02-23-2022, 05:49 PM
@TamedShrew
Your last remark "Nor has removing it from the case entirely" suggests the problem may not lie entirely in signal strength, but there are a few measures of the quality of the connection which can help.
From the command line of the player, you can run the following command
For example, here is the output from one of my players
The link quality and signal level numbers are the first to look at.
A lower link quality fraction suggests poorer performance.
Similarly, a lower signal level suggests the likelihood of poorer performance. Note that dBm (decibel-milliwatt) numbers run from 0 to -100 with 0 the highest and -100 essentially nonexistent. Tthis is a logarithmic scale so a change of 10dBm represents a factor of 10 change in power.
A typical rule of thumb I grabbed from somebody's blog is:
High numbers of retries and "invalids" also suggest poor performance.
Apart from signal strength, there's the question of radio frequency interference. The presence of multiple WiFi sources can be a problem; so is using the 2.4GHz band because so many WiFi devices use it, because it's shared with Bluetooth devices, and because it's so close to the ISM band---think microwave ranges, for example.
Regards,
Kent
Footnotes:
Your last remark "Nor has removing it from the case entirely" suggests the problem may not lie entirely in signal strength, but there are a few measures of the quality of the connection which can help.
From the command line of the player, you can run the following command
Code:
iwconfig
#or if you're sure that wlan0 is the WiFi interface
iwconfig wlan0For example, here is the output from one of my players
Code:
pi@CM4:~ $ iwconfig
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"Krypton"
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.22 GHz Access Point: A8:70:5D:49:74:BA
Bit Rate=433.3 Mb/s Tx-Power=31 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=66/70 Signal level=-44 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:15 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
lo no wireless extensions.The link quality and signal level numbers are the first to look at.
A lower link quality fraction suggests poorer performance.
Similarly, a lower signal level suggests the likelihood of poorer performance. Note that dBm (decibel-milliwatt) numbers run from 0 to -100 with 0 the highest and -100 essentially nonexistent. Tthis is a logarithmic scale so a change of 10dBm represents a factor of 10 change in power.
A typical rule of thumb I grabbed from somebody's blog is:
- -30 to -50dBm – Excellent signal strength (Next to Router)
- -50 to -67dBM – At Good signal strength for Web browsing, voice/video calls.
- -67 to -70dBM – Best effort for Web browsing for reliable packet delivery.
- -70 to -80dbm – Experience bad connectivity, Packet delivery may be unreliable.
- -90 to 100dBm – Worst signal strength.
High numbers of retries and "invalids" also suggest poor performance.
Apart from signal strength, there's the question of radio frequency interference. The presence of multiple WiFi sources can be a problem; so is using the 2.4GHz band because so many WiFi devices use it, because it's shared with Bluetooth devices, and because it's so close to the ISM band---think microwave ranges, for example.
Regards,
Kent
Footnotes:
- There are other Linux tools available which can slice and dice the data in more detail but I find this use of iwconf to be adequate for quick checks.
- It's common to see some variation in the signal strength measures for different WiFi adapters in the same equipment and location, but they generally agree. You'd think vendors would have this sorted in their firmware. Think again.
