Troubleshoot 3rd party file server/Alexa skill issue

  • 10 April 2023
  • 9 replies
  • 60 views

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I'm using a third party music service in which I use an Alexa skill to control. Third party music service is serving up files for my file server. After a while, the music always stops. This doesn't happen to  streaming services. At this point, support for that service has run out of things to check.  Any ideas where to start?  

Ping looks fine and I've got plenty of bandwidth. 

Ipconfig on the speaker, does show dropped packets.

Using a Roam on 5gHz wifi.


9 replies

If practicable, maybe switch and try the Roam on the local routers 2.4Ghz WiFi band instead, using a ‘fixed’ non-overlapping channel of either 1, 6 or 11 and set the channel-width to 20Mhz only and see if that resolves the issue. 

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Thanks, but 2.4 GHz here is awfully over-used and as a result, gives poor bandwidth and response times, in general.  The issues happen even near the WiFi access point.

@dr1818 

Do you perhaps have a scanner-image showing the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels that are in use locally. Also are you using any Zigbee channels for other IoT devices?… if you can list or better still post screenshot(s) perhaps some others here can suggest some things for you to try.

It’s also useful to know make/model of router and any additional access points in use and the distance to the Roam from whichever access point it is using. Any networks switches (managed or unmanaged) and other wireless devices that are nearby, plus any walls in between.

Some further details about the file server, how it’s connected to the LAN, and more detail about the music service might be useful too. 

Hope others here in the community will be able to assist you once you have posted a little more detail.

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Thank you. The first thing I am doing now is swapping out my normal router and access point and doing another test.

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I don't have time to try more now, but using the built-in Wi-Fi from the modem,  and being close to it, did not help. 

Hi. Was this ever resolved?  I am having issues as well with a 3rd party media service.  Oddly, issues only happen during daylight hours, even on weekends.  Can daylight affect wi-fi somehow? Note, as stated above, this even happens if I am close to my router.  I have XFinity, and use their router/modem.

Hi. Was this ever resolved?  I am having issues as well with a 3rd party media service.  Oddly, issues only happen during daylight hours, even on weekends.  Can daylight affect wi-fi somehow? Note, as stated above, this even happens if I am close to my router.  I have XFinity, and use their router/modem.

Maybe try a different ‘fixed’ (non-overlapping) WiFi channel and set a channel-width of just 20Mhz only for the 2.4Ghz band and see if those things resolve your issue. Also see this link:

https://support.sonos.com/en-us/article/reduce-wireless-interference

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, my XFinity Gateway does not allow changes to be made to these settings as they are managed via software that supposedly optimizes configuration for my devices.  However, I am able to see the settings. They are just greyed out. My Channel Width is set to 20Mhz.  I am not able to change to a fixed wi-fi channel. It is set to Automatic, and, again, greyed out.  I wil try to move things around, but just seems odd to me that the only constant that changes is daylight hours.  If it was only Monday to Friday, I could see where aditional network traffic could be an issue, but it is also happening Saturday’s and Sunday’s.  Our wi-fi usage does not vary during the day versus night.  if anything, we use the internet more at night.  

It sounds like your Xfinity is optimising, perhaps mainly on startup - so maybe next time you encounter the issue, just see if a restart of the gateway will resolve the issue.

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