Roon Remote can no longer connect to the Core[Soved]

Support
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EDIT: After some investigation, I came to the conclusion that this is clearly not a roon error. It is immaturity in the Windows operating system, by the way a product thas has been under development since the 1980ies!

Original text:
I have the same problem with a win10 pc that no longer will detect the server pc, also a win10. I also have a MacBook Air with Latest El Capitan that can connect without problems.

This PC has realtek audio drivers, but perhaps this is irrelevant?

Thanks for any help, I have no idea what could be the problem.

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Hello @Carl_Henrik_Janson,

Do you use firewalls or antivirus software (note that Windows has built-in firewall and antivirus, and they are enabled by the default) ? If so, I would start the troubleshooting process from checking their configurations.
I would also recommend you to check network adapter drivers?.

Let us know how it goes.

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Thanks for your help. I turned off firewall for what Windows calls “private networks” , I reset the router, and more. Next day it worked again, but it is impossible to be sure on the cause of error since the “repair time” is so long.

This problem is clearly not a roon error, but roon users becomes victims of it. When I called Microsoft support they were unable to tell me how to fix the network sharing, but pointed to online help. It means this is complicated when it goes awry, which it often does.

Perhaps it would actually be a good idea to have a “how to ensure that your private network does not malfunction” tutorial?

At the moment, I am unsure why it is necessary to turn of Firewall for private networks, but this questions should go to Microsoft.

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Hey @Carl_Henrik_Janson,

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you, network part may be very tricky sometimes and a FAQ topic with basic troubleshooting steps won’t hurt, expect to find it on our Knowledge Base in the nearest future.

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On a laconical note, volunteer reading:

Having worked with small and large software projects for decades, I felt like reminding on the fact that Microsoft has been developing Windows since the eighties! When you think of all that time consumption, it becomes kind of “amazing” that the company continues to demonstrate incapacity for providing what the customers expect; a simple to use network system where all types of devices are invited with ease, not only devices compliant to their own “Homegroup” system, BTW a function clearly destined for museum. You will almost not find a home without homegroup non-compliance devices from Android, IOS, OS X, Linux, but of course, the first thing Microsoft needs to do, is to make sure that Windows machines can speak together on the network. Always! Regardless! Easy!

The whole circus Mircroft is an interesting study on a type of “monopol-bureaucratic arrogance”, where security issues has become completely dominating. However this is not aligned the need of the common user, not at all. And Apple has been struck by the same desease too (post Jobs).

If Microsoft wanted to, and had at least a glimpse of “engineering pride” that could compete much better with the built-in greed, the solution is a forthnight away if they put on their seniors. What is needed is a script tutorial that completely camouflage the built-in complexity, including a “repair immediately” feature. It can be called “Give me immediately 100% free availability to all other networks units in the private network, and vice versa”. This is actually a business opportunity for anyone.

While at it, there should also be another bullet proof tutorial. “I am an audiophile. Please immediately turn off absolutely all functions not related to audio/media whatsover”, and/or “Give me 100% full control on when to run administrative processes”.

Written in the hope that someone with engineering pride in Microsoft use roon and read this…

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It’s a by-product of providing interoperability with hundreds of millions of network devices, and a semblance of security. It’s not possible to have everything without compromises.

You can have a proprietary, closed shop (re: Sonos), but you are locked in to their ecosystem. Do you want that?
You can have everything completely open, everywhere. Do you want the accompanying security risks?
Or you can take a pragmatic view and try and learn (a bit) how stuff works, Google the rest or take your chances on the forums.

It’s unreasonable to expect Microsoft support to remotely diagnose your networking woes. There are hundreds of variables.

1 Like
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No, I also do not want the Sonos concept, which in a way creates a lock similar to Microsoft Homegroup variant, in their respective range of use.

I agree with your remark that life is a compromise, but I will suggest you are a bit to general in your questioning. Things and needs are a function of context. For example, I would like to increase granularity on the question of complete openness everywhere. Will I have complete openess?

In the private homework consisting of my family computers and devices of all sorts? YES. Please let me have it. It is not so much to ask. And the protection should not be in the interaction in the private (wiFi) network, but on each personal computer. That’s sufficient and the router has a firewall to protect from strangers. Windows10 should guess this need for communication in the family and that such needs will tend to be default, but Windows10 rather obscure setup and maintance can be quite a timethief if you are unlucky. After all, the subtitle of my Windows 10 is “Home edition”!

There is also an obvious lack of software maturity, because my problem was that Win10 indeed found the other units, however when clicking one of them, they could no longer be detected. This is of course a bug that has slipped through the fingers of the production manager at Microsoft. It looks not so smart. (dosen of similar examples).

But regarding complete openess in the public domain, the answer is NO with remarks, just don’t exaggarate the security paranoja. I insist on right to have a “Set this whole device in audiophile mode” even if it is online connected to Roon and its subvendors. There are many working with precisely such a feature, but they are outside Microsoft, trying to tweak down the system activity.

Actually, I just did that with a vintage Macbook Air 2009, now working silently and calmly in the role as roon server: http://www.noach.one/blog/how-to-reborn-a-macbook-air-2009-apple-vintage/ . And so fast, too. Reborn.

So this job that Microsoft needs to do is not one single issue, but a myriad of weaknesses that can easily be improved in this, or in that context.