Getting Fed Up with WiiM's

[Witterings]

I'm getting really fed up with WiiM's, I've recently bought the Pros as I thought it may help the disconnection problems I was having with the Mini and last night all of a sudden the Chromecast part of them can be seen but the WiiM itself can't.
I've tried hitting Fix It and it tells me I have to reboot my router .... WTF ..... Everything else in the house is working fine

I haven't bothered doing that yet as daughters working form home so needs the internet but honetly what a joke and if I have to di that on a regular basis they're going back and I'll buy something of better quality and more reliable or just go back to my Chromecast Audios.

Before people say ... have you raised a ticket .... I'm fed up raising F**&&g tickets, I've done enough of them and have better things to do with my life.

 

[goodmore]

Mine updated last night. Sometimes there is a problem reconnecting. Good luck with your next product.

 

[Witterings]

Mine updated last night. Sometimes there is a problem reconnecting. Good luck with your next product.

They update so often ... if this happens every time they do it will be a complete pain.

I've tried restarting the router and they still won't play ball, looks like the only way to get them back will be hold the button for 10 seconds and do a complete reset.

These have the potential to be brilliant devices but they're destroying them by not properly testing thier updates, I've mentioned it before and they've replied saying they're aware it's an issue and will test updates better prior to release as they were causing as many problems as they resolved .... that obviously hasn't happened so it was just lip service!

 

[goodmore]

Have you tried rebooting your control device like your phone or tablet? It works for me

 

[Witterings]

Have you tried rebooting your control device like your phone or tablet? It works for me

Yes I have ... I actually got a new iphone today and that's rebooted a few times as it's gone through various upadates but also tried on my Android phone and ipad as well in case it was that .... thank you for the suggestion though.

 

[Witterings]

Weird part is, having looked into it more it's the WiiM App that won't see them, if I'm in Amazon music they're still registered in the list of available devices to stream to, if I go into the Amazon Alexa App and devices they're also listed in there.

 

[Balthazar B]

Are your phones and the WiiMs using the same network/VLAN and frequency band? Are they using the same preferred DNS server? IPv6 settings the same?

 

[Witterings]

Are your phones and the WiiMs using the same network/VLAN and frequency band? Are they using the same preferred DNS server? IPv6 settings the same?

Again I appreciate someone's input and trying to help but if its necessary to check that it's a huge percentage of their potential market killed and says it's only a product for advanced IT geeks.
Whilst I'd be capable of looking up and finding out most of what you asked I bought these to listen to music, not to dick around improving my IT knowledge and I've never had to do that with my Humax HDR, 3 TV's a Nvidia Shield, Xiomi Mi Box and 5 Chromecast devices ... all of which connect to the internet.

I'm understanding a little more what's happened, when I set them up I gave the device a name of A Lounge WiiM and then used Google Home to name the Chromecast ...... Chromecast A Lounge.
The A Lounge WiiM is the part that totally disappeared .... I used to have a listing for each name both in the WiiM App and each listed in say Amazon music as devives to cast to.
In the WiiM App the main listing for the device went leaving just Chromecast A Lounge ... in case it had just merged the 2 names I renamed the Chromecast A Lounge back to A Lounge WiiM, when I now o to cast from Amazon it's just changed the name of the Chromecast, it shows teh 2 different symbols just both with the same name.

It's done exactly the same with the 2nd device which uses the exact same names except using Kitchen instead of lounge.

These did actually work for about 10 days prior to this.

 

[Balthazar B]

Again I appreciate someone's input and trying to help but if its necessary to check that it's a huge percentage of their potential market killed and says it's only a product for advanced IT geeks.
Whilst I'd be capable of looking up and finding out most of what you asked I bought these to listen to music, not to dick around improving my IT knowledge and I've never had to do that with my Humax HDR, 3 TV's a Nvidia Shield, Xiomi Mi Box and 5 Chromecast devices ... all of which connect to the internet.

I'm understanding a little more what's happened, when I set them up I gave the device a name of A Lounge WiiM and then used Google Home to name the Chromecast ...... Chromecast A Lounge.
The A Lounge WiiM is the part that totally disappeared .... I used to have a listing for each name both in the WiiM App and each listed in say Amazon music as devives to cast to.
In the WiiM App the main listing for the device went leaving just Chromecast A Lounge ... in case it had just merged the 2 names I renamed the Chromecast A Lounge back to A Lounge WiiM, when I now o to cast from Amazon it's just changed the name of the Chromecast, it shows teh 2 different symbols just both with the same name.

It's done exactly the same with the 2nd device which uses the exact same names except using Kitchen instead of lounge.

These did actually work for about 10 days prior to this.

FWIW, I found when I changed all my Chromecast devices (as well as speaker groups) to simple names without spaces or symbols -- and easy to pronounce unambiguously -- my life got a lot better. And I also left off room names. For whatever reason, Google Home/Assistant has problems with parsing compound names, and distinguishing rooms from devices, at least periodically.

 

[Witterings]

FWIW, I found when I changed all my Chromecast devices (as well as speaker groups) to simple names without spaces or symbols -- and easy to pronounce unambiguously -- my life got a lot better. And I also left off room names. For whatever reason, Google Home/Assistant has problems with parsing compound names, and distinguishing rooms from devices, at least periodically.

This may be the issue especially following a software update .... can you give an example of what you did?

