Question for those with Networking Skills

[still-one]

As I alluded to elsewhere here I gave up on getting my Netgear Orbi mesh network to play nice with the GigaFOIL, AQ Diamond and Keces LPS. Since I removed them Roon dropouts are again non-existent. I liked what I was hearing with the GigaFoil and Diamond and never felt I could give the Keces a fair trial. If I could get things to work I would probably give them another try so here is my question.

I had plenty of issues getting the Orbi Wireless router and two satellites to work properly with pieces in my audio set-up. It always worked really well for all of the other devices in my home and I get great coverage for my +5000 sq feet. Mike also had issue with Netgear and returned it. If everything else didn't work so well I might consider that too. I am thinking of creating two separate wireless networks in my house. One for just my audio gear along with my current Orbi for everything else. The issue is I need to connect these both to only one Comcast cable modem. How difficult is that to do? From Googling this on the net the answers are not always clear.

Even though the Orbi devices all have 4 Ethernet ports I had to add un-managed switches between the Orbi's and audio related devices connected to them. That solved my issues until the GigFOIL and AQ Diamond came into play.

It looks like I need to use switches and probably reconfigure IP ranges (something I haven't ever done) to configure two networks with one modem. Again, any simple suggestions|?

[MikeCh]

Jim, appears you need separate VLANs for each grouping you want to separate. Each VLAN would use a different subnet to service both staric and/or DHCP addressing. E.g., vlan101 192.168.2.x /24 for audio only gear and vlan201 192.168.3.x /24 for everything else. This would give you 254 useable hosts on each subnet segment. If you don't obviously need that many hosts you could use a /27 subnet mask and that would give you 30 useable hosts per segment which should be plenty.

I have no idea what the configuration possibilities are with the Netgear Orbi device. But, if you go searching the Internet for Netgear Orbi, vlans and separate subnets, your bound to find whether your device can function or not at that capacity. Same goes with any interconnected Ethernet switches. My guess is that your current system may have limitations in order to provide the kind of complexity that's been described.

Found one conversation but have not read all the way through...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orb...T/td-p/1563648

[Jack]

Jim

Are you using just a plain cable modem or a Gateway for your phone too. If the later you might try ordering a set of three of the Xfinity xFi pods and see if they work better than the Orbi units. They have been up and running in my house for a couple of months. No issues so far but I would suggest you turn everything off but the Gateway before you install them and then let the Gateway and pods find the gear.

https://www.xfinity.com/learn/intern.../xfi-pod-3pack

[Rubytuesday]

I had your exact situation. I ended up selling the Orbi and went with a UniFi network. I purchased a security gateway (USG), an 8 port UniFi switch 150W POE, a cloud key, a few access points, and several Mesh Access points (for areas I couldn’t run Ethernet). All from Amazon.

This setup is incredibly flexible and you can create VLAN’s as well as port isolation. If you are fairly technical its straight forward to set up. Crosstalk Solutions on YouTube has a ton of setup videos.

I am also running Fibre SFP from my server room to my music room (switch to switch). Hopefully will get an X1 and go straight from switch to the streamer via Fibre.

If this is all gibberish to you, go watch some of the crosstalk videos and you’ll see what he is talking about.

https://youtu.be/HcfIpTso_Ys

[mep]

OMG! Digital is not complicated at all. Cloud keys, mesh access points...

[still-one]

Jim

Are you using just a plain cable modem or a Gateway for your phone too. If the later you might try ordering a set of three of the Xfinity xFi pods and see if they work better than the Orbi units. They have been up and running in my house for a couple of months. No issues so far but I would suggest you turn everything off but the Gateway before you install them and then let the Gateway and pods find the gear.

https://www.xfinity.com/learn/intern.../xfi-pod-3pack

I am using a plain Motorola cable modem. No, I do not have internet phone lines. We still have a landline.

[still-one]

Jim, appears you need separate VLANs for each grouping you want to separate. Each VLAN would use a different subnet to service both staric and/or DHCP addressing. E.g., vlan101 192.168.2.x /24 for audio only gear and vlan201 192.168.3.x /24 for everything else. This would give you 254 useable hosts on each subnet segment. If you don't obviously need that many hosts you could use a /27 subnet mask and that would give you 30 useable hosts per segment which should be plenty.

I have no idea what the configuration possibilities are with the Netgear Orbi device. But, if you go searching the Internet for Netgear Orbi, vlans and separate subnets, your bound to find whether your device can function or not at that capacity. Same goes with any interconnected Ethernet switches. My guess is that your current system may have limitations in order to provide the kind of complexity that's been described.

Found one conversation but have not read all the way through...

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orb...T/td-p/1563648

Mike. I am lost.

[mep]

Mike. I am lost.

Oh, but digital is so simple.

[MikeCh]

We still have a landline.

God bless you. I do too.

[MikeCh]

Oh, but digital is so simple.

Mark, it's actually very simple if you're not required to build it for your listening pleasure. I listen to records as you know and it's my largest software library by a big margin. When I'm not spinning records I will listen via the Lumin. Lately the digital listening I do has been the majority as I just don't have time to sit and relax into a record like I want... but I digress, Lumin gear is user-easy, sounds fantastic, and requires plugging in an available Ethernet cable.

No extravagant networking required at my house for listening to music.

[UltraFast69]

Jim

I don’t think you need 2 networks.

Are the switches you use Netgear and are they rated 10/100/1000?

I had an issue running 2 Ethernet runs to the AQVoxSE and a Control 4 home automation controller after I switched some cables. I called and we sat plugging and unplugging Eeros and finally they said my DLink switch, the same one the AQVox SE uses has compatibility issues is the culprit - but it worked fine prior. So I went back and seen I created a loop between two devices that was causing the dropouts.

