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[MikeO]

Hi

The layout of my house isn't conducive to running cables so I have invested in an Asus solution with a RT-AC87U Router and its matching Media Bridge the EA-AC87. The idea is that the 2 communicate at a nominal 1700Mbs on the 5Ghz band. In reality the utility they provide shows a connection speed of 585 Mbs so much for marketing hype, but that should still be good enough for Blu Ray etc.

I have a streamer (Cambridge Audio CXN) connected by wire to the Media Bridge and the MainPC connected by wire to the router , MC running in server mode on the main PC (i7 loads of RAM , SSD for programs etc plus a 3Tb HDD for data storage).

I have a Zone Switch set to detect changes to Audio and Video and switching to either the CXN or the Mede8er video part.

My problem ...

Normally I see the CXN in the Playing Now tree and all is well. I control the whole thing with JRemote , latest versions of everything. I also see my Onkyo TR-NZ800 AV amp which is connected wirelessly , there is never a blip with this (points to CXN ?)

Every now and again , there is no logic to it , I lose connection between MC and the CXN. JRemote shows only This Device and the Onkyo. To get things going normally requires either a restart of the CXN or MC or sometimes both.

Its so random that I don't know which end to start at.

The Asus Utility shows a network map and shows both MainPC and CXN connected. Clicking on IP "Hyperlinks" opens up the config page of the CX so its connected OK.

The symptoms are that I play a track of several on an album and at the end it simply stops. And the CXN has disappeared from the JRemote device list.

If I kill this network and run wirelessly straight to the CXN I still see the issue but not as often.

Has any body (hint Andrew G , Glynor  ) any ideas where to start digging, its driving me slightly potty , I can't settle down to hour or two's listening without having to reset stuff.

I was demoing Roon recently and don't recall having this issue. I am going to look at an alternative DNLA server to see if I can eliminate that effect , but bottom line is I want to stay with my current system, but I want it to work.

Mike

[AndrewFG]

Has any body (hint Andrew G , Glynor  ) any ideas where to start digging

I would start looking at how the CXN gets its IP address. Does it get its IP address via DHCP? Is the IP address reserved in the DHCP server for the CXN's MAC address? Or alternatively does the CXN have a static IP address? And/or are there more than one device on your system trying to use the same IP address?

In my experience it is best if all your devices have an IP address that is..

1) Issued by the DHCP server on your router (goal: the router knows definitely that it must route traffic carrying IP addresses that it has itself issued).

2) Reserved on the DHCP server for the MAC address of the device in question (goal: the IP address never changes).

Personally I would apply the same logic to both ends of the routing chain i.e. both on the MC PC, and also on all Renderers in your system.

[JimH]

It's also possible that two devices are acting as DHCP servers.  That wouldn't be good.

[MikeO]

The CXN gets its IP from DHCP based on the router , the second device is definitely a slave to the router . I know because initially the DHCP server was disabled, I had to enable it

I have just had fibre installed and the installation guys left a mess which with their support line was sorted out.

As far as I know the Media Bridge and all its subordinates get IP from the HDCP of the router

Mike

[DJLegba]

I've been having trouble with dropped connections to my Chromecast Audio device for a while now. After reading AndrewFG's comment I started assigning DHCP reservations on the router, and while doing that I discovered that my eReader, which checks in every now and then but turns off WiFi automatically when it's not checking in, had the same IP address as the CCA. Thinking it over, this probably dates back to when I installed a wireless range extender. In any event, I have now set up IP reservations in the router's DHCP manager and ensured there are no more IP address conflicts. The CCA is working again, and I suspect this will turn out to have resolved the problem. DHCP reservations can't hurt (unless you have a more potential devices than addresses on your home network), so you might as well give it a shot.

[MikeO]

Hi

Doesn't that go against what Andrew G is recommending. I have the ability to fix an IP address at the Router and on the CXN, ie disable DHCP.

There are a lot of wi fi devices around the house all connecting , 2 phones, 2 iPads , the CXN , the Mede8er , the Media Bridge .

Also there a wi fi extender , could these be an issue. I cannot get enough signal strength without extenders at the moment. Incidentally if I disconnect the wired connection to the CXN and run on wireless it seems a bit better but still not perfect

Most are turned on all the time with the exception of the Mede8er which is only connecting when in use.

@Jim. When in use the Media Bridge becomes (by design) a slave of the router that's how its meant to work. I am assured by the fibre company that my router is the DHCP in play even though they have a second router for diagnostics just as the fibre leaves the Modem.

I have set the CXN to a fixed IP to see if this helps so lets see ?

Am I expecting too much? , Having to restarting devices can be done but its a pain.

