Roon on Android cell phone on LTE/3G via VPN?

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

Synology DS1815+

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

Home LAN

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

Android cell phone in this case

Description Of Issue
I did a search and found only one relevant thread that I will link later.

At one point I was waiting for something and thought “why don’t I listen to music?”. I was outside. I have a Wireguard VPN set up on my cell phone that connects to my home network. So, I connected the VPN while being on an LTE network and started Roon and was greeted with a message “No Wi-Fi connection. You need to connect to the same Wi-Fi network as your Roon Core.”

Is it possible what I am trying to do? It should be theoretically possible but it looks like the Roon Remote app specifically requires a Wi-Fi connection. Why? When I was testing later when I was at home I noticed that when I start the app while on wifi then kill wifi and start my VPN over LTE the Roon Remote keeps working but I can’t select my phone as an end point. When I kill the app and start it again I am greeted with the message that I need to be connected to wifi and can’t proceed any further.

It looks like this is done on purpose. If the app didn’t specifically require a wifi connection I could try something at least. Is there a possibility of abuse if Roon is allowed to be used remotely? Is it possible to let legitimate users to use Roon remotely? Is it a technical issue or security issue?

I found this thread about iPhone: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/anyway-to-run-roon-on-an-iphone-via-a-vpn/71056
The second post states the Roon remote use would require a Layer 2 VPN. Is it correct? If so, non-rooted Android doesn’t support Layer 2 VPNs, the same as iPhone. Some people in that thread claimed that they could use Roon remotely on iPhone.

Would it possible to listen to Roon while walking in a park?

Roon requires everything to be in the same subnet. VPN is not officially supported.

Everything is in the same subnet. Android Roon app requires a Wi-Fi connection. I won’t start without it. It has a permission “View Wi-Fi connections”. Would it be possible not to require a Wi-Fi connection? It’s OK that VPN is not officially supported. I believe NAS for core is not officially supported either and I’ve been running it this way from day one. But that Wi-Fi connection requirement kills any possibility for Roon to work on a cell network.

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NAS are supported. Never read a thread of anyone trying a cellular connection before.

I believe it is since Roon/RAAT uses mulitcast; which I think needs a Layer 2 VPN setup to function.

Hi @G_P,

I’ve moved this post over to #tinkering. Using a VPN to connect to Roon while away is not officially supported. There are some here who have got similar setups to work for them, so I definitely recommend looking around the #tinkering section and asking others for more help here.

Thanks!

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