TP Wired or Wireless

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #20 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 08:50 pm »

Still not sure what is hardwired here fellas? Seems to me that wirelessly transmitting to a router that is hardwired to your SB is still not going to be the best possible solution if some of you claim better sound when wired.

So are you hard-wiring your computer directly to the SB w/o use of the router at all?

zybar · « **Reply #21 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 08:57 pm »

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 Oct 2009, 08:50 pm

Still not sure what is hardwired here fellas? Seems to me that wirelessly transmitting to a router that is hardwired to your SB is still not going to be the best possible solution if some of you claim better sound when wired.

So are you hard-wiring your computer directly to the SB w/o use of the router at all?

SB or TP connects to the router, not to the computer.

George

zybar · « **Reply #22 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:00 pm »

Quote from: lcrim on 23 Oct 2009, 07:35 pm

I now run the sound portion (Squeeze Sever,2 SB3 of my home network wired and it may be psychoacoustics but the improvement is highly noticeable. People who haven't visited in a while, ask me what I did and the running of cables is all I can think of. Hard to imagine that turning off the wireless card had that big an effect on the sound.

I also think that your TP may not know how to get to the internet. I would bounce the (presumably wireless) router and also the DSL device or cable modem.

How about somebody who is technically savvy (and owns the right equipment) measuring RFI and other things with the wireless capability enabled vs. disabled? I will be shocked if there isn't some type of measurable difference between the two modes.

George

BPT · « **Reply #23 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:10 pm »

When wired, I would guess the wireless card is not off, but just not passing data, generating a larger magnetic field and drawing more current to muck up the power supply further. It might sound even better with the wireless card completely removed. Might be able to measure the magnetic field with a Tr-Meter when using wired vs. wireless.
Chris H.

jwes · « **Reply #24 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:18 pm »

Quote from: zybar on 23 Oct 2009, 08:57 pm

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 Oct 2009, 08:50 pm
Still not sure what is hardwired here fellas? Seems to me that wirelessly transmitting to a router that is hardwired to your SB is still not going to be the best possible solution if some of you claim better sound when wired.

So are you hard-wiring your computer directly to the SB w/o use of the router at all?

SB or TP connects to the router, not to the computer.

George

OK, so I'm an idiot...

Here's what I thought: I have two "wireless" pathways: Router to computer (and back); Router to Transporter. What I did was hard wire via ethernet my computer to the TP. That way, I thought, it would still be wireless between computer and router (for internet radio streaming), but then rather than sending wireless from router to TP, it would be wired from computer to the TP.

For files stored on the computer (cd's, high res), I figured that the Squeezebox server software on teh macbook pro would read it from the hard drive and send wired to the TP (bypassing wireless through the router altogether). This did sound better.

For internet radio, it wasn't working. I thought it would because the Squeezebox server software on the computer showed the stations playing, but the Transporter just said "Connecting...".

I'm ready to be pounced on for my ignorance here.

lcrim · « **Reply #25 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:24 pm »

Chris:
During setup of the device, you actually do turn off the wireless card. No current draw or generation of anything.
Years back several guys claimed that wired sounded better and of course I thought it was nonsense. IIRC, I think Wayne pointed out that if you don't select wireless its left off as a way of explaining this phenomenon.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #26 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:31 pm »

Quote from: zybar on 23 Oct 2009, 08:57 pm

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 Oct 2009, 08:50 pm
Still not sure what is hardwired here fellas? Seems to me that wirelessly transmitting to a router that is hardwired to your SB is still not going to be the best possible solution if some of you claim better sound when wired.

So are you hard-wiring your computer directly to the SB w/o use of the router at all?

SB or TP connects to the router, not to the computer.

George

So isn't the wireless signal then from the computer to the router less than ideal and we still have a weakness in the path?

