Customer Support

[ChrisR]

I'd just like to let the rest of the world know about my positive customer support experience from the staff at IceTV.

My wife bought me the Netgear WGT634U Iceguide attachment for my Toppy. Much to my chargin - the damn thing didn't work as it was supposed to out of the box. (I guess it didn't help that I entered a couple of wrong addresses in the setup page !!!) Be that as it may the two Daniels at IceTV HQ were very patient and helpful. Not only on the phone but also in person when I took the Netgear back to them (TWICE!!!!) to try and solve the wireless network connection issues that I was having.

In the end we tracked the problem down to some minor documentation issues on their side ( The WEP key must be in HEX not ASCII - but this was not stated in the setup instructions I recieved) and major setup problems with my D-Link access point. Once I reset the D-link to its factory settings and then reactivated DHCP on my network IP address range, reactivated WEP and MAC filtering and abandoned the propriety 4X mode - everything worked a charm and things are now chugging along smoothly.

I guess the moral of the story is although you must activate all appropriate security measures for your wireless network - you probably shouldn't change too many other settings on your access points especially if you want different brands of product to talk to each other.

Once again thanks to the ICE men ( D1 and D2) for helping to get things working.

Chris Ryan

[delbz]

Good to hear about the friendly support Chris.

PS - My WGT634U connected perfectly with 128bit WEP and continues to perform well.

My only gripe with it is the 2MB file transer limit. Even if it could upload say, 5MB MP3 files, that would be a bonus. Ideally, it could allow downloading of recordings. The guys at the Topfield forums have added functionality using the WGT634U/Icebox to allow simple sending of Taps and "other" small files to the Toppy via WiFi.

[delbz]

Thanks for modifying the WiFi icebox firmware to allow up to 6MB file transfers.
That makes MP3 uploading from the couch a whole lot easier

I find that uploading wirelessly is very slow though. Eg a 4MB upload can take 4 minutes, but the same file downloaded from the icebox to my PC takes a few seconds.

Have you considered adding a Topfield-friendly ftp server (like this http://www.8ung.at/aldarin/ftp4t.html) into the icebox so it would work like Altair? Eg Turbo mode and moving files around folders.

[bruce_g]

Hi Delbz,

You will actually find it is to do with the speed of wireless networking.

I used to use my laptop to connect directly to the Topfield before I purchased a Active USB repeater for the pc.  I would download a recordered program onto the laptop so that I could then copy it to my desktop to manipulate it and burn to DVD.  When I first tried this on a 2 hour file going wireless from the laptop to the desktop Windows was of the opinion it would have about about 3 hours left after already running for 1/2 hour.  I then plugged directly into the switch and copied the file in about 25 minutes.  After playing a bit have realised that the 54MBPS wireless is not a realistic speed.

I know that doesn't solve the problem but it does explain the cause.  If you could run an ftp server on the icebox it you would still be slowed down by the transfer speed of wireless network to the IceBox as apposed to a direct usb or network cabled connection.  What you may like to try if you have a network cable and access to the Icebox Port 1 is plug directly into and transfer via cabled rather than wirless.

Hope that was of some help.

[delbz]

Hi Bruce.

I understand theoretical Wifi speeds are not often achievable. What I don't understand is why it takes 4 minutes to upload and 4 seconds to download. It's not as if its an ADSL link (eg 256/64 download/upload speed).

PS my Icebox shows a link speed of 44/94.

PPS - ICEguys - give us a clue on the "big" announcement that is supposedly coming  

[pvogel]

Give me a clue as to possible subject of the announcement and I might be able to answer ..

[delbz]

Hi Peter.

It's about a deal with PeterU and you guys.

[bruce_g]

Hi Delbz,

Can't answer that one.  All I know is wifi is very unpredictable.  I am IT Consultant and have worked with wireless since it came out and have always had issues.

I run the Netgear Icebox at home and can access it both wired and wirelss will do some testing over the next few days and see what I can find and let you know.

[pvogel]

Hi Bruce.

PPS - ICEguys - give us a clue on the "big" announcement that is supposedly coming  

 

I think you're referring to the work that Peter U is doing for us in open sourcing the Topfield development we have done on both the Netgear router and the Ice TAP.  It's well under way and I'll post the exact details wehn it's complete.

[delbz]

I think you're referring to the work that Peter U is doing for us in open sourcing the Topfield development we have done on both the Netgear router and the Ice TAP.  It's well under way and I'll post the exact details wehn it's complete.

That is good news. Thanks for the heads up.