HDR Fox T2 Wireless Dongle

This is the one that I've ordered off Amazon, it's been dispatched. Once it arrives I'll post an update. But it appears to be the same as the one that rogdog has, just with the detachable antenna :)

ditto - I have one winging its way to me also. Depending on performance I may swap my Homeplug out from my HDR for use elsewhere.
 
Hi,

So I have just installed the Edimax EW-7711UAn150Mbps WLAN 802.11 High Gain USB Adapter and got it connected to my wireless network without any problems......well apart from the Humax box is showing 24Mbps or less, sometimes down to 2 Mbps or drops out. My rooter is configured for 54mbps so not sure why the different display on the Humax? I am guessing it is assuming that speed based on the signal strength.


When I take my laptop in the same room, has about the same signal strength, but plays iplayer HD programs far better than on the humax box.

Thinking of sending this back an picking up some homeplugs instead.

Anyone else had problems with speed?
 
I found it better to use a wired connection than wireless. Also I found that using the back USB port resulted in more problems than the front. I have noticed a similar problem when testing the dongle in my PC, it seems to be influenced by the location, presumably because of interference.
 
hmm no different on the front usb so going to send them back for the homeplug unless anyone has other suggestions?
 
The joys of wireless networking !!!

Unless you have a good quality stable signal then I wouldn't bother using wireless. The 24Mbps is the speed that the dongle has managed to negotiate as the best achievable speed between it and the router. Adding the fact that the speed sometime drops to 2Mbps would suggest that your wireless signal is not up to the job or is suffering from interfence from a neighbours router,etc. There are things you can try like moving the Humax a few feet (probably not pratical) , changing the wireless channel number on you router (you would need to read the router manual to do this) or changing your router for a wireless N type router. At the end of the day you still may not get a strong enough signal to sort out the problems you have.

Homeplugs are normally a better solution but can still suffer if they are not plugged in to close enough to each other.

The only garanteed solution is to connect a network cable between the 2 devices.
 
hmm - that does not sound promising. My Edimax will likely arrive today so I will also try it out and report back.

in my case, the T2 is currently connected to the network via homeplugs and working quite well. However, my **%* BT Homehub2 is a nightmare with DLNA; depending on the day of the week it randomly blocks all DLNA traffic through it's ports. So my T2 only sometimes will connect to my NAS but more often not. Internet connection is rock solid though and the portal works without issue.

This is certainly an issue with the Homehub 2 - there are many threads about it - and if I remove the homehub from the network then streaming works just fine. I was hoping that the problem would be bypassed by using wireless as other wireless connections always seem to see DLNA traffic without issues. But if does not work then the homehub will be in the bin ....




 
This is the one that I've ordered off Amazon, it's been dispatched. Once it arrives I'll post an update. But it appears to be the same as the one that rogdog has, just with the detachable antenna :)
Re: the Edimax EW-7711USN WLAN nLite High Gain USB Adapter

It arrived this morning. Plugged the extension into the back USB port and the supplied cable is just long enough to reach the front of the cabinet. Has a full 5 bar signal strength to my router. And I (eventually) got it working perfectly. Will explain the problems in the next paragraph as I doubt it'll affect everyone. iPlayer HD works fine, no skipping or buffering problems (on Virgin 10Mb service). In fact it looks pretty damn good in my opinion. Had a quick play on the Internet Radio thing and the Wiki thing, they both work fine too. Again, the radio (from a randomly selected rock channel in Canada) played without any skipping or buffering problems. All in all, seems to work perfectly fine for me. But I do have a strong wireless signal and pretty fast Broadband too.

The issue I had originally is that I have MAC address filtering on my router, so only the specific MAC addresses that I manually type into my router settings are allowed to access the internet. I entered the Humax's MAC address but no matter how many times I tried to connect, the Humax threw up an error saying it couldn't connect to my router. After I disabled the MAC address filtering, it connected first time and everything worked perfectly. Whilst sat here typing this, I've just realised that I didn't check the MAC address of the Edimax dongle itself :oops:... Just tested it, and yes I'm an idiot. The MAC address is on the back of the dongle, and that's the one I needed to let through on the router.