BPT · « **Reply #27 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:32 pm »

Icrim:
That certainly would explain the improvement in sound quality. Kind of like the idea of using an external wireless (for those that need to go wireless) and then going wired to a SB3 or TP. Wonder if you run that router with an upgrade power supply (batteries anyone) if the sound would improve. aa
Chris H.

lcrim · « **Reply #28 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:39 pm »

jwes:
I think traffic is either wireless or wired not mixed on the TP anyway.
One of the issues w/ 802.11(wireless) is if you logon to an Active Directory network on the wire, you have to relog wirelessly if you unplug your laptop and carry it somewhere to do something. It is possible to be logged on both ways at once but you'll only pass traffic on one interface. Since wireless is half duplex only, wired (full duplex) would have that advantage.
Also, unless a crossover cable were used, I don't think the TP could connect to the server box.

jwes · « **Reply #29 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:43 pm »

I actually have a spare Airport Express. Could stick that in back and go Ethernet from there to the TP. My computer would be wireless still to that AE (through a base station), but it would turn off the wireless card. This would be similar to the wireless adapter idea.

Previous thought was a mac mini right in the rack ethernet to the TP, which like I said above was the approach for server directly to TP...

zybar · « **Reply #30 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:47 pm »

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 Oct 2009, 09:31 pm

Quote from: zybar on 23 Oct 2009, 08:57 pm
Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 Oct 2009, 08:50 pm
Still not sure what is hardwired here fellas? Seems to me that wirelessly transmitting to a router that is hardwired to your SB is still not going to be the best possible solution if some of you claim better sound when wired.

So are you hard-wiring your computer directly to the SB w/o use of the router at all?

SB or TP connects to the router, not to the computer.

George

So isn't the wireless signal then from the computer to the router less than ideal and we still have a weakness in the path?

I don't believe so.

lcrim nailed it with his posts above.

George

zybar · « **Reply #31 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 09:49 pm »

Quote from: jwes on 23 Oct 2009, 09:18 pm

Quote from: zybar on 23 Oct 2009, 08:57 pm
Quote from: Big Red Machine on 23 Oct 2009, 08:50 pm
Still not sure what is hardwired here fellas? Seems to me that wirelessly transmitting to a router that is hardwired to your SB is still not going to be the best possible solution if some of you claim better sound when wired.

So are you hard-wiring your computer directly to the SB w/o use of the router at all?

SB or TP connects to the router, not to the computer.

George

OK, so I'm an idiot...

Here's what I thought: I have two "wireless" pathways: Router to computer (and back); Router to Transporter. What I did was hard wire via ethernet my computer to the TP. That way, I thought, it would still be wireless between computer and router (for internet radio streaming), but then rather than sending wireless from router to TP, it would be wired from computer to the TP.

For files stored on the computer (cd's, high res), I figured that the Squeezebox server software on teh macbook pro would read it from the hard drive and send wired to the TP (bypassing wireless through the router altogether). This did sound better.

For internet radio, it wasn't working. I thought it would because the Squeezebox server software on the computer showed the stations playing, but the Transporter just said "Connecting...".

I'm ready to be pounced on for my ignorance here.

Not the first or last to make that mistake - no pouncing is needed, just enjoy the music!

George

jwes · « **Reply #32 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 10:44 pm »

OK, so George can you say what exactly is your wiring configuration? Would wireless to an airport express and then that wired to the TP work?

ted_b · « **Reply #33 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 10:49 pm »

I do all musically oriented stuff via wired ethernet. My router is wired to my main computer (which houses Squeezebox Server), and my TP and SB3 are wired to the router too. I only now use wireless for iTouch, laptops, etc.

When we began discussing wired vs wireless I never thought of using wireless from router to SB server. That would be a no/no IMO.

zybar · « **Reply #34 on:** 23 Oct 2009, 11:01 pm »

Quote from: jwes on 23 Oct 2009, 10:44 pm

OK, so George can you say what exactly is your wiring configuration? Would wireless to an airport express and then that wired to the TP work?

I run from Fios box to the wireless router to get internet connectivity.

My server that runs Squeeze Center is connected to the wireless router via an Ethernet cable.

My Modwright TP is also connected to the wireless router via an Ethernet cable.

