buffering problems seem worse since upgrade

I anyone else having constant buffering breaks with their Sansa’s lately?  It seems to have gotten much much worse for me since the firmware upgrade.  Every song on internet radio now breaks several times for buffering making it almost impossible to enjoy the tunes.  My ISP seems no slower on my pcs when running other internet apps.  Any advice?

[edit to add]  Downloading songs also seem to go at a quarter of the speed they used to.

Message Edited by tinak on 11-17-2007 03:24 PM

I have not noticed any service problems.  The fact that your music downloads are much slower confirms that your WiFi conncetion/transfer rate is slower, which could also cause the buffer underrun problem.  You said your PC connection seems normal - is that a hardwire ethernet connection?  If so, then it sounds like you have an issue with your wireless router.  Have you checked the signal strength on your Connect or other wireless devices?  As the signal strength decreases, so does the transfer rate.  However, the wireless tranfer rate would have to be reallyt slow to cause the buffering issues you noted.

I’d be surprised if it is the firmware, but as a last resort, you could do a reset and reinstall on the firmware.  I’d fully investigate your WiFi router and check with tech support to see if they have heard any firmware issues related to tranfer rate before going to all that trouble.

Does the signal seem to fade in certain areas? As in like another room where maybe the walls, Wireless phones signals, or any other obstrustion may be causing this issue?  I have several PCs at home that are on a wireless connection and I have had problems like that. 

If you are in the same room as the router, does it seem to be better than from another room, or where you notice the signal fading?  If so then theres an obstrustion between your router and your player. Also, if your neighbors have wireless, and they are running on the same channel as your router, that might be something to look at.

If you are good with network management, try changing your router to an unused channel in the area and encrypt it to make it secure and see what happens. 

Just a thought.

I would suspect that there is more likely a problem with the ISP, modem or router. Try restarting both your cable/dsl modem and wireless router (in that order). The streaming music would be more susceptible to transmission delays or interuptions than other internet downloads.

Lowjack’s suggestion to change channel is also good recommendation. I would set channel selection to ‘auto’ and let the reboot find a clean channel.

See, I know all to well about wifi interfierence. Both my desktops here in my room are on wireless. And if theres any signal interfierence, A wifi device will pick it up. The channel issue,

My new neighbor has wireless and he was on channel 11 like I was. His sig kept bumping my boxes. So I changed my channel to channel 9 and no more problem.  Most common channels are 6 and 11. Best to change to is channel 1.

and encrypt your network, it will give you a more solid connection, 128 bit 26 char hexi-dec manual entry…lol

“Got Security?”

LOL

I have the same problem with the Internet radio after some software upgrade.  No changes have been made to the wireless network.  I’m using a 802.11b Linksys wireless access point.

For the people who don’t have any problems, are you using 802.11g?

Message Edited by blue16 on 11-23-2007 04:58 PM

blue16 wrote:

I have the same problem with the Internet radio after some software upgrade.  No changes have been made to the wireless network.  I’m using a 802.11b Linksys wireless access point.

For the people who don’t have any problems, are you using 802.11g?

Yes.

Lowjack wrote:

See, I know all to well about wifi interfierence. Both my desktops here in my room are on wireless. And if theres any signal interfierence, A wifi device will pick it up. The channel issue,

 

My new neighbor has wireless and he was on channel 11 like I was. His sig kept bumping my boxes. So I changed my channel to channel 9 and no more problem.  Most common channels are 6 and 11. Best to change to is channel 1.

 

and encrypt your network, it will give you a more solid connection, 128 bit 26 char hexi-dec manual entry…lol

 

“Got Security?”

 

LOL

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions.  I’ll check into the channel thing and interference.  I’ve been WiFi for four years now.  WPA security.  I’m a little reluctant to start screaming at my ISP when all my pcs and laptops on Wifi or Ethernet are running fine.  I have even had a wireless laptop sitting right next to the Sansa both playing the same internet radio station.  Sansa buffers, pc sounds fine.

I will admit that it has gotten much better this past week.  Another week like that and I can started enjoying it again. 

blue16 wrote:

I have the same problem with the Internet radio after some software upgrade.  No changes have been made to the wireless network.  I’m using a 802.11b Linksys wireless access point.

For the people who don’t have any problems, are you using 802.11g?

Message Edited by blue16 on 11-23-2007 04:58 PM

I’m am using 802.11b.  Buffer problems. 

I bought a new Linksys wireless router (WRT54G), upgraded the wireless network to 802.11g, and used the same setting (WEP 128-bit and channel 1).  Now the buffer problem disappears.

<<For the people who don’t have any problems, are you using 802.11g?>>

I just got my Connect this week, so I never streamed any content on the old firmware. But, after seeing the same buffering problem and seeing your suggestion, I tried disabling 802.11b on my access point. (I had set if for mixed b/g.) Voila! No more problem - at least so far.

Thanks for the suggestion.