XFinity ISP with XFinity Mesh Pods, connected to NUC/Roon Rock via ethernet to XFinity Pod
Connected Audio Devices
Marantz Ruby SACD/DAC via USB to NUC Roon Rock
Number of Tracks in Library
0 tracks --100% streaming
Description of Issue
I have tried about everything to get my NUC to join my network again. Here’s the synopsis:
History -
I’ve had the Intel NUC (I’ll call it the “Rock” from here on out) running my Roon Core flawlessly for about 18 months. Never an issue–never.
About 3 weeks ago the Rock stopped connecting to my network.
Where I’m at -
I have tried everything I can think of. At this point, I did a complete and total reinstall of the Roon software on the NUC (the option where it wipes out all data).
The Rock boots up and gives the classic screen indicating “Roon OS Web UI can be directly accessed at: http://169.254.149.179/”. It’s my understanding that this means the Rock is not getting allowed on the network by the router–in this case an XFinity pod via ethernet.
Here’s what I’ve tried –
Rebooting my XFinity Gateway. Did not fix.
Factory reset to my XFinity Pod, which feeds the Rock by ethernet. Did not fix.
Reinstalling Roon Core software through TOTAL reinstall, wiping out the Solid State Drive’s previous Roon software, settings, etc.
Plugging the Rock via ethernet into my Mac computer to see if I could get to the Roon Web UI or GUI. That worked! But, when I booted the Roon software to try to play music, it recognized the Rock Core, BUT it said it needed a software update. When I clicked that option it said it cannot be done due to an error.
Retried plugging the Rock via ethernet into the XFinity pod ethernet port, and I’m getting notice to access the Roon UI via http://169.254.149.179/".
My sense is something with XFinity is not allowing the Rock to jump on the network, but I’m confused as to why this is happening after stable operation for 18 months or so.
Finally, I question whether Roon updates installed in March/April caused this issue. Very frustrating.
I will be ever so appreciative for helping me solve this. I love Roon and my subscription is going to lapse. I’m tempted to just stay with my vinyl records as what was once seamless is now an endless data networking IT problem. UGH.
Are your Ethernet activity lights coming on when plugged in to the NUC? Have you tried an alternative cable? Have you plugged it in somewhere else on the network?
James, let’s see if there is anything we can try. Do you know what DNS you are using on the Xfinity router? Does Comcast now allow you to change that?
Are all of your other networking devices able to pass traffic to/from the internet over the Xfinity mesh system?
Are you able to get to the Core administration screen via your web browser, even when connected via the Mac client? It may help to see what the Admin page is showing as you were able to perform a re-installation previously.
This means that your NUC isn’t assigned an IP address from the DHCP server on your network, which should be running on the XFinity gateway. That could be because there is no access to the gateway, or because the DHCP server running on the gateway is at fault.
What you could try is connect the NUC to an Ethernet port of the gateway. By this direct connection you could rule out access problems and see if by doing so the NUC is being assigned a proper local IP. If the problem persists even when directly connecting the NUC to the gateway (not a Mesh pod!!), then the gateway is at fault and you should seek help with XFinity support.
A fast Google search turns out that there are many users experiencing similar problems.
This has nothing to do with DNS or even Internet access, nor with Roon or any software update.
Build 571 was released June 20, 2020… two years ago… This is completely obsolete and I doubt it will update online to the latest release. Running such an old release will not give you a reliable experience. I’d recommend to setup this NUC from scratch, using a fresh download of ROCK.
Just to make sure… this is what the NUC’s web interface shows when connected to the iMac? Or did you connect it to the XFinity Gateway?
I’ll try connecting the NUC to the Xfinitiy gateway (router). I really don’t want to leave it there even if it works. So odd, as I’ve used Xfinity pods with Roon for nearly 2 years without one hiccup!
Your Mac is running the latest Roon build… 1.8 (build 952).
The NUC, though, is running a server version from 2 years ago. You used an old installer when reinstalling the NUC. You should download the latest ROCK build from Roon’s website and then reinstall the NUC once more with this new build.
Edit: See my post a couple of messages down the thread… It seems that there is no need to reinstall the NUC. The latest ROCK image from Roon’s website indeed is from August 2020.
I will go reinstall the newer server software, but what’s weird is I just got this software yesterday from Roon via download as the latest version. Hold tight…and thank you again…
James, as I have never used ROCK I just downloaded the installer file from Roon’s website, and indeed it is a file from August 2020. So it seems that after all you did install ROCK correctly. No need to re-install your NUC. We just need it to bring onto your network, and once it has Internet access it should update to the newest version.
Sorry for the confusion. Roon support always advises users running very old versions to reinstall and not try and update. But it seems as if with ROCK things are different.
Ah, so sorry for making you unnecessarily repeat this step… Now… I’d very much like to see what happens if you connect your NUC to the XFinity Gateway…
