Roon Arc / Zyxel Modem DX3301-T1

[Maurizio_Codini]

Roon Nucleus with latest software (Version 2.0 (build 1470) production) and latest operating system (Version 1.0 (build 259) production)

Networking Gear & Setup Details

1. Who is your internet service provider?
   ENEL FIBRA

2. Please list the make and model of your modem and router?
   Zyxel Modem DX3301-T1

3. Do you have any additional network hardware, like additional routers or managed switches?
   NO

4. Does your network have any VPNs, proxy servers, or enterprise-grade security?
   NO

Description of Issue -

I have used Roon Arc for many months but lately I’ve changed my ISP and btw they gave me a new Modem/Router and now it’s not working anymore.

As long as I know this one recognise automatically the Roon Server (see the attached photo)

I’ve followed every suggestion on the troubleshooting Roon pages but still no luck.

Here’s what I’ve got from the Roon setup page:

{
“ipv4_connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“external_ip”: {“actual_external_ip”:“158.ddd.eee.fff”,“actual_external_ipv6”:“null”,“router_external_ip”:“100.aaa.bbb.ccc”},
“status”: “status”: MultipleNatFound
,
“natpmp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”},
“upnp_autoconfig”: {“server_ip”:“192.168.1.1”,“found_upnp”:true}
}

and here’s the Modem Router UPnP page:

It seems that the main difference with the previous router there’s no way I can edit the settings of the UPnP port.

Did I miss something in the process?

Thank you for your help!

Maurizio

[daniel]

Hi @Maurizio_Codini,
Thanks for reaching out to us about your issues setting up ARC. If you have limited access to your router settings have you tried setting up Tailscale instead? This article can walk you through that process https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/arc-and-tailscale-connect-to-roonserver-without-port-forwarding

[Maurizio_Codini]

Thank you! I’ll give it a go…

[Wade_Oram]

Tailscale is probably your best option because the actual WAN side ip address of your router is reported as 100.aaa.bbb.ccc which probably means that your new ISP is using CG-NAT since ip addresses in the range 100.64.0.0 to 100.127.255.255 are reserved for this purpose.

Port forwarding will not work with CG-NAT. If you wanted to pursue the port forwarding approach you will have to contact your ISP and request a public ip address that supports port forwarding.

[Maurizio_Codini]

I’ve just read that Timescale works only with Nucleus One and Nucleus Titan and doesn’t with Nucleus Is that correct?

[Wade_Oram]

Tailscale can not be installed on the Nucleus or Nucleus Plus (yet) but it can be installed on another ‘always on’ computer as a Subnet Router.

The computer used does not have to be a powerfull one. A cheap Raspberry Pi 4 would be more than adequate.

[connor]

@Maurizio_Codini

• ENEL FIBRA

Hi @Maurizio_Codini,

Enel Fibra appears to have implemented CG-NAT across their entire residential account tier.

However, they might offer a dedicated IPv4 address for your account for a small monthly or one-time fee. It’s worth reaching out to the provider directly to ask what solutions they can offer for port forwarding.

Otherwise, the more technical workaround is to install Tailscale on a second device and create a subnet router per the instructions above.

[Maurizio_Codini]

Thank you Connor for the info. I’ll get in touch with ENEL and see what they will say. Best regards.

[connor]

Hi @Maurizio_Codini,

We’ll keep this post open for several days in case we can assist with follow-up. Thanks!

[Maurizio_Codini]

I’m afraid but yesterday I’ve contacted Enel’s customer service and they told me that Public IPs are still not available to their customers. Hopefully there will be soon a Tailscale version for the Nucleus.
Cheers

[Wade_Oram]

Without a public ip address, Tailscale (or equivalent) is your only option.

However, as already discussed, Tailscale cannot be installed directly on your Nuclues.

If you really want to get ARC running now, you could get a low power Small Board Computer like a Raspberry Pi 4 and run RaspberryOS or (my preferred choice) DietPi and then install Tailscale on that as a subnet router as mentioned previously.

You do not need the extra power of a Raspberry Pi 5 (although if you ever think you may do something else with it that will need the power, then it doesn’t hurt apart from increasing the power consumption). I would avoid the Raspberry Pi Zero devices because, unless you use an USB-Ethernet adapter, they only connect via WiFi which is not a good choice for a subnet router.

A Raspberry Pi4 with 2GByte DRAM would be entirely adequate for the task. In addition you will need a 3A 5V USB powersupply, a small (32 or 64GByte micro SD card and, probably, a case.

In the UK, the cost of these items is:

• Raspberry Pi 4: £33
• Power Supply (If you don’t have one already): £7.60
• 32GByte Micro SD card: £8
• Case of your choice: The flirc case is popular and costs ~£14 but I like (and use) the Argon One V2 case which costs an extra £10. Both of these cases provide good passive cooling (although the Argon One case has a fan that turns on when the unit gets warm [configurable]).
  The official Raspberry Pi case, although very cheap, would not be my choice because the cooling is not great. It really needs a heatsink and fan added and even then I ended boring additional holes in the case for better airflow.

Thus the total cost would be about £64 which equates to about €75.

When being used as a subnet router, the Raspberry Pi should be connected by wired ethernet to your router. It can be left powered on all of the time since it consumes very little power (between 2.5 and 7W depending upon load - used as a subnet router only, it would be at the bottom end of this scale the vast majority of the time).

The nice thing about this is that you can also install Roon Bridge and use the Raspberry Pi to drive a USB DAC to provide an extra listening station.

If you add an appropriate audio HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) module (which will not fit inside either of the cases that I listed although both of them can support a HAT attached externally) then you can connect to an amplifier using RCA audio, a DAC using SPDIF (Coax or optical) or XLR or direct to a couple of passive speakers - just choose the correct HAT.

For information, I use three Raspberry Pi 4’s for audio endpoints (all running DietPi although Ropieee is also considered a good choice for an audio endpoint):

1. No HAT. Connected by USB to my FIIO K9 Pro for a headphone station
2. Raspberry Pi (Formerly IQAudIO) Dac Pro hat: Connecting to the line in of my bedroom alarm/radio
3. Raspberry Pi DigiAmp+: Connected to two passive speakers that I had previously unused.

[connor]

Hi @Maurizio_Codini,

Please see the thorough response above from @Wade_Oram above for a robust solution with a dedicated Tailscale subnet server.

Other long-term solutions include switching/upgrading to a Nucleus One or Nucleus Titan with built-in Tailscale support, or temporarily enabling a RoonServer on a Mac/Windows/Linux machine that can support Tailscale.

Other users might have more roundabout solutions for NAT traversal in Tinkering that rely on VPNs other than Tailscale. It’s worth posting there as well.

Unfortunately, those are the extent of the workarounds we can offer in this subcategory.