Help! Can't find ROON Nucleus on Network

[KIBM]

You say that you used static IP addresses 5.1.1.1 and5.1.1.2 for the Nucleus and Devialet and that you are using a USB to ethernet adapter.

There's several things that can be causing your problem.

First you didn't give the Nucleus an address, you gave a port on the Nucleus an address. Addresses are linked to ports on devices. In theory that's the same as giving the Nucleus an address but if you have a USB to ethernet adapter connected to your Nucleus, then you have 2 ethernet ports. One is the normal ethernet port, the other is the USB port which the adapter is connected to, and each of those ports needs a separate address. The address you assign to one port only works for that specific port. Which port did you assign the fixed address to and what did you do about the address of the other port?

I'm going to suggest something for you to try. Hopefully it will work and it is fairly simple.

- Disconnect any ethernet cable you have connected to the normal ethernet port.

- Disconnect the USB to ethernet adapter from the USB port you have it connected to and connect it to the other USB port on the Nucleus, and connect an ethernet cable from the adapter to your router.

Now see if the router can locate your Nucleus. I'm hoping it will see the second USB port as a different network point and the default address for a network port on the Nucleus is to use DHCP addressing in which case the router will now be able to find the Nucleus and assign it an address. I've used a USB to ethernet adapter for a direct connection to my Devialet and I've made mistakes and got myself into trouble but I don't think I've had quite the same problem as you are describing though I went close to that on one occasion and it took me a while to figure out how to fix it.

If you can now find the Nucleus on your network when connected via the second USB port, then we can start to fix things.

You need 2 ethernet connections to the Nucleus to make the direct connection work. One connection is to your router because Roon needs an internet connection. The second connection is to the Devialet. What you want to do is to have DHCP addressing for the router connection and a static address for the connection to the Devialet so what you do now is to:

- open the web interface for your Nucleus and you should see 2 network connection options at the bottom of the screen.

- the first option is for the physical ethernet port. Set it to DHCP addressing but do not connect a cable to it at this point.

- assign your manual address to the USB port the ethernet adapter is connected to.

When you press the "Save" button the addresses will be changed for the Nucleus ports and, since you are connected to your router currently via the USB port which has been given a static address, the router will no longer see your Nucleus. Disconnect the ethernet cable from the adapter and connect it to the actual ethernet port and you should again be able to find the Nucleus on your network. If you disconnect the ethernet cable from the adapter before you press save, the Nucleus will disappear from your network before you can actually save the new addresses and you will have exactly the same problem as before.

Now you need to connect an ethernet cable between the USB adapter and your Devialet and make sure that the Devialet has a static address.

Note that the Devialet is not connected to your network with this setup. You're essentially running a separate private network between the USB port on the Nucleus and the Devialet. The Nucleus can see the Devialet to send music to it, the Devialet can respond to the Nucleus to make the connection work but the Devialet and that USB network port on the Nucleus are not on your normal network, only the actual ethernet port on the Nucleus is connected to your network.

I hope the above fixes your problem. If it doesn't then please describe what you did when you originally assigned a fixed address on the Nucleus. Did you change the address for one port or for two ports? Was there anything else you changed at the time? Give as much info as you can, too much info is better than too little.

For what it's worth, I thought that the direct connection to the ethernet did deliver a small but nice improvement in sound quality but I found the process tricky to deal with, especially when I got something wrong and ended up having to problem solve like you're doing now. In the end I went back to having a single network connection for my Nucleus Plus and a normal network connection for my Devialet and using DHCP addressing for both. That's the default settings for both the Nucleus and the Devialet, it's simple, and it works. One way or another I felt the direct connection to the Devialet was more trouble than it was worth for me.

Hi David,

This is incredibly helpful and considerate - thank you for your time.

I have tried your quick fix but no joy I'm afraid - both USB slots.

Attached is the protocol I followed - from Roon community forum.

Worked perfectly first time - 2 weeks listening.

Trouble began when I went back to DHCP (no issues) but on going back to Fixed IP using attached protocol all went dark.

Just been into the Router management tool and a non-active Nucleus is there with the DHCP assigned address. 

There is an option to change the IP address - would changing it to 5.1.1.1 give me access to my Nucleus? I could then access the Roon web management tool and sort things out. 

Regards

Kevin