks like your issue is pretty common, so I wouldn't be so sure it has anything to do with the router:

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Squeezebo ... d-p/562590

Also, you want to stick to wireless channels 1, 6 and 11. Picking a channel like 2 just means your traffic is actually overlapping with channels 1 and 6. But I guess you can pick whatever you want if you think it makes a difference.

Try a program like inSSIDer if you want to view which wireless channels are in use, and it will even show you how they overlap.

[pmerrill]

I did use InSSIDer to look at the wirless space and chose 2 because it's the least conjested area. Channel 6 is ugly.

I think you're right about the Boom's problems (has lastest firmware) but it's been masked by the stock firmware for the 1043nd that scans for the best channel, as opposed to OpenWRT which does not. I picked 6 initially, which made the boom crash. Maybe 2 will be better. We'll see.

The question is, will OpenWRT ever have the same scanning functionality.

Gargoyle is great, the stock firmware had NO log and wireless N always dropped out, so I don't think I'd ever go back BUT there are a few annoyance that I'll just have to adapt to.