The documentation at https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/arc-port-forwarding#Manual_Configuration states that Roon uses 55000 by default. That is not correct. The core appears to assign a port at random and reports it in the Setting | Roon ARC tab. So if you follow the manual instruction without regard to the actual port assigned then you will input 55000 to your port forwarding rule on your router and Roon ARC will not work.
The documentation needs to be amended and references to the default 55000 removed
Exactly. I was wondering about this since I read about âdefaultâ port 55000 everywhere, and my Roon core uses a different port without having entered anything manually. With all the trouble people are having with port forwarding, this is quite a bad error in the documentation.
The documentation is correct. The first example in the KB is 12345 but itâs just an example as part of the auto-configuration.
Further down in the article where it talks about manual configuration, it does show the port to be 55000 which is what will be there when you hit the option to manually configure. There is even verbiage in the document to warn you of what might happen if that port is in use:
" Port in use
If you get an error saying the port is in use, that means that the current port is already being used by another program on the same computer as your Roon Core. Youâll need to enter another port in Roon, in the Roon ARC tab of Settings. You can enter any available port in the 10,000 to 65,000 range."
The port used isnât relevant other than the fact that it must be in the aforementioned range and that any port forwarding configuration reflects the same port as shown in the manual configuration.
Thanks for the reply. However, Iâm afraid I donât really follow your argument.
I donât think this example will have been clocked by many people. Certainly I didnât notice, and Iâm not sure that even if I had, I would have inferred anything from it.
What do you mean? There is no option to manually configure that you can hit. The only thing you can hit is âResetâ which reassigns another port number at random, giving you only a 1 in 55,001 chance of it being 55,000.
But much more importantly, the steps explicitly tell you that âyouâll need to create a new port forwarding rule in your router that uses these 3 pieces of infoâ and then goes on to specify â55000â without any qualification whatsoever. This is the main thing that is wrong. I would hazard that a significant number of people who failed initially to get this to work (I specifically know of only two!) were misled by a very specific instruction that simply is incorrect as it is currently written.
Another thing that is wrong: âRoon uses port 55000 by default, but you can pick a different port if youâd like.â In what circumstances does Roon use 55000 as a default? I have never seen 55000 in the port box on the Roon ARC tab. I suspect this is referring to how a pre-release version worked.
This whole Manual configuration section should be revised to refer to the actual behaviour of Roon (selecting a port number at random, refreshing with a different port number it if you press Reset) and how you should use that port number in your routerâs port forwarding rule, as I suggested in my original post.
Yes, all very interesting, but it doesnât remedy the explicit instructions given earlier that reference only 55000 without any qualification or explanation.
Thanks Wes. I really think that if you re-read my original post with an open mind, and donât try to defend the current documentation so hard, youâd see that it could very easily be amended to be much more helpful to Roon users who only encounter port numbers once in a blue moon.
I know you guys are trying to be helpful, and I can see that youâve done the manual configuration thing without issue. Just like I did, as it happens.
Perhaps the difference between us is in how we see people who are having difficulty with this process. And that includes sensible people who read the support pages before posting a request for help without doing any research themselves.
The thing is that the support pages are inaccurate and unhelpful. Iâd thought I had made that clear, but the response from you and @Wes maybe indicates otherwise.
All Iâm trying to do is get this fixed so that the misleading and incorrect âhelpâ pages are edited. But maybe I canât be bothered any more. I had hoped for a little more support, rather than people just saying âitâs obviousâ, but there you go.
I thought there really couldnât be any discussion here⌠how naĂŻve I am. The documentation is just plain WRONG, thereâs no middle road here. I totally agree with @John_Warden , even though thereâs no need to agree with anyone.
Documentation: " **Using a different port. Roon uses port 55000 by default, but you can pick a different port if youâd like.". Where and under which circumstances does Roon use port 55000 âby defaultâ ?
As I said, my ROCK had a completely different port number⌠so the word âdefaultâ is obviously wrong.
This is incorrect for two reasons, which is exactly what John is trying to explain:
Thereâs only the âexpandâ right next to the ârefreshâ button. (Which is probably what you mean by âwhen you hit the option to manually configureâ⌠?). So, âby defaultâ, the port number isnât even visible. So people are just going to assume what is in the documentation, saying the default port # is 55000.
When I clicked that âexpandâ button for the very first time (Iâm glad I didnât simply trust the documentation), it showed an entirely different port number, NOT 55000. Which proves that thereâs no âdefaultâ port 55000.
They probably should change the documentation to say, âClick the down arrow to see the port number. If you want to change it, click in the box and type in a different available port number.â
This is the problem I ran into when trying to manually set up following the instructions. My knowledge in this area is extremely limited to nil, so I could only try to follow the steps exactly. It was only when I saw another post mentioning having/how to change the port number in Roon ARC settings to match the router settings that I got it to work.
Btw, this is what I saw when looking at the Roon ARC port setting. The way it appears I assumed, per the instructions, that it defaulted to 55000, but it did not. Thereâs no âdrop downâ button when viewed on my iPad (I donât use our PC to control the core). (EDIT: I now see the drop down button the previous poster refered to. I misunderstood and thought it was by the Port Number setting)
This attitude that Roon can do no wrong when errors are pointed out (there are other problems pointed out in the KB), that the problem is with the users, is really off putting, to put it mildly.
Exactly! You read that 55000 is the default. You read specific and detailed instructions telling you to use 55000 in the port forwarding rule on your router. You see stuff saying that the port number could be changed manually but think thatâs irrelevant to you because you havenât changed the port number, particularly as you see no reason why you should change it. So the default must be the number to use.
You follow those instructions to use the âdefaultâ 55000 to the letter to set up your port forwarding rule on your router because this is unfamiliar territory.
And it just doesnât work.
I really think it couldnât be more obvious why the documentation is in error and needs to be changed.
And why expend any more energy defending it rather than simply correcting it?
I agree. If you come up with solid arguments, Roon should take note and simply say: âsure, we should change this/thatâ. In fact, they donât even have to admit their mistake for all I care⌠they should simply change the documentation for this particular item. Itâs really not that hard.
But Roon is a collection of individuals just like any other company. Some of them may find it hard to admit a mistake, which is a very human thing really. (This is something I realized last night, after getting really disheartened by Roonâs reply here). So on we go.