Hi,
I’ve seen similar threads but nothing that helped me to solve my problem. The TV Live randomly looses its wireless connection to my network when I play video from a media server (which is handled by my router and a USB Drive). When it does, my Wii is still able to surf the internet wiressly at the same time so the network is still running fine…
I have the new Linksys E3000 wireless router setup as a media server with a connected USB External drive from which I am trying to stream over the TV Live. The dongle I have on my TV Live is the Linksys WUSB600N v2. I upgraded to the latest firmware and everything works like a charm for a while. I have configured the TV Live to have its own static IP adress in my router. It cannot be distance because the signal is 100% strong with my laptop (the signal only needs to travel a flat 10ft through a single wall).
The TV Live still always looses its connection however, every once in a while. It happens quicker with HD content than downloaded rips from the internet, but it still disconnects 4 to 5 times per movie, regardless of the file size. This is really annoying !
Any suggestions ?
Given the data you give, one possibility is the USB WiFi dongle may not be working well; if it is doable, try another one. I am not familiar with these WiFi dongles but if you can get one that you can attach a directional antenna so you aim it higher and better towards your router it will work better.
Finally, in the end you should plan on moving to a wired connection, especially moving to do HD content. I gave up on WiFi a few months ago with a similar setup as you have; I now have a small switch behind my Movie Theater setup and have now wired connections for my TV, WD TV Live, Roku for music, etc, with one wire from that switch to my router in another room. I can’t tell you how much better everything works now. Music is OK, but video is not reliable enough via WiFi with all its reception interferences that can happen when one needs high bandwitdh… Al
Too bad, I can’t go wired. I thought it might be some settings in the router or the TV Live. Again, the movies never lags, even HD, it just looses its connection. By the way the new E3000 is the exact same thing than the WRT610N which I believe is a popular choice. Anybody else experienced that kind of problem and fixed it ?
Right now my 2 computers are wired to the router. If I move the router downstairs and wire instead the TV Live, I need to buy WiFi cards or use dongles on both of my computers. If I ever need to do that, what do you suggest I use and which brand/model considering my type of router ?
Thanks
Simply moving the router to be near the WD TV Live won’t do any good if the content is WiFi away from the router. I strongly recommend that you consider wiring your place. An electrician may help you figure it out. Also a good sound system store may be able to do it for you. I don’t know how handy you are, but opening up a 1 foot by one foot “hole” in your wall behind the TV area allows you to drill inside the base of a wall to get the wire downstairs to your router inside the wall. Then patch the wall hole when you are done… Al
aljimenez wrote:
Simply moving the router to be near the WD TV Live won’t do any good if the content is WiFi away from the router. I strongly recommend that you consider wiring your place. An electrician may help you figure it out. Also a good sound system store may be able to do it for you. I don’t know how handy you are, but opening up a 1 foot by one foot “hole” in your wall behind the TV area allows you to drill inside the base of a wall to get the wire downstairs to your router inside the wall. Then patch the wall hole when you are done… Al
1 foot by one foot “hole”, that sounds a bit off putting. I have never wired up my network but I have dropped wires and aerial cables etc from my loft. I just opened up a small hole and used a bent metal wire to fish about in the wall cavity until I found the wire and pulled it out. Maybe harder but it leaves a much smaller hole. (obviously I realise it all depends on how your house is constructed)
LOL – I was thinking the same thing, Rich, but I didn’t want to be critical of anyone’s wirepulling.
Here in the U.S. it’s common to simply cut a hole the size of an outlet box (say, around 2 inches by 3 inches) to find the wires you drop (and then, of course, the outlet box fits in that hole covering it all up). That’s what I did when I ran the CAT5 for the Live(s) in my house. As long as you measure carefully you should always be able to find those wires just fine.
Well I can surely see how my 1ft square hole could be an overkill, but I was trying to hide the wires going from the top floor to the bottom floor by going through the inside of the wall so it would look neat downstairs. Thus the need for a large enough hole to drill inside the wall floor. But who really knows what the best thing to do is in every situation. It turns out that large holes are not difficult to patch with most homes here in the US. I have done this in the old home we restored… Al
Oh, I think I understand what you were saying, now – you mean you had to make sure a large hole in one floor so you could then drill down properly between the walls, right?
Since I was puttling wires through the attic it was a lot easier (just to find the walls there and drill down). I can see how it would be a little difficult to drill down (or up) from one floor to the other without such access.
And yes, if your interior walls are drywalls they are certainly easy to patch (I try to do these things when my wife isn’t home, though, as it makes her exceedingly nervous when I start drilling around the house :>)
aljimenez wrote:
Well I can surely see how my 1ft square hole could be an overkill, but I was trying to hide the wires going from the top floor to the bottom floor by going through the inside of the wall so it would look neat downstairs. Thus the need for a large enough hole to drill inside the wall floor. But who really knows what the best thing to do is in every situation. It turns out that large holes are not difficult to patch with most homes here in the US. I have done this in the old home we restored… Al
I suppose it does all depend on the construction of your house and how good you are at renovation. In my house you can drop straight down a cavity from the loft / attic to the ground floor.
I found some additional clues I think. I noticed that when I “loose my connection” it usually hangs on DNS Server when I’m checking the connection in the settings menu. The IP address is ok (perhaps because it is a fixed address ?). I’ve double-checked and I’m still able to acess the media server from my PC but not the TV Live (which I have shared over my network). Now when I got to wireless favorites, re-connect using the only wireless setup I have, everything gets back to normal. Is this normal behavior, does that give additional clues as of what is my problem ? I really cannot go wired, I wish it would be a matter of only one floor straight down 
Please let me know
Thanks
Okay, you have made sure you don’t have WIndows Live ID assistant installed, correct?
Perhaps Tony (or is it Grant? I forget which one’s the network expert) will chime in here and tell you what you should be looking for vis-a-vis DNS and all that stuff.
I’m using Windows 7 and I don’t see a “Windows Live - Assistant” in my Add/Remove Programs (under Control Panel). So I guess I didn’t even have it installed !
You don’t have to bump your thread up (and shouldn’t) – if folks here can help, they will.
I know that Tony has recently bought a couple of the routers you are using, so perhaps he’ll have some insight on using them with the Live when he gets them set up.
Further info: I noticed that the DNS address was my “external” one, not the fixed IP address of the router. I changed that to 192.168.1.1 and will keep experimenting. Any input on this behavior appreciated.
Using an internal DNS address didn’t change a thing. I also renamed the workgroup of my router from “Workgroup” to “WORKGROUP” and it hasn’t change a **bleep** thing either.
I wired the whole thing, but it still drops the connection !!! That leads me to think it must be a router setting although when I loose my TVLIVE wired connection I’m still abel to access the network, media server or internet both of my computer so the router is up and running…What the hell ?
