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Page 4 of 5 Networking Features: The networking is a vital part of the Squeezebox’s functionality, as without it, it would just be a little black box sitting there doing nothing. The Squeezebox has a built-in 10/100 ethernet port, as well as 54mbps 802.11g wireless networking. As is the case with most networking devices, the Ethernet is the simpler connection to setup, all you do is either specify an IP address or tell it to obtain one automatically (through DHCP) and you’re on the network. The Wireless is a little more involved, but really no more difficult, the Squeezebox will detect the available networks and ask which one you want to connect to. If a WPA security key is required you can input it with the remote control’s numeric keyboard (typing SMS style), after that you can either assign an IP address or obtain one automatically and you’re connected. Considering there is no external aerial, the wireless reception is excellent, just as good as my laptop PC. The Squeezebox will find any SlimServers on your network automatically and you just choose which one to connect to if there’s more than one. When connecting over wireless you don’t have to worry about small dropouts which can often happen on wireless networks (it happens at our office a fair bit) as the Squeezebox has a rather large buffer to cater for such events, so the music will keep playing while it tries to reconnect, however the on-screen display will go off while disconnected, even with the music still playing. The Squeezebox has the ability to turn on your PC through WOL (Wake On LAN) so long as your PC is setup to support it. When you power the Squeezebox on, it will send the WOL signal and wait for the PC to boot, and the SlimServer software can be configured to start as a service before you have to login to Windows, so even if your computer sits at the login screen after being woken, the SlimServer software will still be running. Another networking feature which is a surprising inclusion is the ability for the Squeezebox to act as a wireless bridge. You can connect your XBOX, PS2 or other network capable device to the Squeezebox via an Ethernet cable and the Squeezebox will act as a wireless Ethernet bridge to join that device onto the network, a very cool feature, and not hard to setup.
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