Can't get Roon to work properly

Sorry, I inadvertently missed the 20175 which it says is the model name on the back of the laptop.

I believe I am at the “replies limit”

Jim

Hello,

I didn’t reply earlier as I ran up against the forum limit for replies in a certain time period. As there potentially seems to be quite a bit of “back and forth” perhaps you could relax that restriction in this case.

Mikael:

I honestly don’t know much about this. I have had very little to do with networking and IP stuff until now. I would not know what to look for in these settings so perhaps you can give me some guidance.

I did try an experiment which should narrow things down. I took my laptop and my Android phone to my dealer’s store and I was able to connect to his Roon Core using both devices with no trouble at all. This probably puts the laptop in the clear (and Kaspersky for that matter). Incidentally, my dealer had a look at my Windows settings and thought they were probably o.k.

Also, I tried all kinds of other things as suggested on the internet but none of them worked. However, after reading all kinds of stuff, I took a closer look at the network settings and it dawned on me that effectively I have 2 private local networks, one wireless and one ethernet, both connected to the router but unable to communicate with each other. Unfortunately, I still have not been able to get the two networks to communicate and none of the solutions offered on the internet worked. I find it rather incredible that there seems to be no easy (or at least obvious) solution as there must be many instances similar to the Roon Core/Remote situation.

Hopefully, you can come up with a solution to this. In the meantime:

  1. I will have another go at my internet provider (SaskTel) to see if they can suggest something with the Router settings.

  2. Also, I will go to Staples where I know a fairly experienced network person who might be able to help me.

  3. While I am at Staples, I will pick up a wireless adapter for my desktop (any suggestions?). I can always return it if it doesn’t work.

Thank you again for your efforts. Now I am off to bed as it is approaching 3:00 a.m. my time.

Jim

Hi Jim, sorry for your troubles, but at least we are getting nearer an identified issue here.

In your situation i would buy a good Wireless Router such as an Asus RT-N66U and simply discard the one provided by your ISP. (Assuming it is not a proprietary must for your ISP, but they can tell you if it is so, and what to do if it need to be put into bridge mode)
A good quality router can also mean that the extender is no longer necessary.

And, for what it’s worth, i cannot recommend anyone to connect their Core over WLAN. Rather, i’d shop for an USB2Ethernet adapter to be able to hardwire the Yoga to your current router for testing.

Hey @Jim_Ridgway,

I have upgraded you to full member status – that should take care of this.

2 Likes

Hey @Jim_Ridgway,

As mentioned in our networking guide, we typically recommend against using such extenders.

Often times when troubleshooting it is best to simplify the network as much as possible and seeing if the issue persists. If you take the network extender offline temporarily so that everything is connected only to the primary router does the issue persist?

Additionally do you have any other device available that you are able to connect via Ethernet? Knowing whether or not you experience this behavior when a remote is also connected via Ethernet will tell us a bit more about where the problem is occurring.

Thanks!
Dylan

Thank you Rene.

Jim

1 Like

Mikael,

I think I have got to the bottom of this.

After talking to various people, I concluded that somehow there must be 2 routers in my system.

This was not obvious because my fibre optic box and my router are out in the open with no other routers in sight. However, I also have an elaborate network box which I have not looked at in years and which is awkward to get at. While talking to my internet provider (SaskTel), I opened the network box and there was a white box within it which is a TCP Link TL-R860 Modem/Router (apparently a very ancient piece of equipment). When SaskTel upgraded my equipment a couple of years ago or so, they left the TCP Link box active when they should have integrated everything. Effectively, I have 2 separate networks that can’t talk to each other.

Tomorrow afternoon they will be coming to check things out and (hopefully) reconnect everything properly. Of course, I will get back to you with the results. If we are really lucky, I won’t need much further assistance–at least about this problem.

Thank you again for your efforts and I hope to have good news tomorrow.

Jim

4 Likes

If SaskTel Fibre is anything like Bell Canada Fibre it is possible to create two separate connections with different internet IP addresses by chaining another router to a specific port on the provider’s router. This is unusual for an internet provider. I have done this in my home with Bell Fibre because it suits my needs. But I must be careful to keep all Roon related gear on the same network. I use the second network and router only for security cams and automated doorbells because it can be rebooted remotely, while the Bell-supplied router can’t. In essence, it’s like having two separate internet connections.

My apologies for not being able to get back to this thread before now.

Fortunately, I was indeed correct and the problem was solved. I believe that when my internet connection was upgraded with new fibre optic equipment, the technician was too lazy to pull the old modem/router because it was acting as a switch-box and, not knowing any better, he did not bother to replace it. We got rid of the modem and I installed a new 16-port switch-box in its place and with a few tweaks, things are now working properly with one exception.

Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to play multichannel files in ROON. They are only output as 2-channel files via my OPPO-205. The source files and core are stored on an external hard drive attached to my desktop computer which is upstairs. In my sound room downstairs, the OPPO inputs these files from a wired connection and sends them to my Classe SSP-800 processor via the 7.1 analog outputs. The “Down-mixing” is set to 7.1 in the OPPO 205.

Although I can’t find it right now, I seem to remember that this might be a limitation of the OPPO; perhaps someone can comment on this. However, it doesn’t do any harm to ask if there is any way at all to play multi-channel files through the OPPO via ROON. Would storing the files on an NAS make any difference? Somehow I doubt it.

In spite of the multi-channel problem, I have made great strides in setting up my collection to play back computer files. I could not have done so without the help and encouragement of the people on this forum. My brief listening experience has been quite positive and shows some indication that the computer files played through ROON actually sound better than their disc equivalents.

Thank you all very much for your help.

Jim

See the following:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/oppo-udp-203-and-udp-205-now-roon-ready/30847/64?u=rugby