Updating WiFi Drivers

[Black Hole]

This might have been mentioned before, but what do our experts think about adding support for more recent WiFi chipsets? RT3070 is now practically unobtainium. af (or somebody) managed to add a driver for NTFS, so...

 

[Luke]

What was the reason for the RT3070 package not being updated to work on later CFs? Was it just a lack of interest?

Custom Firmware Package Notes

wiki.hummy.tv

Presumably for space reasons the drivers still were quite limited.

 

[Black Hole]

I had totally forgotten about that. I suspect it doesn't so much mean incompatibility with the CF as incompatibility with the 1.03 base firmware.

Presumably for space reasons the drivers still were quite limited.

Side-loaded drivers shouldn't be limited for space, unless you mean RAM.

 

[Luke]

Side-loaded drivers shouldn't be limited for space, unless you mean RAM.

I know next to nothing about the technology but from a post I remember reading on this site many years ago think it must have been RAM.

I have had a quick look for that post but all I could find was
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/hdr-fox-t2-wireless-dongle.127/page-7#post-8848
and that post appears to consider a different method than the rt3070 package.

 

[antipodean]

I wouldn't bother with something that relied on a driver in the Linux OS, I found that a Vonets Wifi Bridge is much more reliable and seems to have more range - at least at my property it seems to contact the router more reliably.

 

[Black Hole]

We know there are alternatives, but there's no reason an AP client should be any more reliable than a decent dongle... and less convenient. I still find myself setting up 'Fox systems for friends, but I'm running out of working dongles.

That said, I'm about to trial an Edimax client, supplied without power adapter and cables, for £4.

 

[Black Hole]

that post appears to consider a different method than the rt3070 package.

I think that post hints at exactly what became the rt3070 package.

 

[Owen Smith]

I still find myself setting up 'Fox systems for friends, but I'm running out of working dongles.

I find the wifi dongles work so badly that they're torture, and I would never recommend them to anyone. At my place and my parents I got wired ethernet to the TV racks, and at my aunts I have an ethernet to wifi adaptor which works much better.

 

[alanofcleeves]

I find the wifi dongles work so badly that they're torture

I have to agree. I've been using one of these since 2016 and won't be going back to a dongle.
TL-WA860RE

It improves wifi in the tv-room and has an ethernet output socket for the HDR.
It drops out occasionally, maybe once or twice a month on average, but overall I have found it much better than a dongle.

My only reservation in recommending one would be if the HDR will be sited close to the modem/router; being a "range extender" it wants to find a usable but not full-strength wifi signal.

 

[prpr]

My only reservation in recommending one would be if the HDR will be sited close to the modem/router

But you'd use a cable in such circumstances.

 

[Black Hole]

The problem with a nano-router in a HD-FOX context is that it requires power, and the HD-FOX's USB socket is occupied providing storage for CF. It all gets very messy very quickly (important in a non-techy domestic situation). There is also no direct access to program the nano-router, it has to be temporarily re-jigged.

A dongle is by far the neatest solution, and the experience isn't that bad provided the signal is OK (I rate it better than my experience with powerline), and a nano-router still needs a signal! With better driver support, we could use better dongles in the first place.

Yes, alright, a dongle still needs a USB hub to work with a HD-FOX and CF, but the hub shouldn't need additional power so it's still an uncomplicated solution compared with a nano-router.

 

[alanofcleeves]

But you'd use a cable in such circumstances.

When in the same room certainly, but I have found that in a modern house the wifi signal in a room adjacent the modem can be too strong for the range extender to work reliably.

 

[Owen Smith]

A dongle is by far the neatest solution, and the experience isn't that bad provided the signal is OK (I rate it better than my experience with powerline),

Yes the dongle is the neatest solution for wifi. BUT, the experience really is diabolical. I've tried several dongles, both Humax branded and Edimax (I think that's the brand), and I've tried several wifi base stations from only a few metres away, and all combinations were so frustrating I had to restraint myself from hurling something out of the window.

 

[Black Hole]

the experience really is diabolical

Your experience rather than the experience.

Perhaps your WiFi password is tricky to enter via the SUI?

 

[Owen Smith]

Your experience rather than the experience.

Perhaps your WiFi password is tricky to enter via the SUI?

My experience at three different properties using three different wifi base station models with very different size and type of property between the router and dongle. In one case they were in the same room. If it were going to work in good conditions and not in bad conditions I would have seen that, as it was all three were diabolical.

No I entered the wifi passwords correctly. If it works a bit and then doesn't work, it's not the wifi password. I am not an idiot, if I'd entered the password incorrectly then nothing would work. I am an IT professional, I do this for a living. If I can't get it to work then there's a problem. Stop assuming no-one except yourself knows what they are doing.

 

[Black Hole]

Stop assuming no-one except yourself knows what they are doing.

I'm not, I'm just trying to help. I have two HDRs on WiFi dongles and they work perfectly well. You're the one making assumptions, that because you have a problem everyone must have a problem.

 

[Stummery]

Agree with BH. To add my experience. I have 4 HDRs that have been using various cheap RT3070 dongles for many years without any problems.
Maybe OS is not as good with hardware as they assume

 

[/df]

One possible failure mode is that the WiFi base station channel-hops to a channel that is not supported by the driver default settings. This should be fixed by the latest wireless-helper package.

If dongles don't work, a WiFi gadget that plugs into USB and connects to the Ethernet socket of the HDR is about £10 in the usual tat bazaar and bypasses any driver issues. I have one enabling WiFi for a networked TV with no internal WiFi: who would want to miss The Pet Collective Freeview stream?

Consequently, supporting other devices in the CF is most likely only a passion project.

 

[bottletop]

This might have been mentioned before, but what do our experts think about adding support for more recent WiFi chipsets? RT3070 is now practically unobtainium. af (or somebody) managed to add a driver for NTFS, so...

These days I don't see many of the budget generic RT3070 black WiFi dongle (bright blue led). I think they were roughly £5 - shipping from China.
As far as know, the RT3070 ones with black (base/side/tail antennae) & white (top) casing should work. Not as cheap (£10ish) but it's available.

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It's mentioned here
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/latest-official-firmware.10203/post-155301
I use to have issues with the wireless dongle but it's improved greatly in the last 2 years or so. It's stable.

 

[Owen Smith]

One possible failure mode is that the WiFi base station channel-hops to a channel that is not supported by the driver default settings.

Wifi channel is set to a fixed value for 2 out of the 3 base stations I was trying to get dongles working with. So it can't have channel hopped, either the base station was on a supported channel or it wasn't.