UQ and n-Stream - "no devices found"

Posted by: Benji on 13 April 2011

This is most likely a very n00b question, but having recently purchased a UQ, I'm having trouble using the n-Stream app to control the UQ. Setup was easy, I have eyeconnect running on a MacBook Pro and have no problem streaming my music over (although it is slow to load lists and start playback, even on a wifi N network?).

 

But I digress. The MBP, UQ and my iPhone 4 are all on the same wifi network. But when I try to setup the n-Stream app, it searches and finally tells me "No devices found". I'm running the 2.0 version of the app, and the UQ has firmware 3.0.00, Boot 1.2.03, and BC SW 10733.

 

Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrongly?

Posted on: 13 April 2011 by TJ

Hi Benji, what router do you have? We have seen problems with some routers blocking WiFi UPnP discovery messages. If you quit the app from the iPhone taskbar (double press home button then hold the n-Stream icon until it wobbles then press tyhe black cross to close it) and reboot everything including the router does it discover?

Posted on: 13 April 2011 by Benji

The router is an Apple Time Capsule - and yes, I've tried rebooting everything! Router, App and UQ 

Posted on: 13 April 2011 by Steven Shaw

Mine had been working flawlesly for a couple of days and then didn't find my qute, before that it said something about another device being connected (it might have had something to do with me using plug player with my qute). I rebooted my iphone and that worked. No other reboot was necessary

Posted on: 15 April 2011 by Rod
I usually have to select upnp on the naim remote to get nstream on an ipod touch to connect with my uniti, which rather rather misses the point of the app.
Posted on: 15 April 2011 by 0rangutan
The Qute's wifi aerial is poor. I use an Airport Express instead and link this to the Qute by CAT5. This gives me 802.11n bandwidth (so streaming hires is feasible) and a stable connection.
Posted on: 15 April 2011 by Steven Shaw

Interesting about your comments about the built in wifi. Having played with the qute a bit longer, I find if I try to listen to the new Nine Inch nails album in 24/96 (a free download!), it will skip using the built in wifi, and also using a homeplug connected to the qute with cat 5. I did find though that using an airport express wire with Cat 5 to the qute actally worked ok (althouh I seem to lose connection to N Stream when listening to Hi Res stuff).

 

I would have though that Homeplugs should have a higher bandwidth than wireless, but infact the airport express does seem to work better.

Posted on: 15 April 2011 by 0rangutan
That is interesting. I use the same NIN album to stress test mine and it just won't work over 802.11g, but is fine with the Airport Express. There are various standards for home plugs which can affect the available bandwidth, plus they are very dependent on the quality of your wiring. They are also frowned upon in these circles as they introduce the wrong kind of noise into the mains which can have a detrimental effect on sound quality.
Posted on: 15 April 2011 by lhau
Try hardener the qute with Ethernet cable, also try to give the qute a static ip address from your router and see if that helps?
Posted on: 15 April 2011 by lhau
Hard wire, not harder
Posted on: 15 April 2011 by badlyread
Originally Posted by lhau:
Try hardener the qute with Ethernet cable, also try to give the qute a static ip address from your router and see if that helps?

How do you give the 'Qute a static IP address? (using Apple Extreme)

 

Thanks

 

Neil

Posted on: 16 April 2011 by lhau
Look at the menu, modern router has a dhcp setup where you can assign a fixed ip to a given "Mac" (the LAN card identify number so to speak). Just put down the Mac# of the qute (you can find it under setup) and give it a fixed address instead of letting he ip# float
Posted on: 16 April 2011 by badlyread

Thanks.

Posted on: 16 April 2011 by Pev

An Airport Express will give better wifi reception than the built in Naim receiver (which uses the outdated "g" protocol) but you can do the same job much cheaper by just hooking in a simple wireless client. I bought a device for £34 which can function as a client, a repeater, a bridge or an access point. I can now reliably stream HD video from iplayer through a 2 foot thick stone wall. I use it as client. It has a gigabit ethernet port which I connect to a cheap switchbox and it feeds my Humax satelite tv and HTPC as well as my Uniti. An even cheaper and simpler thing to try would be to get a better wifi aerial for the UQ (if it's like the Uniti it just screws in) but you would still be limited to wireless G rather than N.

Posted on: 16 April 2011 by badlyread

Have just ordered a 'better' wi-fi aerial. Will post back.

Posted on: 16 April 2011 by 0rangutan
Good luck - I tried a better/bigger aerial and saw no improvement at all. I checked the status reporting from the Qute but also from the Airport utility on the Mac, providing lots more detail, but the same results.
Posted on: 16 April 2011 by lhau
Wifi is just not fast enough. Use a Ethernet cable is almost a requirement.
Posted on: 16 April 2011 by Tog
Well that depends I use Wifi (2 airport extremes) TogServe hardwired with Uniti via wifi and it is rock solid streaming flac at all resolutions. Tog
Posted on: 16 April 2011 by garyi

There are a multitude if applications that will check your network speed, there are loads for the iphone. Download one and see what throughput speed you are getting.

