I’m aware that ARC has issues around connectivity. We can look at analytics from our end, but I’m curious to learn more about how these present themselves in the app.
Does anyone who regularly experiences bad connectivity in ARC want to hop on a call and chat? Would love to look over your shoulder and see what you see.
If you’d like to talk, shoot me a DM. Or, feel free and post here about what connection issues you’ve been experiencing lately.
Just updated to 1387 early access for my ROCK and Windows but was getting this error when I run the Roon ARC test:
{
“ipv6_connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“ipv4_connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“external_ip”: {“actual_external_ip”:“98.hhh.iii.jjj”,“actual_external_ipv6”:“2605:aaa:bbb:ccc:ddd:eee:fff:ggg”,“router_external_ip”:“null”},
“natpmp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”},
“upnp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”}
}
I have things setup correctly with a firewall hole configured for my ROCK IPv6 address and the port shown on the Roon ARC test page (TCP). Shortly after testing this Starlink disabled my IPv6. I submitted a ticket with them but this can’t be a coincidence. Are you guys sure you didn’t break something for them that caused this action?
This looks like your ROCK is receiving an IPv4-format address from the DHCP server in the second, downstream ASUS router.
Since you’re setting up a TCP port forwarding rule, the ASUS router is still in the IPv4 world. The Starlink router, since it’s not doing any DHCP for IPv4 or IPv6 on this network, can’t properly prefix those IPv4 addresses for them to interact with the broader internet in IPv6. As a result, Starlink is defaulting to the IPv4 external IP address and you’re hitting a layer of CG-NAT.
If you’d like this network to be mixed IPv4 and IPv6, then you will need to find a way to get the ASUS router to default to IPv6 entirely, or you’ll need to allow the Starlink router to manage your network. But two routers won’t function with ARC in an IPv4 environment, regardless of the ISP.
How did Starlink inform you that they’d disabled this functionality? Starlink’s DHCP will issue an IPv6 address to every active current Starlink modem/router by default - every account gets an IPv6 address automatically. In certain regions where IPv4 addresses are still available, Starlink will dynamically assign an IPv4 address, managed by carrier-grade network address translation - in addition to the IPv6 address. The most likely culprit here is that exposing the TCP port forwarding rule to the Starlink router prompted it to default to the IPv4 WAN IP address.
My Starlink router is setup for bypass mode so the only settings available are reboot, stow & heating. My ASUS RT-AX3000 router is setup for native IPv6 and has upnp off with no IPv4 port forwarding unless it’s doing something I’m not aware of. It has an IPv6 firewall rule allowing access to my ROCK at the IPv6 address and port which I see in the Roon ARC details. I’m going to reset my Starlink router and see if it helps me get my IPv6 address back.
Update: Resetting the Starlink router did not get my IPv6 address back. Btw, I have not changed anything in my router settings other than to add the IPv6 pinhole yesterday so I’m not sure why the bypassed Starlink router would be the source for this issue.
Hey, my IPv6 address just showed up again. I closed Roon and after restarting it and running the Roon ARC test it now shows as ready. I will update Roon ARC on my phone and Android Auto next then let you know if it’s working remotely now.
Please keep us posted - I was halfway writing a response with some follow-up suggestions.
Please disregard my suggestion to un-bypass the Starlink router; if that unit is active, it will block any incoming IPv6 connections without allowing for pinholing. Having the ASUS router active behind the bypassed Starlink unit, as you’d initially mentioned, is the correct setup.
I’ll anxiously await your response. If you don’t mind, please take a screenshot of the IPv6 settings you’ve selected in the ASUS RT-AX3000 to obtain a “Ready” test response for comparison to what we’ve suggested.
Ok, we are almost there. I checked Roon ARC on my Android Auto system and it was updated this morning. I started it and immediately got a check mark for “Connecting to Roon server” followed by “Syncing with system for first time” which finished after a couple of minutes then asked which profile was connecting. However, when I selected my profile I got a message something like “This version of Roon ARC cannot connect to your Roon server, please update to the latest version of Roon Server and try again”. When I came back inside and ran About in settings it told me my ROCK already has the latest version. Everything is on early access…
Thank you again for your diligence. I know it’s been a long road.
This condition you’ve described often occurs when ARC has just changed its path to RoonServer and instead relies on old authentication keys from a previous session. I’d try restarting ARC, then uninstalling/reinstalling if that doesn’t resolve.
Fortunately, this problem is independent of port forwarding/IPv6 pinholing.
It sounds like ARC can now call home with a cellular connection or a guest WiFi connection outside your house even though your ROCK is using a Starlink modem? If this is indeed the case, you’ve successfully bypassed Starlink’s CG-NAT by resorting to a (functioning) IPv6-based network.
The acquisition finally makes more sense to me. They’ve finally figured out that the future of music isn’t going to be based on building boxes, it’s a software industry now.