Note: If you use the extra security of MAC address filtering on your router, don't be an idiot like me and actually use the correct blooming MAC address! :)
 
I entered the Humax's MAC address but no matter how many times I tried to connect, the Humax threw up an error saying it couldn't connect to my router. After I disabled the MAC address filtering, it connected first time and everything worked perfectly. Whilst sat here typing this, I've just realised that I didn't check the MAC address of the Edimax dongle itself

Yes, the MAC address of the Humax is for the Ethernet port, as you've discovered, if you use WiFi the MAC address of the dongle (in this case) is what you need.

Just like a laptop, the Ethernet and built-in Wireless have different MAC addresses.
 
I plugged by Edimax in and it worked first time - no issues at all. Speed/usability seems unchanged from the homeplugs and as a bonus, my BT Homehub does not mess-up the DLNA so I can now stream reliably to my T2... happy days!
 
Nice find RogDog. I'll be picking up one of these from tesco to free up a port on my router.

£10 is much better than Humax's price

I also had a look at the tesco.com site and followed the link to the 'Revoo' review - there was only one from someone who gave it 1 out of 10 for having 'useless range'. When we list dongles that work, it might also be worth stating our wi-fi set-up. E.g. 'Router upstairs , TV down' or 'In same room as router'
 
Good point, but one review on it's own cannot be trusted.
The user may have had issues unrelated to the dongle itself.
 
I have updated by first post #10 with latest info regarding Edimax dongles

rogdog said:
The following Edimix range of Adapters should all work with the latest Humax firmware.

Tested OK
EW-7711UTn - Mini-size with built in antenna (Amazon Rating 4/5 - 159 votes)
EW-7711UAn - Mini-size with Built-in high gain 3dBi antenna (Amazon Rating 4/5 - 218 votes)
EW-7711USn - Normal size with detachable high gain 3dBi detachable external antenna (Amazon Rating 4/5 - 12 votes)

Not Yet Tested
EW-7711UMn - Normal Size with built in high gain 3dBi external antenna (Amazon Rating 3.5/5 - 3 votes)

So far I would opt for the EW-7711UAn or EW-7711USn which both have high gain 3dBi antenna and should provide a better wifi range than the EW-7711UTn mini dongle.
 
I have updated by first post #10 with latest info regarding Edimax dongles
Very useful, thanks, but just one question - the EW-7711UTn is, according to the Edimax website, the only dongle which supports something called QoS-WMM, and WMM-Power save Mode - the others don't mention these. How important are these additional features, in your view? Thanks

PH22
 
I would say that they all support these feature and that it is just an omission on the Edimax website.

It is also not something that the Humax probably needs or is likely to ever need to function correctly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Multimedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Multimedia said:
WMM prioritizes traffic according to four Access Categories (AC) - voice, video, best effort, and background. However, it does not provide guaranteed throughput. It is suitable for simple applications that require QoS, such as Voice over IP (VoIP) on Wi-Fi phones (VoWLAN).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Multimedia said:
The Wi-Fi Alliance has added Power Save Certification to the WMM specification. Power Save uses mechanisms from 802.11e and legacy 802.11 to save power (for battery powered equipment) and fine-tune power consumption
 
I have updated by first post #10 with latest info regarding Edimax dongles

Just installed the EW-7711USn following rogdog's suggestion, with complete success. Set-up took about 5 minutes. Only needed to enter my router's password into the Humax set-up procedure and that was it (no need to enter Mac address of EW device). My set-up is a BT Home Hub 2 about 25 feet away from the Humax in the same room. To be honest, I probably don't need the detachable antenna with this set-up, but thought I'd spend the couple of extra quid for future proofing, if ever I need to move the router (or even move house!). One novice-type question if I may - people sometimes refer to their connection speed in terms of strength in bars, or even quote physical data. Where is this information available? I assumed it must be via the router, but I can't find this info on my BT Hub. Thanks
 
Try logging onto your homehub 2, click on A-Z (top right hand corner), click 'devices,show connected' then click on the connected wireless device. The connection speed in Mbps should be displayed.
 
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