Roon losing connection with ASUS AC5300 - [Solved - Faulty Switch & Modified Router Settings]

I just installed a DAC with a bridge connection on Ethernet.

So I moved my MAC Mini from a WIFI connection for internet access to Ethernet (DHCP) and added another Ethernet CaT5e to the bridge.

My iPad connects on WIFI as it always did.

So the only change is that my MAC Mini is connected via CAT5e to the ASUS router while previously it was on wifi.

Since I made this change, I get connection loss intermittently from iPad to the Roonserver running on the MAC Mini.

Any ideas? I suspect Router - is there a setting that might be interfering with LAN traffic between wifi and the Ethernet ports on the ASUS AC5300.

Speeds are insanely fast. So there is no problem with speed (over 170 MBPS both on wifi and on Ethernet). So connection isn’t a suspect here…

Roonserver also stops playing after about four tracks on a Tidal Playlist - it never did that before.

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Can you please let me know what DAC you are using here? How exactly are you losing connection to the Roonserver? Is music failing to play back? Do you get sent back to the “Select Your Core” screen?

That Asus Router is not listed under our Networking Best Practices Guide but that does not mean that it is void of some settings that would make it work better. If you see anything related to multicast in your Asus setup or IGMP Proxying/IGMP Snooping you may want to take a look for those settings. I have found this article which may help: https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1011708/ and I would try both IGMP Snooping and IGMP Proxying (one at a time) to see if that improves communication.

Please let me know if this helps.

Thanks,
Noris

PS Audio Directstream with Bridge II all with latest firmware. Snowmass and Bridge II 3.6.17 firmware. The ASUS has the latest firmware too.

I find that using optical from a Mac Mini to the DAC seems to solve everything. So the router may not be the issue. The Mac mini is still on Ethernet and the IPad on wifi - both on the same ASuS 5300 router.

So now I suspect it is the Bridge II that is not happy with stream from MAC Mini or Bridge II is faulty and throwing everything into re-initialization.

Are there any settings on the Mac Mini that might help?

Roon processing is completely off. No DSP. No SRC. Nothing. Volume fixed.

OK. There is a setup page for IPTV on the link you gave. I assume I DONT need to setup IPTV on the LAN Ethernet port connected to the router.

However you want me to try turning on Multicast routing and IGMP Snooping separately. Correct?

So far I enabled Multicast Routing and left everything else on the IPTV tab page of the router the same as it was (default settings with ISP Profile None and IPTV Port None)

I will try this for a while and report back.

Thank you for assistance.

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Yes, please enable them one at a time and verify if the same behavior still occurs. IPTV setup does not necessarily affect only IPTV, but all devices that use a multicast protocol to communicate. If we can isolate the issue to one of these settings, then we will have some great information as to move forward with similar issues in the future. Please let me know if toggling any of those settings helps improve stability.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris,

Good news. Enabling “Multicast Routing” on the ASUS RT-AC5300 has solved the issue of lost connections and dropouts.

So my Router settings are default out of the box except for Enabling Multicast Routing (IGMP Proxy) on the IPTV tab in the router LAN setup.

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Hello @Rhythmatist,

Thank you for confirming that enabling “Multicast Routing” has resolved the dropouts issue and where it is located! I will be sure to get this information over to the tech team so they are aware of this setting for any other issues with Asus routers that appear. Thanks again for contacting support and I wish you a pleasant listening experience! :headphones:

– Noris

Ok. The problem I have now is dropouts. No loss of connection but music stops playing for about 2 to 3 seconds and then continues as if everything was ok. This occurs roughly every 5 to 10 tracks.

This occurs with local music streaming from my harddrive that is connected to the Mac Mini (running RoonServer) via USB. It also occurs with Tidal - so it seems to be communication issue between RoonServer on the Mac and the Bridge II of the Directstream Sr DAC. These communications go through 1 switch and then to the ASUS Router all via CAt 5E.

