Issue with WiFi extender & Squeezebox

Roon Core on Fedora 25 Roon 1.6, build 416

Roon Core machine through 1Gb unmanaged switch > ATT-supplied 2Wire router > Squeezebox Touch – or ATT router> Netgear EX6120 WiFi extender > Squeezebox Touch

Squeezebox Touch used as Roon endpoint as above

This setup has worked more or less OK with the ATT router-to-the-Squeezebox Touch setup.

I added the WiFi extender to bring a strong signal to a Squeezebox 3 located another couple of rooms away. That Squeezebox now works perfectly, where minus the extender, it dropped out more or less continuously.

Now, when I connect this Touch to the ATT router directly, it functions fine, apart from unreliable performance at 24/192. (Which was part of the swamp I set out to drain before I met the alligators.)

But when connected through the WiFi extender, I get no output from the SBT and Roon advances from song to song every ten seconds or so.

This despite markedly better WiFi measurements via the extender. At the SBT’s location, signal strength on the ATT router’s net is a dismal -74 dBm. From the extender, it’s -49 dBm. Throughput is somewhat higher with the extender in-circuit, but not as much higher as I would expect given the difference in signal strength. That part puzzles me.

Round trip latency is not greatly different between the two networks - about 5 mS or so either way.

Any ideas?

Hi @Carl_Seibert,

We have sometimes seen issues surrounding WiFi extenders and ISP provided routers as mentioned in our Networking Best Practices guide. I suspect what is going on here is that the extender is unable to properly pass multicast traffic to the squeezebox.

Our suggestion here would be to either use direct Ethernet runs from a consumer-grade router (Asus/Netgear/TP-Link/ect.) and feed this into an unmanaged switch, or use a mesh-network type router (Orbi/Velop/Eero) to get the signal over to the other side of the house.

I am not sure if you have any additional configuration options on the extender itself regarding multicast and want to take a look at that regard but if you do not, the above suggestions would be recommended.

– Noris

I will take another look at the options on the extender and see if there’s anything to be reconfigured. I didn’t see anything when I looked before.

Meanwhile, I’ll look into relocating the Squeezebox to see if I can get it onto a better signal.

Oh that I could just run a wire, but the design of the house makes that very close to impossible for this location.

Thanks!

-Carl

1 Like

Update for anybody who happens on this thread. Lateral move.

I fired up a RoPieee endpoint (Roon Bridge-based Raspberry Pi appliance www.ropieee.org. Thanks Harry!) and it’s connected happily to the NetGear extender. It’s playing a 24/192 recording in the background as I type this.

So - a possibility if you’re extender challenged.

-Carl

Hi @Carl_Seibert,

Thanks for the update and glad to hear that RoPieee is working as expected in your setup! I’m going to go ahead and mark this thread as [Solved] but if you have any issues in the future my suggestions above would be the next aspect to look into. Thanks!

– Noris

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