AirPort, broken sound...

quote:

Originally posted by djftw:
Airport connected, Laptop connected, Music keeps stopping and starting. Weak signal? Network being overworked (about 12 computers in this house at my last count, no idea how many are being used right now)? Or is something more sinister going on!!!

This is normal, whether you are on wireless n or g, you actually have ample network bandwidth, at least theoretically.

I find that wireless signal tends to fluctuates occasionally throughout the day. I have 2 wireless n and 1 wireless g networks in the house, their signal strengths are excellent most of the time but if one network drops down (momentarily), I just simply switch to another network.

For in-house media streaming, it is annoying. So if it is possible, I would recommend wired connectivity.

However, if you listen to internet music, the music will bound to stutter at one time or another unless you live in Tokyo or Korea where the broadband bandwidth is excellent (I get 70-80 Mbits/sec downloads and can upload at 40-60 Mbits/sec when I am in Tokyo).

Have a look at the airport signal strength - that should give you some pointers as to whether its interference / wireless issues

rgds

James

How are you controlling the express?

quote:

Originally posted by djftw:
Airport connected, Laptop connected, Music keeps stopping and starting. Weak signal? Network being overworked (about 12 computers in this house at my last count, no idea how many are being used right now)? Or is something more sinister going on!!!

What music are you playing? Ripped cds? Internet Radio? Are you using itunes?

quote:

Airport connected, Laptop connected, Music keeps stopping and starting. Weak signal? Network being overworked (about 12 computers in this house at my last count, no idea how many are being used right now)? Or is something more sinister going on!!!

I have the same problem, but not sure how to fix it. A reboot of the AE provides a temporary fix, but still happens every so often.

I imagine that this is just caused by interference from the myriad wireless devices that are in/around an NYC apartment.

I listen to music off my computer's hard drive (which is new and fast), have strong signal strength and the "interference robustness" (or whatever it's called) option checked. One thing I haven't tried is picking a particular channel in the setup utility (on "auto" right now)... maybe finding one that's less susceptible to inteference in your home might work?

quote:

Originally posted by Kartik:

quote:

Airport connected, Laptop connected, Music keeps stopping and starting. Weak signal? Network being overworked (about 12 computers in this house at my last count, no idea how many are being used right now)? Or is something more sinister going on!!!

I have the same problem, but not sure how to fix it. A reboot of the AE provides a temporary fix, but still happens every so often.

I imagine that this is just caused by interference from the myriad wireless devices that are in/around an NYC apartment.

I listen to music off my computer's hard drive (which is new and fast), have strong signal strength and the "interference robustness" (or whatever it's called) option checked. One thing I haven't tried is picking a particular channel in the setup utility (on "auto" right now)... maybe finding one that's less susceptible to inteference in your home might work?

Does not matter what you do, you will have the same problem, trust me, unless Apple (or LinkSys or whoever the manufacturer) fixes the sofware / firmware.

I have tried all channels, radio bands (2.4 Ghz, 5 Gz) and g/n protocols. Some may be better than others but the problem is still fundamentally there. I guess that it happens around 1 % - 5 % of my listening time, maybe 0% on a good day.

I was using a Linksys router connected to my cable modem and an AE. My AE kept dropping out, much like you describe. It seemed worse in the evenings when the airwaves were full of other networks (I live in an apartment). I solved it by tossing the Linksys router and connecting the AE direct to my cable modem. I then had reliable wireless connections for both music and data. I have since moved to a a TimeCapsule as my router. This talks to my AE and MacBook with no dropouts or problems, other than the AE needing a very occasional (monthly?) powerdown/up due to it kind of "going to sleep". Not sure if this helps...

Yep, a wired connection to the AE would definitely fix the problem as I have recommended earlier. However, for some people, it is not a practical solution.

The AE (and most other WLan routers) is by default configured to automatically choose a channel at startup. So it checks and tries to choose one that is not used by someone else.

Over the next days and weeks other people in your neighbourhood start and stop their wireless routers. So the channel that was good (= only used by your WLan) a few days ago could be shared with others by now. So a reboot would choose a different channel and this could help for a few days.

Since I have up to 12 visible WLans fighting in the 2.4GHz range for the channels 1-11 here (802.11b+g), I have changed my equipment to use the 5GHz band (channels up to 36, 802.11n only) where I am the only WLan user by now. This has helped a lot!

And of course you'll have to keep the software, drivers and router firmware up-to-date!

Try to move your router in different positions and measure the reception at your most critical machine. I could optimize the reception significantly by putting it somewhere else then where it was first. When this is not enough, you'll probably have to add another router to extend your Wlan...

