Hey Gang,
New tester guy here just added today - congratulations in regards to ARC - I think folks are going to be ecstatic about the new app…very cool!
I’m not sure if this is the correct thread for this post so if you decide to move it, be all means - please do…
I’ve been poking around in a few of these threads, trying to get the lay of the land -
I suspected there would be some challenges ahead for folks who have Starlink (a satellite provider) as their ISP. Living in a rural area with no other high speed option, Starlink has been a godsend, but it does have some limitations, most notably, at this time they don’t support port forwarding or provide static IP’s. The good news is, there are work arounds for this. The one I’ve had success with is using Mullvad as a VPN service, and running Asus Merlin on an Asus router with OPEN VPN.
A possible challenge ahead is, Mullvad assigns the user a port number (so we won’t be able to just use the 55000 port). Also, I’m fuzzy at this point if you can actually have multiple ports forwarded . For me, I’m a DeadHead and do a lot of bit torrent. For this, port forwarding is necessary and is working great with Starlink. I’m not much of a network guy, and the setup docs from provided by Mullvad seem to be written for when there’s just one port forwarded - which is great if the user will only use it for Roon, but some us will need multiple ports forward - Before I contact Mullvad to see if multiple ports can be forwarded, has anyone had success with this? If not, and if this is something the Roon folks would want to address later, I fully understand. I know Nord VPN which is another popular service does not support port forwarding - thanks - and Congrats again!
Welcome to the testing group and thank you again for volunteering your time and energy to share your thoughts with us.
I hope you don’t mind, I’ve created a dedicated topic thread and merged your post, as we’re trying to create a new thread for each ISP as we build out a scrappy port forwarding solution section during testing. As we find concrete solutions and workarounds new testers can use if they share an ISP, we move threads over to the #arc-testing:port-forwarding-solved subcategory.
VPN’s aren’t officially supported with Roon or ARC, but we are actively working on in-built solutions to some double NAT situations like carrier-grade NAT with certain ISPs. Hopefully, we’ll have more developments on this front soon.
I too am a starlink subscriber due to no other options I’m my remote location.
I seem to be in the last category of the setup section. Where you can check for problem A bit not B in the docs.
I have my starlink’s limited router functions disabled and use an eero mesh network in automatic mode. The docs suggested bridged mode. That didn’t work.
Thanks for posting; given the diagnostics, it appears you’re encountering the carrier-grade NAT that prompted this dedicated thread, so you’re posting in the correct place.
It doesn’t appear that Starlink allows for IPv4 port forwarding at this time - there’s not a way through the CG-NAT layer without punching through with an IPv6 VPN.
Thanks Conner -
I’ll sit tight then until Roon is ready to address their Starlink subscribers - I’ll be happy to be a Guiana pig if you need an extra when you get to addressing the individual ISP’s - I totally get there are bigger fish to fry at the moment - Starlink does claim they do intend to provide IPv6 at some point - it’s just hasn’t happened yet - Good Luck!
thanks,
pbg
Not trying to pester just curious of where we stand? Are Starlink customers on the back burner because of the ip6 issue or is it actively being investigated like other port forwarding ISP specific issues?
I’m super pumped about ARC. Once you all got the phone/hard buttons for volume addressed this became my top wish. Let me know if I can assist in any way. Please keep up the great work, really appreciate it on my end.
@connor
Any update on how things might be progressing…or not progressing for Starlink customers?
I’ve managed to download songs from my local library to my mobile device as long as I am at home on my own network. Obviously nothing outside my house it usable. Really looking forward to real testing if we could resolve the issues below.
Same error on my end every time I check:
{
“connectivity”: {“status”:“NetworkError”,“status_code”:504,“error”:“error: Error: ETIMEDOUT, response code: undefined, body: undefined connected? undefined”},
“external_ip”: {“actual_external_ip”:“98.97.18.23”,“router_external_ip”:null},
“natpmp_autoconfig”: {“status”:“NotFound”},
“upnp_autoconfig”: {“server_ip”:“192.168.7.1”,“found_upnp”:true}
}
I recently got ARC to work with Starlink by using a third party VPN service that provides port forwarding. I haven’t messed with it much yet but hope to test it more over the next few days - I’m not too sure how much support ROON will be able (or want) to provide, but at lease Conner mentioned above it was cool to mess with ‘VPN solutions’
Thanks for the update and my apologies for the delayed acknowledgment here. I appreciate you keeping us posted on the workaround you’ve been able to work out.
To clarify where we stand for other users with Starlink who are encountering their blanket carrier-grade NAT:
At this time, Roon ARC requires an external (WAN) IPv4 address. Similarly, Roon requires the Core to have an address in the IPv4 format, as Roon doesn’t support IPv6 at this time. For networks that have implemented a layer of network address translation at the ISP-level (aka carrier-grade NAT, CG-NAT), your router will generally have an IPv6 address or a dynamically assigned IPv4 address within a range. The latter case (dynamic IPv4) sometimes allows for port forwarding via the configurations we’ve designed for ARC. Dedicated or dynamic IPv6 configurations will not work with ARC. Starlink has fully implemented IPv6 for their residential-tier accounts, at least in cases we’ve encounter here on Roon Community.
Rest assured that port forwarding with IPv4 support is only the initial implementation of Roon ARC, and we are actively researching several workarounds that will hopefully allow for more of our users to access the mobile streaming features offered through ARC as part of Roon 2.0. At this time, however, offline download playback or home Wi-Fi use will be the limits of ARC use for users with IPv6-assigned Starlink accounts.
That said, there are several VPN and proxy-server solutions in the #roon and #tinkering sections that users have configured as workarounds. @Peter_Gallagher has mentioned one above. Common solutions include NordVPN or other common VPNs, and Tailscale. Note that the support team will be unable to assist with VPN configuration, but we can help guide you to popular threads with solutions other users have found for their own use cases.
Roon Core running on Innuos Zen Mini on local network ip 192.168.0.127
Networking Gear & Setup Details
Starlink Gen 2 Router in Bridge Mode with TPLink Archer 200 connected by Ethernet acting as router. Core is connected to TPLink WPA8631P PoE adapter via Ethernet
Unfortunately, you’re correct that the blanket IPv6 implementation with Starlink is unnavigable with the current port forwarding configuration of ARC. Please see the staff post here. We’re working on possible solutions to democratize access to mobile streaming for our Starlink users, but at this time, you’ll have to pursue VPN options like those mentioned here:
This situation, very very likely, holds true for T-Mobile 5G Home Internet as well. The same solution you implement for Starlink may very well positively impact T-Mobile’s service as well.
