I think I've just put the last nail in the coffin. I finally had time
to conduct a few more tests:
#1 I plugged both modules into the same outlet.
#2 I tried changing the Network Password.
Neither of these affected the behaviour of the problem described below
at all. So for all intensive purposes, the SpeedStream Powerline equipment
doesn't work. Hopefully I can still send mine back.
..Mike
"Mike Caldwell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:EUxHa.7596$(E-Mail Removed) et...
> I think I may have found a major flaw in either the SpeedStream 2521
> WAP, or SpeedStream 2502 Ethernet adapter, or both!
>
> Most of my home network is wired directly to an Ethernet switch. But
I
> recently got a laptop, and wanted to add an 802.11b WAP for it. I
connected
> the SpeedStream 2502 Ethernet module to my switch, and plugged in the 2521
> WAP where I could get the best coverage. In general it seems to work
great.
>
> After using it for a couple days though, I discovered that I couldn't
> play certain MP3 files on my laptop. (My MP3's are hosted off a MS file
> share on another computer connected to the Ethernet switch.)
>
> I decided to disect one of the problem MP3 files, and found out that
the
> problem was somewhere in the ID3v1 tag at the beginning of the file. The
> problem had nothing to do with file size. It couldn't even copy an 8K
file
> that contained just the ID3v1 tag itself. After some further disection, I
> discovered that all of the "problem" MP3 files contained the character 'U'
> in it hundreds of times. Which turned out to be what's triggering the
> problem!
>
> I also discovered that I had the same problem whether I copied the
file
> via MS file share (RPC or SMB), or FTP. I tried creating small text files
> containing only the character 'U' repeated 300 - 500 times, and found the
> following:
>
> #1 Uploading the file from my laptop via MS file share or FTP always
works,
> except at exactly 400 U's, FTP fails.
>
> #2 Downloading anything with 401 or more U's fails via FTP. (It creates a
0
> byte file, but no error message.)
>
> #3 Downloading anything with 400 - 430 U's or so (it seems to vary
> slightly?) via file share is very slow, but eventually works. Beyond that
> it fails, and returns the error message: "The specified network name is no
> longer available."
>
> #4 Copying between two laptops over the SpeedStream WAP had no such
> problems. So the problem seems to be limited to communication between the
> two SpeedStream modules.
>
> I also tried text files containing other characters repeated hundreds
of
> times, but so far only 'U' seems to cause problems? I've found no
> discussion of any similar problems with the SpeedStream powerline
equipment.
> However I did find a couple threads describing problems with SpeedStream
DSL
> equipment that sounded very similar.
>
> If anyone else has SpeedStream equipment and wants to test this,
here's
> an easy way to create a "problem" file in Windows:
>
> debug test.txt
> rcx
> 1a0
> f 100 2a0 55
> w
> q
>
> Anyone know how to pass this on to real engineers at Siemens? I tried
> calling their tech support and they couldn't help me at all, and wouldn't
> pass me on to any higher level techs. Any ideas? TIA,
>
> .Mike
>
>
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