Diagnosing a streaming failure

All…Aurender has a 240GB SSD cache for OS and playback. Your music is loaded onto this SSD and a playback happens from the SSD. This isn’t some minuscule wonky in memory buffer. You can literally pull Ethernet cable out of your aurneder if you are playing a playlist and it will continue on until it runs out of cache. It will be hours before this happens. The concept of network hiccups don’t exist here with this design unless you have no internet to load up the cache. 

I have a N150 connected to my Schiit Yggdrasil DAC, I've never had this issue, I mostly listen to my music library ripped to the internal SSD, and occasionally listen to qobuz but it's been flawless for the last couple years.. my USB cable is a old NOS Synergistic Research I got from a buddy that is pretty good but someday I'll probably get something better.

Thinking out load: What router are you using and is a ping test part of the test scenario? I would try Speed Test by Ookla abd make sure your ping is less the 8ms.  Anything more would indicate some latency and the app/device is buffering before it plays to eliminate drops in the middle.

Second is never use the providers router.  This allows them to throttle your service during peak times.  Some carriers share your bandwidth and collect date from you using that device in your home.

OP:  

Measuring download speed is good, but if you can observe other networks using a wifi analyzer that’s better.   You may not get those speeds when other networks get busier. 

Also, routers DO go bad, sometimes 1 band at a time.  For instance, I had to replace my last router because the 5 GHz channel would just stop working until a router reboot.  They are especially susceptible to heat to make sure they remain well ventilated and away from an area that gets hot during the day.

Best,

Erik 

@erik_squires @sholladay 

My network. My main router is less than 6 months old. The AT&T router is disabled. I do have a lot of devices. I don’t know how to test latency for an Ethernet connected streamer.