ARC - Can't connect to server - Multiple NAT

Adam_Tanner · January 10, 2024, 5:26pm

{
“ipv4_connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“external_ip”: {“actual_external_ip”:“95.aaa.bbb.ccc”,“actual_external_ipv6”:“null”,“router_external_ip”:“192.168.1.122”},
“status”: “status”: MultipleNatFound
,
“natpmp_autoconfig”: {“server_ip”:“192.168.2.1”,“found_natpmp”:true},
“upnp_autoconfig”: {“server_ip”:“192.168.2.1”,“found_upnp”:true}
}

I am using an Asus RT-AC88U Router, which is getting its connection from my modem/router provided by EE. I cannot turn the modem/router into ‘modem only’ operation. I’m guessing this is my issue? Any ideas?

Thanks,

Adam

Wade_Oram · January 10, 2024, 5:46pm

You have two routers - the EE one and the ASUS both of which are doing NAT. Hence the message in the error report about ‘MultipleNatFound’.

I don’t know what EE router you have. Does it combine Modem and Router features? or do you have a separate ONT device on the wall feeding ethernet to the WAN port of the ASUS router.

If you have a separate ONT on the wall where you internet connection enters the house, you can remove the EE router and just use the ASUS router with the ONT connected directly to the WAN side of the ASUS router. You will need to change the WAN settings on the router to use, probably, PPPoE and a user name and password - which can be found on the web at Using and configuring a third party router. No other changes to the ASUS router settings will be required.

If you don’t have a separate ONT, then one of two options may be available:

Put the EE Router into Modem only mode or bridge mode such that it does not provide routing and WiFi
Put the ASUS router into Access Point mode and connect it to the EE Router using one of the LAN ports (Some ASUS routers can use the WAN port as an extra LAN port when in Access Point mode - but not all of them).

F.Y.I. I use BT (who own EE and in fact the BT and EE services are merging with all BT residential broadband services being EE branded in the near future) and I also use an ASUS router (RT-AX88U). I have connected my router directly to the ONT and used the PPPoE login details on the linked web page.

Adam_Tanner · January 10, 2024, 6:08pm

Thanks for the reply.

My EE router/modem is taking the phone line connection. My Asus router does not function as a modem, so I am just taking the cable from the LAN port on the EE router and sending it to my Asus WAN port.

There is no way to set the EE router to modem only or bridge. So I’m guessing there is no workaround for me?

Wade_Oram · January 10, 2024, 6:10pm

Put the Asus Router into Access point mode. Second option on the screenshot below:

If necessary change the connection to the ASUS router from the EE router to use a LAN port instead of the WAN port.

Wade_Oram · January 10, 2024, 6:16pm

Forgot to mention that, in this mode, the ASUS does not do any routing (as the text says) so the port forwarding rule will need to be set up on the EE router.

Adam_Tanner · January 10, 2024, 6:41pm

Thanks. Will putting it in this mode upset the AiMesh connection? I have another Asus router connected downstream of my AC88U, which provides network capability to my cinema room in the garden.

Also, I guess it kind of makes my AC88U redundant as I won’t have any of the other features that I bought it for. I might have to do without ARC

Wade_Oram · January 10, 2024, 7:07pm

No. It’s the mode that is actually custom designed to add AI mesh to an existing non-mesh router.

Once the Asus mesh is up and running in Access point mode, it would be best to turn off WiFi on the EE router if you have not done that already.

Adam_Tanner · January 10, 2024, 7:12pm

Great. Will give this a try tonight. Thanks for your help

Wade_Oram · January 10, 2024, 7:20pm

The Asus features that will get dropped are things like the VPN server but you will probably not be using that because its setup would be much complicated by the presence of the EE router.

It should be noted as well that DHCP will be done by the EE Router so all the ip addresses on your network will change.

Make sure that you do not have any devices set to static ip addresses before you make the change.

connor · January 10, 2024, 8:15pm

Hi @Adam_Tanner,

@Wade_Oram’s suggestions are the correct path to follow (thank you Wade for the contributions).

