I have the following client-server setup where music (particularly high bitrate like 24 bit, 96KHz) suddenly stops playing.
Server: Mac Mini: i5, 8G memory
3 Macs: 2 iMac + 1 laptop. All 2013 or newer and i5 or better, 8G or greater memory
Apple TV
Running RoonLabs SW downloaded on 6/28/15 (don’t know what version)
Cisco GigE unmanaged switch
Latest Apple Airport Extreme router
Lastest version of Mac OS (even tried updating with the latest release on 6/30/15)
Problem:
On all macs, the music will stop playing at random times. If I drag the slider, the music will restart.
If I throw the music to the Apple TV there is no problem
If I switch the Mac I’m on to Wi-Fi, the problem goes away and music plays forever
Given I have a GigE switch and GigE router, I’m having a hard time understanding why Wi-Fi works and Cat6 doesn’t. I have no intention of running wireless when I can have secure GigE. I can recreate the problem or make it go away with 100% reliability just by switching from GigE to Wi-Fi. I tried plugging the server directly into the Airport Extreme with no change in the problem. Very annoying. Anyone have any ideas?
I am not sure how you have these plugged together. Can you give us more info on how the computers are wired to the Airport and the Cisco?
(Example, server and macs are all plugged into the cisco and the cisco is plugged into the Airport, or the laptop and switch is plugged into the airport and the rest are plugged into the cisco)
Very straightforward: everything (router, server, and all other networked devices) are plugged into the Cisco switch. As I mentioned, I unplugged the server from the switch and plugged it directly in to the Airport Extreme just to see if that would make a difference. It didn’t. Also tried bumping the ENet speed down to 100mbits. Problem did not go away.
Mac has some issues with Dhcp and long open connections.
Try if renewing the lease fixes things as a one off.
More permanent is to set manual ip addresses (and flush dns cache after doing that).
Perhaps that helps.
No change. Still fails. Renewed on both the server and client end. Server IP address is reserved in the router. I had previously rebooted both server/client many times to see if that helped, which which would be the same as renewing the IP address. Rebooting didn’t do anything either.
Anyone from Roon have any thoughts. Will probably cancel my trial membership as the system isn’t worth much if it stops playing music all the time.
Have you tried eliminating the cisco switch. Just plug the Core Server and 1 Mac into the Airport and see what happens. Alternatively, if you have another switch around, you could use that to just plug the server and 1 mac in to test.
Given that it happens consistently and in all your tests, at least from what I’ve read, have included the switch; my money is on the switch being the issue. I don’t use Cisco home products, but if you send me the model number I can take a look at the manual and its setup and see if I notice anything that could be of help.
Damn! You’re right. Bypassed the switch and no stalls. Rather surprised as this is a pretty decent switch (as opposed to some no name device). Cisco SG-100-16 is the part number. Sending my server in to get an SSD. So it’ll be offline for a couple of days. I’ll run more extensive tests once I get it back, but Roon has already run significantly longer than it ever did before. So I’m guessing the switch was the problem. I’ll get a new one from Netgear or some other non-cisco company to see how that works. Thanks.
Cool. When you start further testing, try using different ports on the switch, it may be a port was flakey. Also start by unplugging everything else from the switch and just use the core and one mac. Delays can also be caused by extra network intererence from a malfunctioning NIC card on a computer.
I use an AirPort Extreme and two Cisco switches and haven’t had this type of problem, but I just run Roon on a single Windows laptop, with watched files on a NAS connected through a different switch. There is a Meridian end point off each switch also, one at the NAS side and one at the Roon Core side. IP addresses are Router-reserved