I manually configured my xfinity router to open a port to my computer that my roon server resides. I made sure that the port number = the port number on my roon arc tab (from roon/ settings). The port forwarding IP address that xfinityn assigned matches the IP address of my computer. On the roon arc tab there is a roon server IP address that doesn't match my computer IP address. Xfinity doesn't offer me an option to change the IP addess to the roon server IP- xfinity assigns the port forwarding directly to my computer IP. Is this the reason I'm getting this Not Ready error when testing my access to the roon server?
Are these support topics monitored? It’s been 10 days and I haven’t seen any response for my help request. So far Roon has been a exciting experience, with the exception of not being able to enable to Roon Arc ap. It would be really great to get access to my library outside of my home network. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Yes, they are monitored. However, the Support team is four people, and they operate a queue system to deal with requests. And at the moment, it would appear that the backlog is higher than usual. Your patience is requested.
Okay. Thank you for your clarification/ communication. It’s much appreciated - I am brand new to Roon and this is my first time raising a support ticket. I appreciate your support.
Best regards,
Mark
Thank you for your patience. The diagnostic snippet in your screenshot shows that RoonServer can’t find an active instance of either UPnP or NAT-PMP in your router.
These are services pre-installed in the router that allow RoonServer to automatically configure ARC for on-the-go use (cellular data connection on your phone) via a mechanism called “port forwarding.”
How many routers do you have in your network setup at home? If you only have one router, you’ll most likely solve the problem by entering the router settings and finding the UPnP setting to make sure it’s toggled on. Please post here if that’s something we can assist with.
If you still see a “Not Ready” signal in Roon → Settings → ARC after taking the above step, please share the diagnostic code and we’ll proceed from there.
Thank you! We’ll watch this thread in the meantime.
Hi Connor, Thank you for your input and support. I contacted Xfinity support to confirm a few things as I am still having issues after configuring a port forward on my Xfinity router per this error message I just received from Roon.
When I contacted Xfinity they told me that the UPnP toggle switch automatically switches to “On” when I configure a port forward in Xfinity. The port forward that Xfinity allowed me to configure is to the physical IP address of the computer from which I have installed my Roon Server (detailed description from original support request). I think this error message is the same error message from the ticket I opened 18 days ago. So, assuming that the port forward config switches the UPnP switch to on, as I confirmed with Xfinity support team, I’m not sure where to go now since the error message doesn’t seem to address the problem that prevents me from configuring Roon ARC appropriately. It’s so disappointing not to be able to access my music outside my home and not knowing how I can get help to resolve the issue unless you have some other thoughts on where we might be able to look/ investigate. Any advice would be much appreciated.
This means your computer hosting RoonServer has two pathways to the internet. It’s receiving an IP address for each active connection and the port forwarding rule is targeting an IP address not in use by RoonServer.
Do you have both an ethernet and a WiFi connection active on the computer hosting RoonServer? Disable one of them if so, and see which IP address is automatically assigned in the ARC settings page when you relaunch RoonServer.
If you don’t have ethernet and WiFi active, do you have a VPN? If so, disable it. It’s likely that RoonServer is using the VPN-assigned IP address in your screenshot above.
Lastly, do you have a second router in this setup in addition to the Xfinity gateway?
The good news is that Xfinity/Comcast do not implement carrier-grade NAT, so the blockage is somewhere in your network and therefore likely resolvable. We’ll keep an eye out for your response to the inquiries above. Thank you!
Hello Conner!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful/ helpful response! So much appreciated. Your point #2 is applicable to my situation. And upon turning my VPN off I am now getting a purple checkmark on the Roon ARC tab telling me that it is now Ready - Roon ARC can securely access my Roon Server!! Yay! Very exciting indeed!
This being said, I am not really comfortable to turn off my VPN on a regular basis for security reasons, I’m sure you can appreciate. So with that being said, can you provide your thoughts on what I need to do with my VPN so that it can comingle with my use of Roon ARC while hiding my IP? Does this mean I need a dedicated IP address on my VPN? Or can you think of other options where I these 2 apps can comingle?
Thank you so much, Connor! Looks like we are getting very close to a total solve for my environment. Cheers!!
Best Regards,
Mark
We’re glad to hear that the port forwarding is successful! I completely understand your requirements for maintaining an additional network security layer with a VPN.
Many users successfully set up a VPN to access ARC by configuring a static IP for the RoonServer. However, it’s not an officially sanctioned method by support, so we can’t offer specific guidance.
What I can do is move this post to Tinkering, where power users who are far more familiar with the securest method for configuring VPN access to ARC can chime in.
Hi @connor!
Thank you so much for your help and support. I would really appreciate it if you moved this topic to Tinkering to hear what other power users are thinking in support of security and VPN access to ARC. That would be very helpful! When I checked earlier this week, I think my VPN charges an extra $4/ month for a static IP address, so it would be really helpful if I could avoid an extra $48/ year to have a secure network while also having the benefit if using ARC remotely. I have been so impressed with how Roon works, I’ve been mentioning it to all my music loving friends. It really has been a revalation to exploring music that is relavant to me and finding new music that is consistent/ extension of my music library! Cheers! Mark
