Airport Extreme and ND5 XS

tell her to get over the cables.  Get some sexy ones.  Or inconspicuous ones. 

Wired connection is the way to go.

A few meters?  as long as you are not going through doorways and whatnot.

Yes I am going through a doorway and more so Wifi would be much better.

@Tog - sounds promising. I will try an AE.

Yes I got away with the Mac Mini in the lounge because it looks nice and it plays the TV programs on BBC iPlayer that Mrs Ollie are missing from home. So I am pretty sure the AE will be accepted 

I had some issues with my SU and my Airport Extreme with firmware 3.09 using wifi.

I got dropouts now and then but more annoying was that the SU dropped the network connection sometimes, pressing "ok" on the remote to reconnect would only make the SU to connect for a second only to disconnect and the only solution was to restart the SU with the power button.

Now, I have two Airport Extremes I tried with. They are one and two generations old, but the SU was (is) the only wifi-product in my house having these issues.

Upgrading to 3.13 made the wifi better not by much. I am still having dropouts but I have not yet to have to restart with the power button.

The SU is the only wifi-product in my house having issues with the wifi.

@Somchie - I had exactly the same Wifi issues on my ND5. Sometimes I had to restart it again to make it reconnect.

Olliememate - Interesting! You said you had these issues, how did you solve it? The new firmware?

@Somchie - that's when I decided to go wired which works perfectly. I think it is strange that the ND5 is the only product in my house I have wifi issues with.

I do not have a Naim streamer yet, and I have a wired SBT at the moment.  IIRC, Naim is all wireless G.  You could disable the onboard wireless an connect a short CAT5/6 wire to an AirPort Extreme or Express which is wirelessly connected to your main Extreme.   This gives you a pure Wireless-N wi-fi network, which IME is more robust.  If issues persist, I have found experimenting with manually setting the wireless channel can improve performance, for laptops and iPad, etc.

Nick

Thanks Nick, very helpful since I already have an Airport Express connected to my ND5 - with optical for Airplay. Will do some tests with CAT 5.

Beware that older Expresses were G.  You can tell which you have in the Setup utiliy.

G works fine under ideal conditions, but N has fewer issues, I find.

Good luck.

Nick

Nick,

Do you know how to determine which is which?

Thanks,

Patrick

Airport extreme works flawlessly with Unitiqute in my setup, and they are some distance apart. Perfect streaming, even with hi res material (96/24 anyway).

Before I had the airport extreme reception was a bit patchy with hi res material.

A quick update - I got an Airport Extreme and set it up the way NickSeattle suggested. Disabled ND5's onboard wireless. Streaming from Airport Extreme to an Airport Express with a short CAT5 lead to the ND5. Manually selected a resonably free wifi channel. Using G instead of ND5's N.

Well... what can I say... perfect result. Have now been streaming lossless, hires and radio the whole day without a slightest dropout. And it sounds very good too.

Thanks Nick for the advice!

olliememate,

Glad you are having good results.  Even N wireless can have issues.  If you experience dropouts, I found experimenting with manually setting the communication channels resolved my issues.  I Googled for these suggestions and they were good; I do not remember the details.  IIRC, there are trade offs choosing high versus low channel numbers.  The auto-settings mode is not optimal when there is interference.  

Patrick,  I do not know how to tell N from G Expresses at the moment.  I looked at my N Express in the Utility and did not see any indicators.  I would guess that if firmware 7.6.1 or better is indicated after maxing updates you have an N.  I will let you know when I have a chance to test, as I have a G in a drawer somewhere. 

Regards,

Nick

Patrick,

Firmware for the G appears to max out at 6.3, versus 7.6.1 for current AirPorts.  Firmware level should be indicated in the AirPort Utility for Mac or PC.  

AirPort Utility 6.x for Mac 10.7.x Lion complains if you try to configure an Express-G, and recommends you downgrade to Utility 5.6.  

Nick

There were some issues over firmware reported in the support forums - mostly to do with data through put issues when transferring very large files and not likely to cause issues with audio. I did have one issue with my AEs in the previous home when the microwave was used but moving the kitchen AE solved that one. Thses days the TogServe and Uniti are hardwired with a separate switch and this has certainly improved the speed and reliability of nStream.

Tog

I replaced my router, Airport Extreme, with a Asus RT-N66U and now everything works flawless.

It's quiet nice because the router has an in-built DLNA-server that works with a harddrive connected to one of the two USB ports on the router. (cover art works and it refreshes the library instantly when changing or adding something)

Wifi range is so much better and I do not any longer need Airport Express or any other wifi access point in the house any more. At the far end of our house we have several rooms having lead in the walls due to x-ray equipment, but the wifi works even in those rooms with the doors closed!

I am not saying the Airport Extreme isn't good, I am only saying the Asus is better

Now, my SU unit works like a charm and I have had no dropouts since!