Cheers

Mike

[AndrewFG]

^
It sounds like you have you have more than one device on your network which is attempting to route IP packets. That will never work.

[MikeO]

Hi Andrew

Not to well up on the network technology .

Do you mean the second router ? The fibre company insisted it was there . There is a Modem box, connected to the 'spare' Router (there is no wi fi switched on this.) Then a WAN connection to my main router .

I asked them to go direct to my main router and they declined saying they need the other as an access port for support.

Will defining a fixed IP for the 2 renderer devices improve this do you think ?. I can do this on both devices.

Alternatively I should try again to get them to remove the first router. Its a cheap and nasty thing anyway only 10/100 so I don't want it as my primary router.

Mike

[AndrewFG]

It's a bit difficult to understand your system. Could you draw us and post a sketch of what is connected to what?

[MikeO]

All Is probably revealed !!

The Router stopped working altogether on the GHz band much for expensive ASUS routers . Las night it hiccupped a bit then finally stopped , the 5GHz band is OK ut it looks like the 2.4 band is broken , its 3 months old !! You can guess how happy I am.

I have reinstated my old 300N router and we'll see if that cures my woes , well at least the connection drop parts 

The system is maybe a bit strange but stems from a difficulty running cables. The house is a solid concrete roof and means drilling external walls and leaving cables in the blazing African sun until the UV gets 'em. Hence I tried a "Technological" solution based on 2 Asus devices designed to do just this.

WAN input from Fibre > Dual Band Router > Wireless "Connection" to Media Bridge specifically on 5Ghz > multiple Ethernet cables to Devices

The Media Bridge acts as a switch but instead of being wired back to the router its done by Wi Fi

The PC 's are run Ethernet from the router and the router gives 2 bands of wi fi for the rest of the house.

Its an Asus design with the RT AD 87U router and the EA AC 88 Media bridge . They are designed as a matching pair specifically to do this job ie a wireless extension its claimed at 1700 Mbs transfer between the devices (I say claimed)

Thanks for the help

Mike

[DJLegba]

^ That's good news. This may be a bit off topic, but over the years I have found wireless home routers to be very susceptible to damage through the power line. They last a lot longer when plugged in to a quality UPS.

[MikeO]

Nice idea , already covered .

I Live in Johannesburg where we get lightening storms almost daily through the summer. I have 2 UPS's one for the computers one for the hi fi.

Nothing gets left in the power when there is a storm, and as a consequence everything is powered via a UPS or we would never watch or listen anything for 6 months of the year.

Seems like paranoia but almost a year ago I lost all my hi fi when a strike came back down the ADSL phone line due to a direct strike on a neighbours tree . It took out my amp,. router, switch streamer etc...

Thanks for the thought though

Mike

[AndrewFG]

The system is maybe a bit strange but stems from a difficulty running cables. The house is a solid concrete roof and means drilling external walls and leaving cables in the blazing African sun until the UV gets 'em. Hence I tried a "Technological" solution based on 2 Asus devices designed to do just this.

WAN input from Fibre > Dual Band Router > Wireless "Connection" to Media Bridge specifically on 5Ghz > multiple Ethernet cables to Devices

The Media Bridge acts as a switch but instead of being wired back to the router its done by Wi Fi

Yup. It sounds like the "Dual Band Router" and the "Media Bridge" both have router functionalities in them. You definitely need to do the following things..

• Turn off the DHCP server on one of the devices (probably the "Media Bridge")
• Make sure that the two router devices do not both have the same IP address e.g 192.168.1.1
• Make sure that both devices are on the same IP sub-net; and that all your servers and renderers have addresses on this sub-net.
• Ideally the "Media Bridge" should get its IP from the DHCP server on the "Dual Band Router". But otherwise it should have a static IP that is a) outside the DHCP range of the "Dual Band Router" but on the sub-net of the "Dual Band Router"
• Make sure that both devices have UDP uni-casts and UDP multi-casts enabled
• Make sure that both devices have UPnP pass thru enabled
• Make sure that you do not have any firewalls filtering out traffic on any devises within the above mentioned sub-net

EDIT: my proposed setup would be..

Sub net for all devices = 192.168.1.xxx (i.e. 192.168.1.1 .. 192.168.1.255), aka sub-net mask 192.168.1.255)
"Dual Band Router" IP address = 192.168.1.1
"Dual Band Router" DHCP server address range = 192.168.1.100 .. 192.168.1.150 (say)
"Media Bridge" IP address = 192.168.1.2 (i.e. anything that is both not 192.168.1.1 and under 192.168.1.100)
"Media Bridge" DHCP server = off
All other devices = Use DHCP

[MikeO]

 Thanks Andrew I'll check the media bridge config again I don't believe it has its own DHCP

I'll set up as you suggest

Mike


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