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Thanks for confirming that the issue is still happening. Does this issue occur only when the album starts/ends? If so, I believe the issue might be with the Bridge II same as in this thread:

I will be sure to let you know once we have a better idea of whats going on here but in the meantime, I have gone ahead and enabled diagnostics mode for your account and what this action will do is next time your Core is active, a set of logs will automatically be generated and uploaded to our servers for analysis. I kindly ask for you to note the exact local time that you experience the next dropout (ex. 2:52PM) and let me know this info.

Thanks,
Noris

No it just happens randomly in the middle of a track. So unrelated to the beginning or end of a track.

Could the switch be a problem?

The Port on the switch going to the Ethernet cable to the Bridge II flashes yellow. The other Ethernet ports all flash green?

I changed cat 5E cable to the Bridge II and it still flashes yellow.

I use a D Link GO-SW-5G - it has only three device connections - the Mac Mini and the Directstream DAC with the standard incoming internet connected to the ASUS router.

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Thanks for confirming that it is not at the start or end section of the track. I am wondering if you could please perform these two tests and let me know your results:

  1. Does the same behavior occur if you connect your Core and PS Audio DAC directly to your router and bypass the switch entirely? Even if you are able to perform this test as a temporary measure, we will know weather the switch could be causing some of the issues.

  2. Does this issue occur for all of your endpoints? If you are able to test on System Output or another DAC, that will give us a great data point as to a direction to search in.

Please let me know your results from these two tests when possible.

Thanks,
Noris

OK Testing this now. Lucky I had a 25’ CAt 5E Cable to run another cable to the router.

No other “endpoints”

System output on the Mac Mini via optical works perfectly and 24/7 with never a glitch. Mac mini output via USB to Benchmark DAC 3 was also stable week after week. The Bridge II with Directstream Sr is the only new piece in the configuration.

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Thanks for confirming that information for me. Has the system become more stable since connecting the PS Audio Bridge II directly to the router or are you still experiencing issues?

If you are still experiencing issues, can I please ask you to reproduce the issue once more and let me know the exact local time in your country (ex. 1:44PM) that you notice it occur? We can then cross-reference that time to see if there are any issues in the diagnostics.

Thanks,
Noris

Thanks. Running long term test without switch. Will let you know how it goes.

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It stopped during the night at around 2:30 AM MST DEC 1st while 40% into playing a track called You and Me by Jim Capaldi from Tidal. This could be an internet issue at my internet provider or at a Tidal Server. So I don’t think this error is conclusive. Up until that point it has been playing smoothly for 12+ hours without the switch (although I can’t monitor the sound continuously listening for 2-3 sec dropouts, I didn’t notice any during that time frame - so a positive sign there)

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Thanks for letting me know that timestamps, I can confirm that we have received the diagnostics from your machine and I have taken a look.

I did indeed notice the disconnect but the reason for it is not clear to me, I have gone ahead and submitted the logs for review to our QA team and it is possible that they will be able to conclude something different than I did.

It seems that both your iPad and DirecStream DAC disconnected at approximately the same time so I do believe that this is a networking related issue, but I will confirm with the QA team and let you know what their thoughts are on this trace.

Thanks,
Noris

Yes -it looks like there was a momentary power outage. I noticed the Directstream had reset to reboot default volume. So it looks like a utility power drop or sag during the night.

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Just to confirm here, other than this power outage, everything seemed to be working fine? If so, these power outages may be the reason why the connection drops, I would take a look to make sure that your router does not reboot when the outage occurs.

Thanks,
Noris

No issues for 24 hours! Power outages are no more than once or twice a year - so we were just unlucky there.

So it looks like the switch was indeed faulty (dropping packets) - causing brief 2 sec loss of sound.

The bigger connection issues were addressed by the Router Multicast Routing setting.

I have a new switch but still testing everything direct hardwired to Router for a day or two more.

Thanks for your follow up! Odd to have two separate issues!

Hello @Rhythmatist,

Glad to here you have been able to separate these two issues and have found that the switch was faulty. Please keep me posted if you run into any other difficulties and we can take another look or if everything seems stable after a few days please let me know as well and I will mark this thread as solved.

Thanks,
Noris