Help! Connection issues driving me crazy

[Alex C]

Hi - can i speak to a Brennan person who can assist.......

Every time i come to use it, the thing has disconnected and I have to map the network drive again.

Using through Sonos is intermittent. In my kitchen the other day the phone app decided to disconnect.

BRENNANB2 has never shown in my network drive. Is this part of the problem?

I connect using an external hard drive and map network drive.

Probably a wifi/network issue my end but would be great to speak with someone to sort this out.

A side issue - just uploaded a War on Drugs album which has worked well, but all my other War on Drugs albums have disappeared.

Thanks,
Alex

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Alex,

Taking the last issue first, I would suggest you run a Scan Disk and see if that sorts out that problem.

On your connection problem, 2 questions, 1) what is the WiFi strength that your B2 is seeing, it needs to be less than 50. There is a menu command to see this!

2) when you reconnect, does the IP number change or stay the same?

What you say in the middle paragraph begining BRENNANB2 I can not understand what you are saying/asking, please explain in more detail.

Also note we are (apart from Paul the moderator of the forum) not employees of Brennan, we are users/customers.

Fred

[PMB]

Hi Alex,

The first thing to check is the WiFi signal at the B2. Use the front control to go to Settings >> Maintenance >> WiFi Strength -  let us know the figure you are getting.

Scan Disk may recover the War on Drugs albums.

For your B2 to be shown on your network you need to turn on NAS - Settings >> Maintenance >> Start NAS. What computer and OS are you using?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Alex C]

Thanks Fred & Paul - appreciate the responses.

My wifi signal is between 65 & 69 dBM.

I was thinking it may disconnect as i have a wifi range extender which has a different SSID depending in what part of the house you are in.

Maybe does not explain the Brennan disconnecting as it is in the same place, but possibly the mobile app issues?

Actually it has been working well these last few days!  But any light you can shed would be good.

NAS does not show up. I have tried again as per below instructions. I see Sonos, my printer etc but not Brennan.

I am using a HP laptop and Microsoft.

Scan disk has not recovered the War on Drugs albums. These were originally added via my external hard drive. The new album was uploaded directly and now only this appears and the existing albums seem to have been deleted from the hard drive.

Strange one but not the end of the world and i can upload all of them again.

Alex

[PMB]

Hi Alex,

The WiFi signal is marginal and the B2 may spend a lot of time maintaining the connection, which in turn may cause unexpected behaviour.

To improve the signal level try -

Reposition the B2

Move the dongle from USB A to USB C - power off first

Fit the dongle onto a short USB extension cable and re-position

Replace the dongle with an RT5370 type with built-in antenna - an example here - link -

For NAS mode - make sure NAS is enabled on the B2 - Settings >> Maintenance >> Start NAS. On the laptop - type 'Turn Windows settings on and off' >> scroll down to 'SMB' >> expand the section and tick 'Client' >> OK. Go to Network - you may have to refresh the page for BRENNANB2 to show. 

Paul

Brennan Support.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Alex C

With regard to :-

NAS does not show up. I have tried again as per below instructions. I see Sonos, my printer etc but not Brennan.

I am using a HP laptop and Microsoft.

I can assure you that the B2 DOES indeed produce a solid NAS. We are all using the same software on our B2's and if after having followed Paul's instructions here:

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Please see the following notes on setting up NAS on a Windows PC -

NAS mode using a Windows 10 computer:

On the B2:

• Make sure the B2 is connected to WiFi - displaying an IP Address - something like 192.168.1.127

• Using the front control go to the Maintenance menu and select Start NAS - the display will return to the clock and then show 'done' after a couple of seconds.

On your Win10 computer: 

This stage only required if the B2 doesn't show in 'View network computers and devices' (see the next stage)

• In the 'Type here to search' box type - Turn Windows features on and off (you don't have to type all of this as you will be prompted by the computer).

• Click on 'Turn Windows features on and off'

• Scroll down to 'SMB1.0/CIFS File sharing support' and expand the section - click on the '+' box

• Select the second item - SMB1.0/CIFS Client - it may already be selected so no need to select again

• Click on OK.

On the Win10 computer:

• In the 'Type here to search' box type View network computers and devices

• Click on 'View network computers and Devices'

• BRENNANB2 should be displayed on the 'computer' line - if not wait a while (it can take a while to show the first time) and try refreshing the 'View network....' page.

• Double click on BRENNANB2 - a pop up panel will open

• Enter user name = root

• Enter password = brennan and click on OK

• The B2's 'music' folder will be shown - double click to open it - this can take a while as the computer needs to load all of the files on the B2's HDD.

• Once loaded a list of Artist folders will be shown

• Double clicking on an Artist folder will show the Album folder/s associated with the Artist

• Double clicking any Album folder will show the Tracks and Album Artworks

You can then edit these folders and files as you would any folders/files on your computer e.g. create new folders, copy and paste, cut and paste, rename, delete, etc.

You can also copy music from your computer (iTunes, etc) to the B2 whilst in NAS mode - make sure you maintain the correct Artist - Album - Track folder format so the music is correctly displayed on the B2.

Please note - any changes you make on the computer are local to the computer and must be transferred to the B2 by running Scan Disk - Settings menu - on the B2. If you leave the computer session without running Scan Disk, any changes will be lost.

Paul

Brennan Support.

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You could consider looking at this fix in another forum thread.

https://groups.google.com/g/brennanb2/c/XFtV_2vwlls/m/_cW4gY8uDwAJ

Fred

[Daniel Taylor]

Hi Alex,

Regarding the disappearing albums, and now only the most recent one is there:

Check the scrolling info on the front display.  Does it say Source: Hard Disk, or Source: SD Card ?

If the Source is SD card, you need to run the Use HDD command (Maintenance menu).  Sometimes you have to run it more than once.  When it has successfully switched the music source back to the HDD, you should see your previous albums again.  However, the new one you ripped will still be on the SD card.  We can deal with that later if the Source turns out to be the problem.

[Alex C]

Amazing - thank you.

It is now showing.

I will replace the dongle as per your recommendation and hopefully that will sort the connection issues.

Cheers

Hi Daniel - it is showing Hard Disk. Only these albums seem to be affected and now have sorted above issues should all be okay when loading music.

[David Butchart]

I just tried this out - thanks for the step-by-step - everything went quite smoothly.  This is a really useful feature if you want to build custom CDs.  I ordered a full set of Mahler symphonies (Tennstedt conducting) to round out my wife's collection) that were laid out without respect to CD boundaries - so I used the NAS feature to go in and custom select the tracks to create virtual CD albums in proper movement order without having to rip them to my PC, fiddle with them there, and then upload to the B2.  Since the B2 has plenty of room I ripped the boxed set in original order, then created the virtual CDs with copy and paste.  This is also good for correcting album art if there's a problem with the art lookup.