Improve Play Control performance

[athegn]

My hi-fi setup is a DacMagic DAC fed from the USB port of my Dell laptop; output to hi-fi preamp.

The Dell Inspiron 1545 has only 2.4GHz wifi. My phone, Galaxy S2, and tablet, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, have both 2.4 and 5GHz wifi.

The room I have the hi-fi in is covered by a Netgear WG603 V3 WAP; the BT HomeHub 4, near the master socket, does not give a very good signal in this room - oldish house with thick walls.

The laptop and the phone/tablet talk to each other via this WAP.

The problem is that Playa Control for Winamp loads the library very slowly. I only use the albums function on Winamp; I do not create playlists as these would only be the same as the album listing.

I think the bottleneck is mainly the WAP at 2.4GHz. I have a 5GHz USB dongle that I could fit in the laptop.

Would I get much improvement in Playa Control if the devices talked at 5Ghz instead of 2.4GHz? If so can anyone recommend a replacement WAP for my Netgear unit?

 

[athegn]

Sort of answered my own question.

I moved my laptop and tablet into the room with the HomeHub so that both are using 5GHz. Playa Control library loads almost instantly.

So looking at an Asus EA-N66 to replace my Neatgear WAP.

 

[divinebovine]

Consider plugging the laptop in the old-fashioned way instead of making it use wifi, too.

 

[athegn]

Already considered a long time ago; running cable to hi-fi not practicable.

 

[divinebovine]

Not sure if I'm reading that right but if I am: Leave laptop where it is, keep short audio cable, use long ethernet cable.

 

[athegn]

"...use long ethernet cable...."

That cable is the problem; difficult/ ugly routing.