I see no reason why going wireless to your Airport Express and wired from your Airport Express to your TP wouldn't work. The important part of that setup is that you won't have the wireless card/antenna active in your TP.

Of course, I am assuming that your wireless setup has enough bandwidth to handle the load.

George

AB · « **Reply #35 on:** 24 Oct 2009, 12:44 am »

I was wondering about this too.
Running a Wireless Access Point to the TP would put the wireless connection outside of the TP box. Wireless N might offer enough BW to stream hirez too.
Would this not work?

lcrim · « **Reply #36 on:** 25 Oct 2009, 05:21 am »

Running wired to the Squeeze Server PC and all Logitech devices has proven to be better sounding in my setup.
The fact that this sounds better may be due to the wireless being turned off on the Logitech devices but better bandwidth as well as a full duplex connection may play a role in the improvementas well.
I personally would not add any wireless links to the sound portion of my home network. I still connect wirelessly to this segment w/ laptops etc. as it is my internet access point, like most of you.

BTW, down the line, I wanted to try a Networked Media Tank, and that may require the bandwidth of a wired connection especially for video.

mikel51 · « **Reply #37 on:** 25 Oct 2009, 03:48 pm »

For a long time, my windows server had flaky wireless connection to my wireless router, so I used my transporter in wireless mode and bridged the connection to my windows machine via ethernet. After upgrading my wireless network and PC card to wireless n, my server has a more robust and faster wireless connection to the internet via its own wireless, but I left the wireless on in the transporter.

This thread got me trying to figure out how to turn off wireless on the transporter, but still have it connected to the internet. The solution was to bridge the ethernet connection between the wireless and lan network connections on the windows machine--this created a new network connection called bridge--with a new ip address. After getting the transporter to look for the new bridge IP address and changing the server address on the laptops to address the new IP address, I now know that I am using the wired ethernet between transporter and windows Squeezebox Server.

It did seem to boost up my system performance a notch, but I also installed spikes on my speakers...so not sure which variable made the difference

jwes · « **Reply #38 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 01:56 am »

Arrggghhh - can not figure this out!!

Yesterday, I used an ethernet cable direct between my Transporter and my laptop (macbook pro) running squeezebox server. This worked well and sounded better than wireless, but only for files I ripped into onto the macbook pro. I know it was working wired because I turned off my laptop's wireless capability (Airport). The internet radio stations (and apps like sirius) did not work. On the squeezebox server software, they look like they were playing, but the Transporter just read "Connecting...".

So, then I learned through this thread that "wired" network is really about attaching the TP to the base station/router. So, I connected an airport express to extend my wireless network. Then I attached the Airport Express through ethernet to my Transporter (trying two different cables that I know are good). Then I tried setting up an ethernet network on the Transporter, and I'm getting the error message - "Ethernet appears disconnected Please check your network connection".

This is frustrating. Going to the manual is no help. On page 8, Configuring Transporter, Step 3 says "If you are using an ethernet connection, skip to Step 7". There is no Step 7!! It ends at Step 6!

Can someone help? Maybe both the computer and the TP need to be wired to the same base station, but I don't know why and can't accommodate this. Is there anywhere where Logitech provides any explanation of how to set up a wired network?

Thanks - Sunday nights should be easier

DSK · « **Reply #39 on:** 26 Oct 2009, 03:12 am »

Quote from: jwes on 26 Oct 2009, 01:56 am

Arrggghhh - can not figure this out!!

Yesterday, I used an ethernet cable direct between my Transporter and my laptop (macbook pro) running squeezebox server. This worked well and sounded better than wireless, but only for files I ripped into onto the macbook pro. I know it was working wired because I turned off my laptop's wireless capability (Airport). The internet radio stations (and apps like sirius) did not work. On the squeezebox server software, they look like they were playing, but the Transporter just read "Connecting...".

If I recall correctly, to wire a SB/Transported directly to a PC will require a crossover ethernet cable (usually red) rather than the regular ethernet cable (usually blue).

Routers are smart sensing and can use either a standard or crossover ethernet cable.