The AirPort option "interference robustness" reduces the throughput significantly. In my tests it did more harm than good. You may want to try both options in your environment. It has to be activated/deacivated on both sides (computer + router) to work properly!

Obviously this option is only present with active 2.4Ghz band. I could not find it in my actual 5GHz only configuration.

happy wlaning
Adrian

How are you controlling the express?

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
How are you controlling the express?

What would be your recommendations?

I use the following settings:

On the Airport Extreme:
1) Wireless: Create a wireless network
2) WPA2 Personal
3) Use wide Channels
4) 802.11n only (5 Ghz)
5) IPv6: Link-local only
6) SNMP on

On the Airport Express:
1) Wireless: Join a wireless network
2) WPA2 Personal
3) Use wide Channels
4) IPv6: Link-local only
5) SNMP on

If you are using Mac OS 10.4.11 on an Intel based machine, Apple released "Apple Airport Extreme Update - 2008-002" which is supposed to solve problems with realtime audio applications...

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31754

Hi imperilaine

I assume you have the latest spec express as you are using n spec wireless only.

If this is the case then everything looks fine.

However what I was specifically getting at was how are you controling it.

What people sometimes do is set up itunes sharing over a number of computers. So for instance you might have a library on your mac or pc and a laptop in your hand and the main music is being shared from the pc to the laptop, then you are selecting the music to play on the express.

This way can lead to drop outs.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Hi imperilaine

I assume you have the latest spec express as you are using n spec wireless only.

If this is the case then everything looks fine.

However what I was specifically getting at was how are you controling it.

What people sometimes do is set up itunes sharing over a number of computers. So for instance you might have a library on your mac or pc and a laptop in your hand and the main music is being shared from the pc to the laptop, then you are selecting the music to play on the express.

This way can lead to drop outs.

Apology to djftw for stealing this thread from you.

Hi garyi,

Sure, I have all the latest stuffs (software, firmware and hardware). I also have various libraries from my PCs and MacBook laptops, all set up to shared in the same network, but I always use the library from my MacBook Pro for serious listening.

However, the main issue is not only related to music playing, but it is a network issue in general. This issue usually shows up when I do extensive networking with multi-media streaming, bit torrent activities, etc. all going on at the same time.

Another probable cause is that my AE (and my macbook pro) is too far away from the base station and I notice that the wireless signal strength fluctuates from time to time. You may say that it is probably caused by interferences but I know that I am the only one in the neighborhood using wireless N with 5 Ghz.

I am not sure what the 5ghz thing is but understand its to do with america and bandwidth. I also understand its not needed in order to function and would be the first thing I switch off.

I too have an airport extreme and do a lot of network stuff and have not experienced a drop out.

Do you have istumbler downloaded to ensure noone is using the channel you are on. Lots of people are on N now.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
I am not sure what the 5ghz thing is but understand its to do with america and bandwidth. I also understand its not needed in order to function and would be the first thing I switch off.

I too have an airport extreme and do a lot of network stuff and have not experienced a drop out.

Do you have istumbler downloaded to ensure noone is using the channel you are on. Lots of people are on N now.

Hi Garyi,

I did use 2.4 GHz before, IMO 5Gz is much better in terms of high performance and robustness. I would strongly recommend it.
If you are a few hundreds feet from the base station, perhaps you see the impact of the fluctuation of the wireless signal strength.

I am positive that I am the only one using 5 Ghz since:

1) There is only a few houses in the neighborhood and I know everyone of them.
2) I did try istumbler a couple of times mainly for fun and curiosity. I have both wireless G and N in the house both on PCs and Macs so I know precisely what wireless networks out there and on what frequencies/channels they are on.


Btw, most annoying trouble I have is with the internet radio, it could be the setting of the streaming buffer size and the radio sources.

Thanks for the troubleshooting ideas anyway.

Anyway, I have always respected your opinion grayi. Especially, your www.sbls.co.uk is some kind of a bible to me.

Sadly I am kind of stumped on this one. At this stage I would suggest plugging it into ethernet to see if its stable that way.

The only other thing I can think of is did you set it up as a print server (This also allows the audio)

But as you can see I am out of ideas!

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Sadly I am kind of stumped on this one. At this stage I would suggest plugging it into ethernet to see if its stable that way.

The only other thing I can think of is did you set it up as a print server (This also allows the audio)

But as you can see I am out of ideas!

Please do not be bothered, I am actually alright and happy 99.9 % of the time with my current setup.

I have a Roku radio/streamer and find that it has to be very near to the router to stream uncompressed music. However it will stream low bit mp3s from the other side of the house.

Hmm, distance to the router seems to be the problem. Oh well!