[ajzepp]

I don't know what's going on with my router and laptop, but I'm tired of spending more time with tech support and futzing with settings than I am listening to my music. So here is my question: I have all my music files on my laptop and I use iTues to organize it all. I also have a TDAC from Tube Audio Designs, which has both a coax dig and optical inputs. Is there some easy way I can run a cable (optical?) from my laptop to the dac and just play my music via iTunes that way? Or would I have to go the usb dac route?

I've been really happy with my Duet for a while now, but for some reason after moving into a new place a couple weeks ago nothing seems to want to work correctly.

Please help!

PS. Is this what I need? http://www.hagtech.com/hagusb.html

[srb]

Some laptops have a combination analog/mini-toslink optical headphone jack.  All Macbooks have it, but it is hit and miss among PC/Windows laptops.  Does yours have one?
 
If not, a USB to S/PDIF converter like the HagUsb will work with your S/PDIF input DAC for 16-bit/44.1KHz files.  If you need to acommodate higher resolution files, you might want to look into converters like those from Bel Canto, M2Tech, Stello and others.
 
Steve

[avta]

Since you have a Duet I wonder if you have tried using SqueezeServer software to organize and play your music files?

[Wayne1]

Have you looked to see how many other networks are in your new area? There could simply be too much interference from other routers, microwaves and wireless phones.

If you are thinking of running a wire, why don't you just run some Cat5? Far less expensive than the other alternatives and less loss. The computer should be hard wired to the router and the router hard wired to the DUET. You will have to go into the main set-up to change over to Ethernet, but that should get rid of most of your problems with your network.

[ajzepp]

Wayne: Wow, I'm a total idiot....I didn't even think to see if there was an ethernet port on the duet receiver...    You're right, that would be much easier, and I'm already running an HDMI cable from front to back under the carpet (to the projector), so this would be a simple solution to run a Cat5 cable from the router. Thanks!!

Avta: yep, I love SqueezeServer and usually use it to interface with my duet receiver instead of the duet controller.

srb: I checked, but I don't see an optical jack...for some reason I thought I had one on there, but I guess not. Thanks for confirming the HagUsb option for me

[ajzepp]

Okay, this is pretty weird...(at least to me, cause I'm not a computer guy)

So I get home from work and I'm ready to try and get my Duet fired up using Wayne's suggestion of the ethernet port. Well, what I realized was that my laptop was indicating it was connected to the home network, even though I had no internet access. I was curious if this meant that my Duet could connect to the network since I remembered it didn't require internet access, and sure enough it connected to the network just fine. I reset the receiver and the Duet controller recognized it right away. Next, I wanted to see if it could access my music collection on my PC. I chose "my music" and it said it connected to my PC, but the squeez server wasn't recognizing anything.

So anyway, I figured that since my Duet was already on the network and seemed to be working, I thought I'd just ethernet the laptop into the router since I keep it in relatively close proximity anyway. Sure enough, the laptop was now on the network, the duet controller gained access to my play list, and the squeeze server "saw" the duet receiver.

I have been on the phone with cust svc with Cisco for a while (the other day) and eventually gave up, but it seems to me the problem isn't with the router but with the laptop's wireless adapter (?)  I called Dell up and they wanted me to buy a one year extended warranty for the bargain basement price of $239, so I jumped right on that.




NOT!!!! 

So I don't know what's wrong with this stupid computer, but if all I have to do is keep it hardwired to the router, it's not a big deal. The Duet is working great....Amos Lee is signing beautifully over my Maggies....and all is good

Thanks again for the help, guys!

[scp2]

The moral of the story

"If your computor is not working just keep trying shit til something works"

The really good IT repair guys just know more things to try.

[avta]

It may be that you are seeing that the computer is connected to your home network but not the internet. You might disconnect the power to the modem and router and leave them unplugged for a minute then re-connect them. This may allow for reconnecting to the internet if that is the issue. If that doesn't work do the same thing but also disconnect the power to the Duet then go through the setup again.

[ajzepp]

One last quick update, then I'll stop bothering you guys lol

I ended up checking Dell's site for new drivers as a last resort, and I guess that should have been one of the first things I did. I entered my service tag number and it recommended about 15 drivers that needed to be installed/updated. Well, I did that, and restarted my computer, and when it rebooted I noticed that the wireless status icon in the bottom of the screen wasn't there. I looked under the start menu, clicked on network, then tried to connect to the wireless, and it connected with no trouble. I still had the ethernet cable connected, though, so I figured it would lose connection as soon as I unplugged it. So I took it out, waited a sec, then tried to access another web page....and it worked!! Wooohoo!!!

This probably sounds like basic stuff to a lot of you, so I apologize....just nice to have my system working again. I'm also glad it wasn't the cisco/linksys router, cause I have always liked their products. So now I have a nice, fast wireless-n connection and all is well.

Thanks again, all...I'm out!