Basic step-by-step instructions to let you remotely connect to your Roon home network via VPN, and to stream music from there directly to your remote device:
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Get a Synology RT2600ac or similar router compatible with Synology VPN Plus Server technology.
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Replace current router of your home network (where Roon core device resides) with the Synology router. (RT2600ac is a surprisingly “plug-n-play” router but this all depends on your particular setup obviously.)
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Access the Synology router web administration interface, and install the “VPN Plus Server” package within the interface. (If you are asked to let related ports be automatically allowed/opened/forwarded, confirm the action. No further port forwarding is needed later-on.)
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Navigate to the installed VPN Plus Server app, go to “Synology VPN” section and “SSL VPN” tab, and “Enable Synology SSL VPN”:
NOTE: “Local Network” must be selected as highlighted, otherwise you won’t be able to see your remote device listed as an available endpoint later-on once you connect to Roon core via VPN . -
Download and install Synology “VPN Plus” app to your remote device, to be used as a VPN client for connecting to your home network. Connect by entering the following:
Domain name or IP: Copy/paste the address shown to you in step 4), as highlighted in yellow.
Account: username used for login to your Synology router web administration interface
Password: password used for login to your Synology router web administration interface
NOTE: The screenshots are taken from my Motorola G7 Power android phone. -
Open Roon in your remote device… and enjoy!
I really enjoy being able to remotely browse through my collection with all the powerful tools Roon has. On top of that, from time to time, it is nice to play something from my collection when away from home.
NOTES:
- My Roon core is running on a Windows 10 laptop connected to the Synology router via ethernet cable.
- While I’ve tried some more standard VPN methods (PPTP and L2TP), they didn’t do for me due to the following: Roon didn’t list my remote device as an available endpoint (despite spending hours with port forwarding and other tweaks) + stability of VPN connection was significantly worse compared to the Synology VPN Plus method.
- During step 4), “Security level” and related selections are up to you - you can go with the default just fine.
- During step 4), do not “Enable split tunneling” unless you are ready for potential problems to handle. If you want to go this way (it might be helpful if your remote device does other networking activities unrelated to Roon), you would probably need to find out and define additional “Object” ( = IP subnet/range) to include in the tunneling, to ensure all the traffic needed for Roon to function correctly via VPN is truly passed through the VPN.
- Applying typical tweaks for Roon (enabling IGMP snooping/proxy, configuring Google DNS instead of your default one, …) might be helpful here as well.
- There could be many issues preventing this solution to work in a stable way: home internet connection not having enough upload speed, mobile/remote internet connection quality, remote device not fast/robust enough to handle the VPN traffic along with all its other typical tasks, etc. In my case, the mobile internet connection has been the main bottleneck so far, as the VPN playback has been working really well when I connected with my remote device from another city via wifi. (I had a smartphone and a tablet connected and playing different music simultaneously via VPN just fine!) Split tunneling seems to be helpful for mobile but see above.