 

I have just the laptop which is not in any way connected with music on wifi, wifi is shite.

Posted on: 16 April 2011 by Tog
Originally Posted by garyi:


       


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There are a multitude if applications that will check your network speed, there are loads for the iphone. Download one and see what throughput speed you are getting.

 

I have just the laptop which is not in any way connected with music on wifi, wifi is shite.






Bit extreme there Gary old boy .... I'm sitting in a wonderful beach bar in Portugal posting this ... And from my point of view wifi is fantastic ... But seriously unless the sun has got to my head I have never really had a problem streaming over wifi when the server end is hard wired.



Tog
Posted on: 28 April 2011 by Ellsworth

Ive had the same issue with the n-stream app. I couldnt get the upnp input to work on my Uniti. Im using a laptop with windows and no special upnp software or NAS drives. Just a laptop with music in 'my music' folder. The app found my computer but then diconnected as I tried to play music. Origionaly I thought it was a wireless issue. I got a long bit of Cat 5 cable and wired the compter, router and Uniti together. It all worked perfectly. The app wouldnt connect but would work once the remote had connected the uniti to the compter. I checked the network settings in the unity menu and the uniti reported that the wi-fi was disconnected as it had a 'wired connection'. I then disconnected everything and the wireless worked perfectly - appart from the n-stream app!. The i-radio always worked and now it even streams hi-def downloads very well. Im using a standard BT home hub. Im sharing this to hopefully help other users having a problem enjoy their music. The n-stream app still works AFTER the remote has connected to the laptop via upnp. I cant get cover art to work either. Summary is it all works now after lots of buggeration but the app only works without cover art after Ive connected to the laptop via the remote control. Hope this helps.

Posted on: 28 April 2011 by TJ

Hi Ellsworth,

In our experience BT home hubs are not the most reliable routers for using in a UPnP application. They seem to sometimes decide to spuriously block UPnP traffic. Also the problems with them vary between wired and wireless and the problems come and go, so you can think you have fixed it then some hours/days later it all stops working again.

 

Also there are differences between the different vintage Home Hubs, some seem to work better than others, there is plenty of discussion on the subject on the internet.

 

TBH I would recommend getting rid of the HH and getting as standard WiFi router (Netgear or similar). 

Posted on: 28 April 2011 by Ellsworth
Originally Posted by TJ:

Hi Ellsworth,

In our experience BT home hubs are not the most reliable routers for using in a UPnP application. They seem to sometimes decide to spuriously block UPnP traffic. Also the problems with them vary between wired and wireless and the problems come and go, so you can think you have fixed it then some hours/days later it all stops working again.

 

Also there are differences between the different vintage Home Hubs, some seem to work better than others, there is plenty of discussion on the subject on the internet.

 

TBH I would recommend getting rid of the HH and getting as standard WiFi router (Netgear or similar).

 

Thanks TJ. Any ideas on the n-serve not working to connect the upnp. It works via remote. Are you suggesting the app isnt working properly due to the HH router? If so why is the Hi def music streaming okay?? Any thoughts appreciated.

Posted on: 28 April 2011 by TJ

When you say "works via remote" I assume you mean if you use the Uniti with the Naim IR handset everything works ok?

 

It doesn't surprise me that you find that some things work and some don't with the HH as it seems to behave differently wired and wireless. UPnP discovery works especially badly via the HH wireless. the disturbing thing is that the problems are not consistent so you can reboot the HH, things work for a bit then the HH decides it doesn't want to play ball and starts blocking traffic.

 

From experience using a standard modem/router is very likely to sort all your problems.

Posted on: 28 April 2011 by 0rangutan

TJ is right - there have been lots of similar problems reported on here and the BT home hub is the worst culprit of all.

A decent Netgear or Linksys box should sort things for you, or, if you are an Apple user, an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule.

Posted on: 28 April 2011 by DavidDever

I travel with an Apple Time Capsule (Simultaneous Dual-Band II)–and recently visited a retailer (yesterday) where we had the exact same problem.

 

Make sure that you have given the 5 GHz Wi-Fi band its own SSID as shown below, and use this to connect the laptop. This leaves the 2.4 GHz band for the UnitiQute (via wireless) and the iPhone (which does not support the 5 GHz band, though your MacBook Pro does).

 

 

If you must use wireless for the UnitiQute, as suggested before the current version of the AirPort Express is significantly better than its predecessors and can be used to bridge both the 2.4 GHz b/g/n and 5 GHz a/n Wi-Fi bands. Keep in mind, though, that wireless bandwidth diminishes as additional clients are added to the network (including guest clients)–there are ways (such as client access control by MAC address) to alleviate this, however.