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For wi-fi streamers--a discovery to increase wi-fi strength

It was previously reported in a thread here that putting a piece of aluminum foil  behind a router can increase wi-fi signal strength, and I verified this with the Bluesound app for my Bluesound Node streamer.

Today, because I was having some internet speed problems, I experimented with the orientation of the base router of my mesh network, and found this made a significant difference in the wi-fi signal strength, going from "Good" to "Excellent."

Then for the first time I added a piece of aluminum foil behind the extension router unit nearest my streamer, and that further improved the wi-fi signal strength from -48 dBm to -43 dBm, the best reading I've ever gotten with this mesh network.

Given that an "Excellent" reading is considered by Bluesound to be necessary for streaming hi-res files, this is an important consideration for those doing wi-fi streaming.  And perhaps some members who have been disappointed with wi-fi streaming didn't have adequate wi-fi signal strength.  I suspect the audible differences (at least with the Node streamer) lie in problems with dropouts and buffering rather than sound quality, but I'm not certain of that or whether that would be the case for all streamers.

128x128drmuso
soix
8,765 posts
 

Are you running an Ethernet cable from the mesh node to your streamer?

llg98ljk's avatar
llg98ljk
142 posts
 

I'm hard wired from my gateway to my Node and from Node to preamp.

AT&T gigabit service. I've never experienced buffering or dropout. If you have to use wi-fi I suppose that can throw a monkey wrench into things.

drmuso's avatar
drmuso OP
76 posts
 

I am not running an ethernet cable to my streamer.

Occasionally, my wi-fi strength drops and that sometimes causes problems with the streaming, but generally that isn't an issue and the wi-fi usually remains in the "Excellent" range.  When the wi-fi signal weakens, a quick reboot of the Node often fixes the problem, and that can be done with the BlueOS software.

The Node was described as a wi-fi streamer, and it may be designed to work better that way than other streamers, I don't really know.  It is about 45 ft. from my modem, so I think wi-fi is the way to go rather than running a 45-ft. ethernet cable, although I could run a 10-ft. cable from the mesh extension to the Node if wi-fi didn't work well.  I had to do that at one point with a so-called "Smart" TV that wasn't working well with my wi-fi network, but an update of the router firmware solved that problem.

ghdprentice
6,439 posts
 

I recommend placing an WiFi extender next to your streamer and running an Ethernet cable to that. WiFi receivers in streamers tend not to be very good. I have used WiFi streamers of much higher quality than yours and switched to a wall wart WiFi extender and got much better results. In fact both of my systems work off of WiFi extenders and work flawlessly when I can’t get a page to change on my iPad.

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