So maybe you have done something like this or your switch is not compatible?

Modem >>> switch >>> Gigafoil >>> DAC/Streamer or both


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[mep]

Mark, it's actually very simple if you're not required to build it for your listening pleasure. I listen to records as you know and it's my largest software library by a big margin. When I'm not spinning records I will listen via the Lumin. Lately the digital listening I do has been the majority as I just don't have time to sit and relax into a record like I want... but I digress, Lumin gear is user-easy, sounds fantastic, and requires plugging in an available Ethernet cable.

No extravagant networking required at my house for listening to music.

Me neither, but it's all relative. My digital sounds really good.

[Jack]

Same here.

[Kuoppis]

Difficulties typically arise when you have several devices in your system assigning IP addresses. They interfere with each other and create dropouts. This could be the case if you e.g. have two routers or other kind of access points in your system.

Another issue you might run into is the available bandwidth of your routers. If the routers are already a couple years old, they might not support the latest protocols and be overwhelmed with the bandwidth requirements. This can lead to drop-outs. I recently upgraded my entire home network to Linksys Velop and it helped the audio quality as well.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[JimmyS]

Just inserted the Gigafoil in front of my upsampler and first listen last night was very impressed. I think the effort in solving your networking issues will be rewarded.

I currently use an ASUS mesh network for wireless and have started to convert all my wired equipment to Ubiquiti Unifi switches. My Upsampler is wired, and I have 5 other Roon endpoints of which 4 use wireless for streaming. So far, so good...

I’ll PM my contact info, and happy to discuss setups to help see if can determine/resolve any issues.

[still-one]

Oh, but digital is so simple.

This has nothing to do with digital, it is network related. My digital is working simply and flawlessly.

[still-one]

Jim

I don’t think you need 2 networks.

Are the switches you use Netgear and are they rated 10/100/1000?

I had an issue running 2 Ethernet runs to the AQVoxSE and a Control 4 home automation controller after I switched some cables. I called and we sat plugging and unplugging Eeros and finally they said my DLink switch, the same one the AQVox SE uses has compatibility issues is the culprit - but it worked fine prior. So I went back and seen I created a loop between two devices that was causing the dropouts.

So maybe you have done something like this or your switch is not compatible?

Modem >>> switch >>> Gigafoil >>> DAC/Streamer or both


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yes, I am using a TRENDnet 5-Port Unmanaged Gigabit GREENnet Desktop Metal Switch, Ethernet Splitter, Fanless,10 Gbps Switching Fabric, Lifetime Protection, TEG-S50g. It is a 10/100/1000 unmanaged switch. This was suggested by Andrew from Small Green Computer when two other switches including TPLink would not work.

My setup is Motorola Cable Modem---->Netgear Orbi Router----->Trendnet Switch---SGC i5 and dCS Upsmapler hard wired to that switch

There are about 12-15 devices that connect wirelessly to the main Orbi Wireless Modem
There are about 2-3 wireless and 1 hardwired device that connect to Orbi Satellite #1
There are about 3 wireless devices and 1 hardwired device that connect to Satellite #2

The wireless connections can move from device to device as we move handheld products around the house.

I have assigned fixed IP addresses for the i5, the dCS Upsampler and the Meridan MS-200 used for the whole house set-up on set-up.

[still-one]

Just inserted the Gigafoil in front of my upsampler and first listen last night was very impressed. I think the effort in solving your networking issues will be rewarded.

I currently use an ASUS mesh network for wireless and have started to convert all my wired equipment to Ubiquiti Unifi switches. My Upsampler is wired, and I have 5 other Roon endpoints of which 4 use wireless for streaming. So far, so good...

I’ll PM my contact info, and happy to discuss setups to help see if can determine/resolve any issues.

After I added the TrendNet switch months ago all issues disappeared until I inserted the GigaFoil into the loop and dropouts kept me from any enjoyable listening sessions. Dropouts stopped after I removed those devices and I have had none since. The Netgear Orbi is too fickle about what is on the network and that is why I want to create a second (non Netgear) network that will keep my audio devices off the Negear set-up used for the rest of the house.

[vortrex]

The gear you have now can't be configured for two networks. You'd need a system which supports multiple VLANs and the NATing of both your internal networks to the single public IP which you get from your ISP. The Ubiquiti gear mentioned earlier in the thread should be able to do this for you.

[still-one]

The gear you have now can't be configured for two networks. You'd need a system which supports multiple VLANs and the NATing of both your internal networks to the single public IP which you get from your ISP. The Ubiquiti gear mentioned earlier in the thread should be able to do this for you.

Thanks. In that case I'll stick with stability over trying GigaFoil again.

[W9TR]

Jim,
One thing you may try and I find that works well is to put the switch in right after your modem and run all your hardwired Ethernet devices to the switch. Use one port of the switch for the Orbi WiFi router configured as an access point.

I also run all my WiFi A/V stuff on 5 GHz and everything else on 2.4 GHz.

[nicoff]

....

The issue is I need to connect these both to only one Comcast cable modem. How difficult is that to do? From Googling this on the net the answers are not always clear.
.....

Again, any simple suggestions|?

Here you go. This is what I did to connect two routers.

https://youtu.be/J5QJb3O19zI

[still-one]

Here you go. This is what I did to connect two routers.

https://youtu.be/J5QJb3O19zI

Thanks for the post. I watched the video and could follow what he was doing. My only concern is that in that scenario the second device would connect to one my Netgear Orbi's network ports (actually to a port on a switch that is connected to the a Orbi port) and I might still have my issues with the Orbi in that loop.