Roon remote does not connect to core

Support
1

I’m new to roon. Just installed Core on a windows7 PC and that works fine. However, I’ve installed roon remote on both an IPAD and Iphone and neither can find Core on my network. Core is running on a windows 7, 64 bit, Intel Core Duo 2.67GHz with 4GB RAM connected wireless to the net. All devices are on the same network. I have turned off windows firewall and router firewall. I have 3400 tracks in Core which are stored on internal hard drive of computer running core. Router is a Motorola Arris. Any help/troubleshooting tips would be appreciated. thanks
Scott

3

Hello @Scott_Tweddale,

Thanks for contacting support, I’d be happy to take a look over this issue with you. I have a few questions/suggestions:

  • If you connect your Core directly to the Router via Ethernet, are you able to discover the core then?
  • Are you making use of any Range Extenders or Guest Networks in your setup?
  • Do you have a VPN installed on your iOS devices or Core (even if not using the VPN at this time?)
  • We have previously seen communication improvements with Motorola routers by disabling Energy Efficient Ethernet, can you please try to disable this setting from the router web administration page?

I look forward to hearing your findings.

Thanks,
Noris

4

what are the actual specs and processor used? Ssd For the os boot drive?

Seems like your core might be struggling to do too much with core duo

Is it still importing or analyzing tracks?

5

I connected my core directly to router and was able to discover the core with both iphone and ipad. I then put the core back on Wi-Fi and the iphone and ipad remotes both still worked. I then turned on the router firewall, and both remotes stopped working. Turned off the router firewall and they started working again. So the router firewall seems to be the culprit? We are not using any range extenders or guest networks. We do have VPN installed on core. I wasn’t able to locate the Energy Efficient Ethernet setting on the Motorola router. Will keep searching. So I guess problem solved, but sure would like to turn on router firewall if possible if you have any additional suggestions. Thanks very much for your help Noris!

6

Mr Fix It
Core is Dell XPS laptop with windows 7, 64 bit Intel Core Duo T9550 2.66GHz. Os boot drive is ssd. I realize I’m at the lower end, maybe even too low, of what is recommended by roon to run core. Wanted to get it running to evaluate before we upgrade to new laptop or NAS. I didn’t think the processor would affect remote controller connections, but maybe it does? Thanks for your help
Scott

7

Hello @Scott_Tweddale,

Glad to hear that you have been able to pinpoint the issue to the Router’s firewall, that’s great news and we’re definitely on the right path towards the solution here!

Can you please post a screenshot of your Router’s firewall page? Generally speaking it’s here that you have to add Roon and RAATServer as an exception for the IP address of your Core. You can usually find the IP address of your Core in the Router’s DHCP list and I would also recommend that you setup you Core as a “Reserved IP Address” so that the Core’s IP address doesn’t change between router reboots and negate the firewall setting you are setting up here.

A list of specific ports that you need to forward can be found here:

And a user has also mentioned these ports (depending on the router/application):

If you are still having troubles after excluding these ports from the firewall, please let me know and I’ll see what else I can do to assist.

Thanks,
Noris

8

Hello Noris,
I was premature in thinking that my remote connection problem was due to the router firewall. While leaving the firewall off, remote running on both an ipad and iphone connects less than 20% of the time. To experiment, I connected core directly to router with Ethernet again, in which case remote connects about 80% of the time. I haven’t tried forwarding any ports yet because I believe that was to allow remote to connect with the router firewall on, and now I’m having considerable problems with the firewall off. Any ideas? Is my older laptop (windows 7, 64 bit Intel Core Duo T9550 2.66GHz, ssd) just not up to the task of running core efficiently or do you think this is a network/router problem? thanks

9

Hello @Scott_Tweddale,

I don’t believe that having an underpowered CPU would affect Roon Remote connections in this case. You would possibly be seeing slow load times, playback stalling, navigation delays, ect. due to a slow CPU but connecting to the Core should not be one of those issues, so I believe that this issue is related to the networking aspect of things.

You mention that stability improves to 80% when connected via Ethernet to the Router, this is indicating that something is blocking multicast from properly happening on the network at times. I would search again for that “Energy Efficient” setting for the Router as this could be causing some issues and double check to make sure your Antivirus & Windows Defender isn’t blocking Roon from operating properly.

The VPN you mentioned that you have installed on the Core could also be a possible culprit or the Router itself. If you by any chance have another Router around the house, it would be a good data point to see if you experience the same issue when using another Router.

Please let me know if any of my above suggestions help resolve this issue.

Thanks,
Noris