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[runningtiger]

I had today off, so I finally replaced my D-Link router that is probably two/three years old with a new Hawking 54g that is a year old...but never used. I finally got the router working and have tried all day to stream ORB (continuously/reliably) with no luck. I'm trying to be able to listen to the music I have on my laptop at home - on my phone via wifi.

I thought the problem was my old router, but the new one does the same thing...drops out. So, I drove to a couple places that have free wifi and tried streaming from there and got the same result. It drops out after a short while. Something happened at one of the stops so that I could no longer connect at all. ORB said my home computer wasn't connected anymore. So, I came home to check on it, and ended up having to reset the router to make it work again.

It was a very frustrating day to say the least.

What routers are y'all using? Any ideas why this isn't working? Is it 'cuz I'm trying to access the music on my laptop and not a desktop? For today's test I set my laptop "Power Options Properties" to "always on" so that the hard disk would never shut off etc. But, that didn't fix the problem obviously.

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Might be of interest to someone...

So, I'm sitting in a bar last weekend with friends watching the football game and somehow the discussion came around to iPod vs Smartphone. At first there were some who were impressed that my phone could play music through my BT headset that I had on (and, of course, the wired stereo one I did not have with me). But, then the iPod faithful chimed in with oh yeah, well have you got 1 billion (or something similar) songs on your phone??? Umm, no, I answered. Only 20 hours and I've only half filled my storage card. That's plenty of walkin' around music for me, but for the iPod gang this was clearly a paltry amount. I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO would have won this pissing contest had I been able to fire up ORB and stream my entire music collection from home! Man, I wanted to do that!!! So, I've spent today trying to figure out how...with no luck.

Back to the conversation...'cuz I think I might have won anyway. So, after it was pointed out that I couldn't load thousands of songs, I asked if I could see their iPod and take a look at their playlist? Turns out they didn't have it on them 'cuz they don't like carrying around a lot of stuff and their phone just makes calls. At which point I took out my phone and started playing music OUTLOUD and everyone laughed and we all started doing some stupid dance. That was that. Still...I wish I could have streamed ORB.

[smeg36]

Even the most stable wifi connections will have occasional dropouts. If possible, try it through a wired connection. I personally nevee got Orb to really work well, but have been meanig to try it again. I use Avvenu to get files from my PC, and it can stream music as well. It seems to work well enough, but isn't as feature rich as Orb.

[GrYph0n]

Personally I just use EDGE when I feel the need. Now EDGE isn't great for trying to stream movies or anything like that, but it gets the job done with music if you don't mind the occassional buffering.

[runningtiger]

I don't know if I have EDGE. I'm use Cingular and my phone has "GPRS class 10, EDGE"...but I don't know if it happens automatically, or what? Are EDGE and GPRS interchangeable terms? I have a large G in the icon bar at the top and when I surf or pick-up mail I get the little G over the signal strength bars.

Gryphon - I'm VERY glad that you mention that even with EDGE you have the buffering issue. I had a fantasy that it was faster and didn't have buffering problems (for lack of a better word). That's exactly what I'm experiencing with the wifi setup I'm using now.

Smeg - Thanks for mentioning Avvenu. I'd never heard of that service. I set it up and it works very well. It actually did seem to stream better than ORB, but I couldn't figure out how to get a playlist to play. I had no problem playing the entire contents of a folder, but I'd like to play playlists. Do you know how to do that? I read their FAQ and didn't find it helpful regarding playlists.

[smeg36]

No, it isn't possible as far as I know. Like I said, it is much less feature rich than Orb. It works for an occasional song or album, but you really can't do much else with it as far as streaming.

[reydiodj]

You'll have better results streaming with Orb if you hack the registry to use TCPMP Media Player instead:

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/blog/reydi...hp?showentry=78

- although this was on the Wizard, I haven't tried doing the similar hack to the Typhoon...

[runningtiger]

Thanks Rey. My phone is in the HTC Hurricane, Robbie & Tornado class and the reg edit you pointed to works - kind of. Worth mentioning is that it only works for ORB...which is all that is was suggested it would work for. But, it's not stable.

It makes TCPMP the default stream player for ORB but not for all the streams from the Stream Center for example. Some Stream Center streams (the ones that show up as WMP links) still use WMP. That's the downside. The upside is MP3 streams (the ones that show up as WinAmp links) from the Stream Center now play on TCPMP when before WMP wouldn't play them.

I suppose this is a case of you win some you lose some. And, for the record, the streams from ORB are more stable on TCPMP than they were on WMP. But, overall the phone seems less stable while streaming. Every time I've tested it, I've ended up having to reset.

Lastly, this reg edit renders Avvenue useless for streaming music files.

I'm going to set my phone back to what it was before and try all these things again to remind myself how it worked...or did not work...before.

[runningtiger]

Test #1
I removed the hack but left the association between TCPMP and .asx

ORB successfully streams via TCPMP (very well).

Stream Center WMP links still play in WMP.
Stream Center WinAmp links still play in TCPMP.

(It's interesting to note both can stream at the same time and while I was watching that happen AND being amazed, the wifi signal dropped out. TCPMP recovered as soon as the signal came back (which was right away) but WMP stopped streaming and reported "error" on the screen and would not resume play. It happened again, and TCPMP recovered again! Me likey! )

Avvenue continues to refuse to stream at all and the phone becomes unstable sometimes requiring a reset.
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Test #2
I removed the .asx association in TCPMP and now...

As expected ORB is back to playing NOT all that well...has continual buffering problems. Basically, doesn't seem very usable to me. It buffers and is locating more than it plays.

Stream Center WMP links still play in WMP.
Stream Center WinAmp links still play in TCPMP...hmm, that's odd. Not what I was expecting. I thought I tried playing this type of link before and it wouldn't even play.(?) I remember being bummed that a favorite radio station of mine only came up as a WinAmp link and it would NOT play. BUT, now it IS playing perfectly...in TCPMP! Happy, but confused.

Avvenue works (very well).
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After testing this and playing with it, I've decided to remove the hack and leave the .asx association with TCPMP. TCPMP streams ORB MUCH better than WMP since it can repair itself if the wifi drops out for a moment. The only loss with this scenario is not being able to stream music via Avvenue. But, since they don't support playlists and the interface is a little more cumbersome (site doesn't remember me so I have to sign in each time - drag, I can't read most file titles even in the mode that sounds like you should be able to read the entire title, AND too few file names are listed per page IMHO - a lot of "next" pages if you have lots of music that you want to access).

I was enthusiastic about Avvenue since before Rey's suggestion it streamed audio better than ORB did (using WMP). But now that ORB is using TCPMP, I'm pleased with it's performance and can do without Avvenue for streaming. BUT, will keep it around for regular ol' accessing ANYTHING on my home computer. I think it is very worthwhile for that purpose.

Thanks guys for the suggestions and help!

[runningtiger]

Just following up to say I set up my home music collection on a computer that is not using a wifi connection to access the internet (it's hooked up via ethernet cable to the router). I've streamed all day via Orb & TCPMP and haven't had one drop out.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and help!