Hi everyone.
I have a constant but intermittent issue: Audirvana headless is running on an RPI4B, connected with a wire to the network. When I try to connect with any of my android devices via Audirvana Remote (Samsung and Poco phone) sometimes it works, sometimes not. Obviously they are not on the same wifi as the streamer is wired, but they are in the same subnet and same broadcast domain. I moved to audirvana from roon where my roon core and bridge was also connected with wire and the same two phones had no issue at all to connect ever. My subscription is to expire in January and I am very much considering moving back to roon as this behavior is driving me crazy: I have music going, and trying to pause it as a call is coming in and the remote cannot connect, I have to kill the app and restart it, and it still does not work sometimes. Any plan to make the remote connection to the headless Audirvana more robust, or it is as it is, like it or leave it? Please let me know if there is any focus on it or not, will help my decision.
Thank you.
GergĆ
It is a problem with multicast broadcasting on the network. ( see: Multicast DNS - Wikipedia )
Since the remote listens to MDNS for the âbonjourâ services which are on the Pi (the âavahi daemonâ), something happens with the remote on the phone losing connection because the router or switch the Pi is connected to looses connection because of either something called IGMP Snooping ( see: IGMP snooping - Wikipedia ), which focuses the multibroadcast on IP addresses that ask for it, or flooding of the network with conflicting multibroadcast services, like printers, Smart TVâs or NAS-ses that are sending as well.
Somehow, it is a networking issue, but here my knowledge starts to be insufficient. What I once figured out, in my network setup anyway, that I could remedy the problems, but not completely erase them, by doing two things:
- Give the Pi, the Streamer (if used) and the NAS (on which my local files are stored) a fixed IP address in the router. Thinking of it, I never did that to my phone or iPad, so maybe that is something I should try as well.
- Have the Pi attached to a small switch, but that switch must have self managing software that does do something with the multicast protocol. I use a DLink DGS 108 , but I know a Netgear GS108E works as well (the E extension is important in this case). There are 105 equivalents which are good as well. 105 means 5 ports and 108 means 8 ports.
Hope this helps a bit, but I invite any networking guru to add their two cents.
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Thanks a lot, this helps a lot actually. Still wondering if I want to put in the effort to be honest, let me read a bit about this.
Actually my router supports IGMP Snooping, moved the streamer running headless Audirvana Linuix to a port on the router from the switch, which does not. Letâs see how much this changes the picture. Thanks a lot for the very constructive approach @jmtennapel .
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Wi-Fi connectivity is something to also consider in this contextâŠ
From the AudirvÄna Knowledge base:
Step 3: Make sure your computer and device are on the same network
2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz networks can cause some trouble on some routers, so you should try to deactivate one or another to see if you are still having an issue selecting your device.
The tell-tale that this is a network configuration problem, is the intermittency of the behavior, especially when wireless connectivity is involved.
Status report: so far so good. I got an IGMP Snooping capable switch quickly, now that is connected to the IGMP capable router and the streamer running headless Audirvana is plugged into this new switch. Connecting to it with the remote works instantly, like never before. I will keep you guys updated, thanks again for the help.
After two days of extensive listening I can confirm the IGMP Snooping capable LAN equipment resolved the issue (or I am the victim of some crazy coincidence 
). For reference the switch I added is a Dlink DGS-108. I chose it because takes 5 Volt DC which I can provide from my LPS, so an extra benefit at the same time reducing noise from the Ethernet cable. Thanks again for the help, I consider the issue resolved.
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It is a great switch for audio use and it reacts well if you upgrade the power supply.
I have a Heed Obelisk DA dac, it has its own built in power supply, dedicated toroid for both the analogue and the digital side, the switch and the LPS serve the Ian Canada streamer.
Lucky guess from my side, the 5 Volt DC input sold it to me. And it was on sale
