I didn’t say that Roon couldn’t work/wouldn’t work in/on a managed network. All I said was that a (mismanaged?) managed switch/network could be, and probably is, the source of the OP’s problems.
There is a misguided notion out there that a managed network is ‘superior’ to an unmanaged one. This is simply not true, especially for a home network. Managed networks have their places, predominantly in work/corporate environments where access restrictions and privacy are important.
But unless a managed network is managed correctly, it can and does cause problems.
Hence my recommendation that a simple unmanaged switch would probably solve most users problems.
Simply put, most problems aren’t ‘Roon issues’. They are unwittingly network issues.
I don’t suppose most people using managed switches are actively managing the network in the way a typical corp does. I have only managed switches but that was to support link aggregation and (at the time) QoS and some metrics monitoring.
To be honest while I do have an unusually complex network at home, it is really a hangover from a time when I needed the higher aggregate bandwidth than single 1GbE could provide and needed to ensure that it was not possible for some very heavy bandwidth utilization to disrupt things like media streaming or cripple another 1GbE connected computer also trying to do a large transfer. My use cases actually would have been painful even to a small company network unless it was a media house who also had software developers shunting lots of VMs around too
These days, well things have changed and much of what I did in the past is no longer required as better options now exist. But, I can image a lot of people still retains assumption from that period and carry them forward when maybe they no longer apply.
If I was re-doing my network today with the same requirements I had 10-15 years ago, then its simple - unmanaged switches and a 10GbE backbone instead of my 2GbE link aggregated backbone.
Re the OP - typically it takes about 1 second for Roon to respond from initial activation for me. Core to iPhone/iPad is router/dual link agregrated ports to a managed switch, then 1GbE to the AV cabinet manage switch and then Roon core. Sorry, not much help to you, but I echo other sentiment that suggest that you should look at your network. Sometime just rebooting the router can resolve most oddities.
The fact that a 90 dollar tablet has no issues and is much faster than Apple hardware for Roon is telling . You can’t blame it on your network or your server hardware , like my Innuos
Zen Mini.
When my iPad goes to sleep, Roon keeps playing if it was playing, and if it wasn’t, is instantly there upon wake up. I have an older iPad that has trouble connecting to the Apple Store and some of the things in Settings, but never a problem with Roon.
Thanks for the illustration of the Roon Remote app behavior in your environment. I appreciate you letting us know and trying to find a solution on our community.
Thanks go to everyone’s who’s chimed in to help
The managed switch might be impacting your Roon Remote connection to your Core. Could you please temporarily use an unmanaged switch or bypass it completely, just so we can rule this out?