If you still have trouble, support is watching this thread. Please post any updated diagnostic snippets from Roon → Settings → ARC.

Adam_Tanner · January 10, 2024, 8:46pm

I’m now in AP mode on the Asus router. I’ve forwarded the port rules on the EE router. I still get the same error:

{
“ipv4_connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“external_ip”: {“actual_external_ip”:“95.aaa.bbb.ccc”,“actual_external_ipv6”:“null”,“router_external_ip”:“192.168.1.122”},
“status”: “status”: MultipleNatFound
,
“natpmp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”},
“upnp_autoconfig”: {“server_ip”:“192.168.2.1”,“found_upnp”:true}
}

Wade_Oram · January 10, 2024, 9:07pm

It looks like your Roon server has not picked up a new ip address from the EE router because it still has 192.168.2.1 address whereas the router has 192.168.1.1 address (ie almost certainly in a different subnet - assuming a 255.255.255.0 net ask which is normal for home networks).

Check the the roon server is not set to a static ip address and then reboot the roon server.

If that does not work you may need to power cycle the EE router.

Edit: Looks like I got the subnets the wrong way around. The 192.168.2.x subnet appears to the EE router subnet. Just to check change show/tell us what the LAN side ip address and netmask of EE router is.

Adam_Tanner · January 10, 2024, 9:47pm

Will try tomorrow and report back

Jerry_B · January 11, 2024, 1:29am

If its phone company based like DSL. With my ISPs router we turn off wifi. Make sure its not logging in. So reset modem then turn off wifi. Then set your Asus to log into DSL with your username and password. It should login and go online within 10 minutes or less.
If you are using too much bandwidth your isp my have disabled or blocked port you are using.
Keep changing port can help with that frequency simply when it stops working.

Formula · January 11, 2024, 11:57am

Any reason you’re using the ASUS? The EE router should be the same as the BT one. You’ve added your port forward. You you connect your Roon Server directly to the EE router, and find it connects to ARC.

192.168.2.1 - is this the correct IP for you Roon Server? Or is, 192.168.1.122? As you’ve put a completely different IP into the port forwarding on EE which is 192.168.2.238?

Take the ASUS out and start again and test to see if you can get arc working with just the EE router.

Arc and roon server both need to be in either: 192.168.1.x or 192.168.2.x

Adam_Tanner · January 11, 2024, 7:40pm

The reason for using the Asus router is:

The EE router is garbage. It keeps dropping WiFi connection (I’ve disabled WiFi on the EE)
I use AiMesh on the Asus Router downstream to another Asus router (acting as a node) in my garden room.

According to Roon, my Roon Server IP is 192.168.2.238

I have rebooted the Roon server. I still get the same issue:

Wade_Oram · January 11, 2024, 8:07pm

Can you please tell us the ip address (on the LAN side - starting with 192.168.) and netmask (255.255.255.0?) of the EE router?

You say you have two ASUS routers providing a MESH WiFi system.

I presume that you have:

The EE router handling the ADSL/VDSL line from the ISP and not providing WiFi
One ASUS router connected to a LAN port of the EE router using wired ethernet
A second ASUS router (the third router all told) linked to the first by the WiFi Mesh.
Your Roon server connected using wired ethernet to one or the other of the ASUS routers.
No devices other than the first ASUS router connected to the EE router.

Can you please confirm that this is the case? This will help us diagnose the issue.

Assuming the above is correct, both the ASUS routers need to be configured to be in Access Point mode.

You say the Roon Server is on 192.168.2.238. This is consistent with the ARC diagnostic which still talks about ip addresses in the 192.168.2.x range and the 192.168.1.x range which are in different subnets if your netmask is set to 255.255.255.0 (which is almost certainly the default for a home router). In addition, the ARC diagnostic is still indicating “MultipleNatFound” which is consistent with the use of two sub nets.

The usual default IP address for and EE router is 192.168.1.254 - which is in a different subnet to your Roon Server.

