Multicast trouble and a software proposal
Answered
I've had BlueSound for three years now, and I've always had intermittent WiFi trouble and the occasional Eth trouble as well.
This has been across two different WiFi routers and multiple clients (Mac, PC, IOS devices).
The problem is simply that my players drop off the list of available players, yet they remain ping-able on the network.
Restarting the client app occasionally works, but very unreliably. Rebooting the WiFi router only seems to make things worse.
The only reliable remedy is to power-cycle the BlueSound player(s). Which is obviously tedious.
Sniffing with Wireshark suggests that root cause lies with the IP multicast processing. Since two very different WiFi routers (Apple vs. Sagem) had the same problems, I would tend to look towards the BlueSound devices, but BlueSound seems to belive the current implementation works perfectly and that the problem invariantly lies with the customer's network.
Maybe it always does, I can't rule that out in any way. But maybe BlueSound can do something to make things more resilient. Hence this proposal:
* Instead of relying exclusively on player detection via multicast, also store network-related information about recently-known devices in the client and in the players themselves, and use this as fall-back if one or more recently known players don't show up in the network scan.
Today, players have an idea about other BlueSound nodes (as seen from the diagnostics log), so that's also a source of information that the controller apps could draw on in the cases where at least one BlueSound device remains accessible.
Something like this pseudo code:
Players = <do multicast scan, timeout = X secs>
Players = set-union(Players, RecentlyKnownPlayers)
Players = select-all(Player P from Players where P is an accessible BlueSound node)
RecentlyKnownPlayers = select-all(Player P from RecentlyKnownPlayers + Players where P has been accessible within the last (day/week/month, whatever seems sensible. I'd go with week, I think) )
As it is, I've almost had it with BlueSound. I have no other network issues at all, only with BlueSound. It works well when it works -- it's just too often it doesn't fully. So please, at least give my proposal some thought before routinely dismissing it as yet another user network configuration problem.
Thanks in advance. All the best,
/Martin.
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Official comment
Hi Martin
The other more reliable and user-friendly option is to ensure your router support Multicast. Also if you have IGMP Snooping, please enable it. If you have IGMP Proxy, disable it. Ensure your wireless extenders also support Multicast.
If you have other issues or problems, please work with the Support Crew by selecting Help, Send Support Request in the App to help troubleshoot.
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Hi Tony,
Sigh. Multicast on my network works for everything else (primarily mDNS). Everything but BlueSound.
My current router supports multicast. My previous router supported multicast. None of them support IGMP snooping. I don't use WiFi extenders.
I suggested a way to add robustness in an imperfect world, and, as I resignedly expected, I got a response requiring perfection. It's like having a car that will only run if the road is freshly paved.
Well, that's that, then. So long and thanks for all the fish.
/Martin.
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Hi Martin
We would be happy to help but will need some more info. I am escalating your issue to our Support Crew so we can better help 1:1 what is happening here. When you see the support Request in your e-mail box, kindly reply with the make, model and version of your router along with the make model and software version of your handheld devices so we can help troubleshoot.
We can't help with all of Life, The Universe and Everything, but we can help here.1 -
Gotta say Tony; that was a good sign-off on your reply ;-)
While the number 42 may not be the end all be all answer, I am just about ready to start a Bluesound system myself and hope that these bugs have been worked out 2 years later.
I know stuff is hard to come by with your manufacturing being done in China so I hope you all aren't down and out with me about to invest several thousands into this system.
Coming from a Play-Fi setup, I am a little scarred from Wi-Fi drops and disconnects preventing a seamless solution.0 -
Bluesound launched 10 years ago this coming December and our two big brothers down the hall both turn 50 this year - so our Support Crew will be here for the foreseeable future to help. Check out www.bluesound.com/network101 for some great tips first.
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