I have read through a lot of posts and the car FAQ to see what might be hanging me up. I am so close and just need a little push the rest of the way.

Here is my setup:
Server
> Windows XP
> Firewall turned off
> Plugged into Belkin F5D7234-4 wireless router with DHCP enabled and router firewall turned off
> Rio software has dchp turned off since I have the router doing that

Client
> Wireless Linksys WRT54GS2 running DD-WRT OS as client bridge
> Dell Rio Receiver pluged into Linksys WRT54GS2 ethernet port 1

Here is where I am at:
> Rio receiver initializes, shows searching for music and then reboots itself over and over again even if I turn it of and on multiple times. My music server shows the rio receiver in the counsel. I can ping the rio receiver from the server and it comes back successful.

So at this point I would not believe that there is a hardware issue since the server and rio client are taking to each other and the client is getting an ip address assigned to it from the router. I have not tried changing any port settings. Is this the next place to go? Does the "searching for music" use a different port than initializing the rio client? Or am I way off

Thanks in Advance!
Dennis

I wouldn't completely rule out a connectivity issue just yet. More diagnostics to do first.

Lug the receiver into the same room with the Windows XP box and plug it into one of the ethernet ports on the Belkin F5D7234-4.

Does it work then? You've got a connectivity issue with that linksys bridge, despite the fact that you can ping the receiver when it's connected.

Plug a laptop into the linksys bridge and turn off the laptop's wireless networking features. Can you surf from there? Try streaming some audio.

If that all works, try, with the laptop plugged into the linksys bridge, to query the Receiver Server from the web browser. The specifications on how to do that were here, but unfortunately Roger's web server appears to be down so I can't give you the instructions on how to do that. Perhaps someone can chime in here with those instructions.

Oh, silly me, I forgot the obvious.

If the receiver is crashing when it's downloading the music from the server, maybe the connectivity is fine and it's simply be a problem with the music files or the playlists on the server. Maybe there's a corrupted ID3 tag, or a gigantic tag that's overflowing a buffer when the files get sent to the receiver. Or maybe it's just too many songs. See here:

http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/221423#Post221423

> Plugged rio receiver directly into belkin router and it started up with no issues or reboots so that works good

> Plugged a laptop into the linksys bridge and turned off wireless card. I can surf the internet.

> Just for testing i had created a 1 album library and check the tags and they look ok.

> I have a borrowed 2wire Ethernet Wireless adapter that I used today for testing and that worked.

...So it looks like it is definitely the linksys router maybe half working After lunch I will try and talk to the rio server using your suggestion of a laptop connected to the linksys bridge. Hopefully the link is working later.

Dennis

The link to test out talking to the rio server from the web browser is still 404 so i was not able to test that.

I also was able to borrow a netgear fs108 10/100 auto-sensing switch so the light is going into it at 10 from the rio receiver and then out to the linksys at 100. It still was initializing and then rebooting when it started to search for music. So it still looks like the linksys bridge is goofing things up.

At this point I think I am going to set the ports on the linksys per this forum and down them to 10mbp and see if it was just an issues with the bridge blocking ports.

Any other idea just drop them in thanks!
Dennis

Well, I'm home now so I've got files on my local hard disk which describe the same things from Roger back when he was emailing them to me.

Here's some examples of how I queried my Rio Central (which has the address of 192.168.0.4):

Type this in your web browser:


This results in a response like this:


Those are root playlists, if you have any (they have a P there, see it?)


Type this in your web browser:


Note that I am entering the playlist's FID in the URL above. This results in a response like this:


Those are tunes (See the "T" in there?).


Type this in your web browser:


Note that I am entering the tune's FID in the URL above. This results in, assuming your browser knows what to do with it, an MP3 which then plays automatically.

If you don't have any playlists, try something like this to get a list of tunes:



There's more detailed stuff you can do with the queries, but that's your basic level of test to see if the laptop on the backside of that linksys router is able to get the stuff off the server the same way the receiver gets it.

The Ethernet hardware in the Receiver is not very tolerant of marginal connections (or maybe it's marginal itself). We didn't get a chance to test it with very many types of hub or switch, but we did definitely test it against 2000-era Netgear DS and FS hardware (because that's what we were using in the office at the time).

WOW! One of these things is not like the other can you guess which one it is The Belkin Router!

I had originally bought 3 WRT54GS2 V1 routers so that I could flash them with DD-WRT and make them client bridges for my 3 rio receivers and wanted to keep the belkin as the router.

So after trying the switch I took a step back and said hell just for fun I will set-up one of the WRT54GS2 as a router so that I am using all of the same hardware for the router and bridges. Similar to what tfabris mentioned about looking at the easy stuff first since I knew all the hardware was already talking to each other.

What do you know the rio receivers all connected using the WRT54GS2 with DD-WRT in client bridge mode (and on the first try without rebooting wow!) and a WRT54GS2 with the default settings for AP mode and wep for my router. The WRT54GS2 also severed out addresses to my wireless laptop and desktop so they could all get on the internet.

I may never know why the Belkin router would not play nice but I can let everyone know that that for about $25 dollars refurb the WRT54GS2 V1 with DD-WRT makes a nice little client bridge for your rio receiver as long as you also have a WRT54GS2 V1 with DD-WRT for your router. Also when I was done I took one of the WRT54GS2 that had a rio attached upstairs and changed it to Bridge Repeater and that also worked so I got better signal with my laptop in that part of the house.

Thanks for all the help and let me know if anyone needs help setting up a WRT54GS2 V1 with DD-WRT and their rio receiver.

Dennis

There was a point in time, in 2005, when I was desperate to set up a wireless bridge to put behind my Receiver. I went through something like three different wireless routers and I was pulling my hair out trying to get them to work in bridge mode. I finally found one, but I wish I'd a WRT54GS2 and DD-WRT at my disposal (and this information you just gave) at that time.