It looks to me as if the EE router is providing a 192.168.1.x subnet but there is still another router (one of the ASUS routers) in your system providing a 192.168.2.x subnet.

When you have correctly configured both of the ASUS routers in Access Point mode (and restarted the Roon Server machine so that it picks up a new ip address), you should see all your devices in the same ipv4 subnet (i.e. all in the 192.168.1.x range or, possibly, all in the 192.168.2.x range).

Edit: Added the 5th bullet point in the deduced network configuration above.

Wade_Oram · January 11, 2024, 8:20pm

Just out of interest, do either of the following links work (they are both non-routable ip addresses so they will either get something connected to your home network or they will fail so they should be perfectly safe)?

http://192.168.2.1
http://192.168.2.254

If one of these links work on your network - and it takes you to the web configuration page of an ASUS router, then that is probably the ASUS router that is still in router mode (and needs to be configured for Access Point mode).

If, on the other hand, one of these links takes you to the EE router web configuration page, then, and only then, try the same with:

http://192.168.1.1
http://192.168.1.254

Again, if this takes you to a ASUS router web configuration page, this will probably be the router that needs to be reconfigured to work in Access Point mode.

Adam_Tanner · January 13, 2024, 7:09pm

Thank you for the very detailed help. I haven’t had time to look at it yet, but plan on doing so.

My other slight issue that has happened is the WiFi in my cinema room no longer shows up, so I’m not sure what’s changed there.

Your breakdown of my setup is exactly as you describe above.

I’ll have a play soon.

Wade_Oram · January 13, 2024, 7:57pm

Eliminating double NAT (by putting all additional routers in Access Point mode) is much the preferred solution to the issue that you are having - because it makes for a network with far fewer complexities in use (just a single subnet as opposed to two or more subnets) and it is the only topology that gives uPnP a chance of configuring port forwarding. Such simplicity aids in setting up Roon and it also aids setting up other server applications should you want to run them.

However, it is also possible to manually configure port forwarding to make the two routers solution work providing that the no Roon related device (remotes/servers/endpoints/bridges etc) are connected to the ISP provided router (the EE router in your case). The easiest way to do this is to make sure that Wifi is turned off on the ISP router and the second router (the ASUS router) is the only device connected to a LAN port of the ISP router and this all network devices actually connect to (and get their ip address from) the second router. From what I can tell, it appears that this was what you originally had.

This being the case, to make port forwarding work with the double NAT setup( both EE and ASUS routers in router mode), you would need to make sure that both routers do the required port forwarding.

i.e.

Configure an explicit port forwarding rule on the EE router to forward the ARC port to the WAN ip address of the ASUS router.
Configure the ASUS to either use uPnP or to use an explicit port forwarding rule to forward to the ARC port to the Roon server.

So for example:

Say:

Connectivity is:
- ADSL → EE router(WAN port)
- EE Router (LAN port)->ASUS router (WAN port)
- ASUS router(LAN port and Wifi)->all other networked devices
The EE router is configured for a 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0 LAN side ip address/netmask
The ASUS router obtains a 192.168.1.50 (just for example) WAN side ip address but has it’s LAN side ip address configured to use 192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0 ip address/netmask (10.0.0.1/255.255.255.0 would be preferable for clarity but I will continue with what it appears you are already using).
The Roon server is issued an IP address of 192.168.2.238 (as your posts above indicated) by the ASUS router.

Then you would need:

On the EE router: A port forwarding rule to forward ARC port (port 55000) connections to 192.168.1.50 (the IP address of the ASUS router)
On the ASUS router either:
- A port forwarding rule to forward the ARC port (port 55000) connections to 192.168.2.238
- uPnP enabled. Note: I have never tried this so I may be wrong on this point but I believe that you may still get the warning on the ARC settings page of the Roon / Roon Remote app if you use uPnP because the ip address that is seen by the Roon (company) servers is not the wan side IP address of the router configured by uPnP. This may mean that you have to use the explicit port forwading on both routers.