that may be an exaggeration. however I have placed the almond where it needs to be, in the living room so that I can also connect it to my slingplayer.
Wi-Fi typically has a range of only about 65' / 20m, and is affected by walls, building materials of the building etc. For your "Range Extender" to function properly it needs a good signal to the main router. Check your Wi-Fi configuration to see how congested the 2.4GHz band is in your location. Perhaps you can improve the signal by using a different channel for example.
How strong is the signal between the Almond and the ISP Router?
Constant "
dropping" suggests less than optimal Wi-Fi strength between the 2 devices. This can have multiple causes, including excessive distance between devices, building materials that interfere with the signal, or interference from neighbouring Wi-Fi networks. Check the Wi-Fi channels used by your neighbours, and try to ensure that you aren't on the same channel as your neighbours. In North America, we should be using channels 1, 6 or 11, due to the "wider" channels used in Wireless "N". Consider the following image showing the Wi-Fi congestion at my location:
If you look carefully at the legend at the bottom of this screenshot you can see how the channels work, and why I suggest that only channels 1, 6 and 11 should be used in North America. (There are 13 "B" channels, but only 3 "N" channels due to the wider channel width of Wireless "N"). Click on the image to enlarge it.
If you can't relocate the ISP Router, or the Almond to improve the Wi-Fi signal between them, then you might want to consider "wiring" them to each other, and using the Almond's "
Access Point" mode, rather than the "
Range Extender" mode.
This is how I use my Almond here. My Almond could easily work in
Range Extender mode here as my Almond is less than 5m from my main Router, but I choose to use it in
Access Point mode anyway, this this
doubles the throughput of the connection.
If you can't relocate either ISP Router or the Almond to improve the signal strength between them (regardless of the distance involved), then you might have to consider switching the Almond to "
Access Point" mode. The advantage of our "
Access Point" mode is that it greatly improves throughput, the disadvantage of "
Access Point" mode is that it requires "wiring". (This observation applies to
all Routers/Range Extenders regardless of brand).
Play with your channel choice, and device placement to try to resolve this problem. If you honestly believe that your Almond should be able to handle this based on signal strength etc, then please reach out to our
Support Team for further assistance: