Setting up for the first time - Are you online?

Core Machine
Synology DS920+, 16gb RAM, directly connected to router.

Network Details
Fritzbox 7530

Description of Issue
Setting up for the first time. I created my account on the roon site, installed the ROON Core extension on the Synology and started the app on my Macbook. It finds the Core, but after logging in displays the “Are you online?” message, and retry does nothing. Tried restarting the app and the core extension.

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Sorry for the trouble here, @Jason_Perez1, and welcome to the Roon community :slight_smile:

This error typically occurs when your Core machine is having trouble connecting to our servers. Can you try setting your router to use Google DNS?

If you’re still seeing issues after that, please use the directions found here and send us over a set of logs using a shared Dropbox link (or any other file sharing service). We’ll take a look and get you up and running!

Hi @dylan ,

Thanks for your response. I think I narrowed it down to using a VPN on my NAS. Disconnecting it and restarting seemed to allow me to connect. But I strongly prefer to keep a VPN active on this connection. I’m using ExpressVPN europa. Any idea why connecting through this wouldn’t allow me to hit Roon’s servers?

thanks for your help,
Jason

Roon was not designed to work in VPN environments, or across various network subnets. There are unsupported / unofficial ways to make it work, which you can check out in the #tinkering category.

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Hi @Nepherte,

I’m not super knowledgeable with networking, but as far as I know, everything is on the same subnet here.

I’m on a router <-> NAS running Roon Core (with VPN) <-> Macbook running Roon client (own VPN)
Looking at the IPs and subnet masks, they look like they should be on the same subnet.

Can you elaborate a little more on what’s not supported in this configuration?

thanks!
Jason

It will depend on what VPN you are using, and how you’ve configured it. Perhaps you can elaborate a bit more on the VPN configuration? If you can specify the ip addresses assigned to your devices, that will also clarify some things.

Is it a split VPN tunnel?
These types of VPN will tunnel all network traffic, except for packets destined to your local area network. If it is not a split VPN tunnel, then your other devices on the network will never be able to detect your Roon Core.

Is it a network with different subnets?
Similar story here. Your other devices will not be able to detect your Roon Core as the discovery protocol cannot cross network subnet boundaries.