ARC can't connect through Eero attached to Bell Home Hub 4000

Support ARC: Port Forwarding Help
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Roon Core Machine

Roon Nucleus

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Ethernet connection from Nucleus to Netgear switch to Eero Pro 6 to Bell Home Hub 4000, no VPN

Connected Audio Devices

Roon Nucleus is connected via ethernet to Netgear switch
Hegel H390 is connected via ethernet to Netgear switch

Number of Tracks in Library

76000 tracks

Description of Issue

Getting pretty tired of having to be a network engineer in order to make services work.

I have gone through the support page with no luck. I set up port forwarding for the core using the Eero app - also used the 55000 port. Don’t really know what I’m doing so not surprisingly the Arc page tool continues to show as Not Ready. I have tried to refresh but no luck. Diagnostics shows nothing but an open and closed curly bracket. The Eero is connected very simply to the Bell Home Hub - just as an ethernet device. Not in Bridge mode (that is not simple to do in the Bell Home Hub). Any help is appreciated.

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Despite having my Home Hub 4000’s UPnP turned on, Arc didn’t work until I logged into the router, gave my Rock a “reserved IP” in its device settings page, and then set up a port forwarding rule with the port listed in Arc (which wasn’t 55000, not sure that’s necessary though).

Perhaps you’ve tried the above, but figured I’d chime in to offer hope that the Home Hub 4000 can eventually work :person_shrugging: (seemingly not automatically though, considering our experiences)

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Thanks … I’ll try it out. I think it is probably related to the fact that I have an external router connected to my ISP router. Appreciate your help!

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It would be interesting to know what @Roon_2.0_ARC_Support recommends for Double NAT setups such as yours (and mine). I would imagine that configuring port forwarding on both routers would be necessary.

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can you change your main ISP modem/router to bridge mode?

Once I did that, it worked fine.

(EDIT: just re-read initial comment that changing to bridge mode on their router was not easy. Sorry!)

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Some ISP do not allow bridge mode on their routers and also on some ISP´s that allow it, enabling bridge mode loses you the landline.

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oooh interesting.

I will have to test this

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Here is a guide for Roon ARC port forwarding and Double NAT:

ARC Port Forwarding (roonlabs.com)

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Hi @ethelthefrog,

Please accept our apologies for the delayed response. We’re working diligently to reach every user who has experienced a port forwarding issue, and I’m very sorry that you’ve had to wait over a week for support. I assure you we’ll be more responsive now that we’ve assigned your ticket and are investigating.

The error you’re experiencing is due to a second layer of Network Address Translation (NAT), likely due to the fact that you have a second router in your setup (the Eero Pro 6) behind the Bell Home Hub 4000’s built-in router.

In this setup, your Core’s static IP address is unable to reach the internet without configuring your Home Hub to “pass through” the Core upstream to the internet. Your two routers are both performing the address translation that only one needs to perform. The vast majority of users have been able to avoid this double-router snag by configuring their modem/router combination in Bridge or IP Passthrough mode.

The Bell Home Hub 4000 unfortunately does not include this as a simple box-tick in the router settings. However, other users with the same modem have identified a workaround with the following steps:

  1. Factory reset the Home Hub 4000 and make sure your PPPoE credentials are gone from the Home Hub 4000 web interface

  2. Plug your Eero Pro 6 router directly into the Home Hub 4000 via ethernet. This will prompt the router to authenticate a PPPoE session with Bell. You don’t need to mess with VLANs or anything like that on the WAN interface of your router. The Home Hub 4000 should just pass along the PPPoE request to the Eero router, providing the WAN port of your Eero router with a public-facing IP address.

  3. You have now bypassed the built-in, redundant router in the Home Hub 4000 and are using your Eero to connect directly to the internet, instead of negotiating through the Home Hub 4000.

  4. Finally, place the Eero router in the DMZ (demilitarized zone) list on the Bell Home Hub 4000 in the Home Hub web administration page. Do NOT add the static IP address of your Core to the DMZ list of the Home Hub 4000 router under any circumstances.

What you have done in the above steps is configure your Eero router as an “access point” for the Home Hub, eliminating the second layer of network address translation (NAT).

For additional context, please see this other thread where other users with the same Bell Home Hub 4000 modem have come to the same solution: Bell Canada: Bell HH3000 aka Bell Hub 3000 Doesn't Offer Bridge Mode [See Staff Post for Workaround] - #8 by ipeverywhere

We’ll be standing by to support once you’ve had a chance to try this out.

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Thanks @connor , I really appreciate your response. In the meantime, I eliminated the Eero and swapped out my Home Hub 4000 for a Bell Giga Hub for faster speeds. Even with just the one router I still get the following troubleshooting message. Any help would be appreciated!

Brian

{“connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“external_ip”: {“actual_external_ip”:“142.188.45.92”,“router_external_ip”:null},
“natpmp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”},
“upnp_autoconfig”: {“server_ip”:“192.168.2.1”,“found_upnp”:true,“error”:“Did not find UPnP service with WANIPConnection on network”}
}

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Hi again, seems I have it working! Your advice still helped with the new set up.

Thanks again.

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