I've done resets / set them both up from scratch, I renamed the WiiM's to my chosen name (as before) and the Chromecast name has now mirrored what I called the WiiM (which it didn't do before).

 

[90c4]

I was having issues with both of my streamers. A new router fixed things

 

[Balthazar B]

This may be the issue especially following a software update .... can you give an example of what you did?

I've done resets / set them both up from scratch, I renamed the WiiM's to my chosen name (as before) and the Chromecast name has now mirrored what I called the WiiM (which it didn't do before).

An example would be changing "Living Room Speaker" to "Console". I've learnt to never include room names in device names. And Assistant seems to prefer short, distinct one-word names. And another tip is if you're going to reset a Chromecast device and start from scratch, make sure you forget it in Google Home before you do. Otherwise it may stick around in your Home configuration and mess things up.

But as someone else suggested, network problems are often caused by routers -- especially the crappy routers that telecom and cable companies provide, mostly because the users tend to be locked out from important functions and overall visibility into what the router is doing.

 

[Witterings]

I was having issues with both of my streamers. A new router fixed things

Useful to know .... but you shouldn't have to buy a new router because of WiiM's lack of compatability.

Much the same as me, I'm guessing you had various other things connected to the internet with your old router that worked flawlessly for a perriod of time, that would suggest the issue isn't the router but the WiiM's.

If I did replace it, how would I know I'm buying one that is compatible and if it really is an issue, surely you should get a compatible router included when you buy a WiiM.

 

[simbun]

Do you have the option to disable 'IGMP Snooping' on your router and switches?
It's purpose is to prevent flooding of multicast traffic, but it's been seen to cause discovery problems like these with UPnP. I'm not sure but I think WiiM uses mDNS so it'll likely have the same problem.

If you can PING your mini/pro but it doesn't appear as a cast device (assuming Tidal and Spotify also use mDNS) this is potentially the cause.

 

[Witterings]

Do you have the option to disable 'IGMP Snooping' on your router and switches?
It's purpose is to prevent flooding of multicast traffic, but it's been seen to cause discovery problems like these with UPnP. I'm not sure but I think WiiM uses mDNS so it'll likely have the same problem.

If you can PING your mini/pro but it doesn't appear as a cast device (assuming Tidal and Spotify also use mDNS) this is potentially the cause.

I'll have a look at this tomorrow but if I'm not using Tidal or Spotify (Amazon Unlimited & Qobuz), does it negate the need to do this ....especially as they're not used at the same time?

EDIT: Have just realised I have children that do (use Spotify) so will look into it tomorrow and in case anyone hapens to be aware of known issues with specific routers it's an Asus RT-AC68U.

 

[90c4]

Useful to know .... but you shouldn't have to buy a new router because of WiiM's lack of compatability.

Much the same as me, I'm guessing you had various other things connected to the internet with your old router that worked flawlessly for a perriod of time, that would suggest the issue isn't the router but the WiiM's.

If I did replace it, how would I know I'm buying one that is compatible and if it really is an issue, surely you should get a compatible router included when you buy a WiiM.

The issue I was having was mostly with my other streamer, a Cambridge CXN and the Wiim usually worked flawlessly so I assumed the issue was just the CXN. The router worked great for years, but it was 6 years old and became unpredictable even after factory resets

 

[simbun]

I'll have a look at this tomorrow but if I'm not using Tidal or Spotify (Amazon Unlimited & Qobuz), does it negate the need to do this ....especially as they're not used at the same time?

I don't know how the WiiM app discovers the mini/pro but I'm assuming all the other protocols use mDNS (except UPnP of course), but they're all multicast so all could be affected with an improper IGMP Snooping implementation.

It's quite difficult to follow the thread, but is it now only the discovery of the WiiM device within the WiiM app that's the problem? Casting to it from other apps is always ok? If everything else works then it's unlikely to be a router setting, and more likely to be how the WiiM app discovers the WiiM hardware itself.

If you are having trouble discovering the WiiM mini/pro from other apps (to cast to), I haven't seen anything specific to the AC68U, but have for others Asus routers:

Routers and multicast discovery

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360052860973-No-Player-detected-Resetting-Router-Asus-RT-AC66U

I would first make sure your settings are as per the second link, and if they are (and they're not working) I'd try disabling IGMP Snooping on the LAN and wireless SSID's. Write down the changes you've made just in case it makes things worse.
This will increase network traffic (broadcasts will go to EVERY device rather than just those that request them), but it's the only way to rule out the problem.

 

[Claudius]

I don't know how the WiiM app discovers the mini/pro but I'm assuming all the other protocols use mDNS (except UPnP of course), but they're all multicast so all could be affected with an improper IGMP Snooping implementation.

It's quite difficult to follow the thread, but is it now only the discovery of the WiiM device within the WiiM app that's the problem? Casting to it from other apps is always ok? If everything else works then it's unlikely to be a router setting, and more likely to be how the WiiM app discovers the WiiM hardware itself.

If you are having trouble discovering the WiiM mini/pro from other apps (to cast to), I haven't seen anything specific to the AC68U, but have for others Asus routers:

Routers and multicast discovery

https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360052860973-No-Player-detected-Resetting-Router-Asus-RT-AC66U

I would first make sure your settings are as per the second link, and if they are (and they're not working) I'd try disabling IGMP Snooping on the LAN and wireless SSID's. Write down the changes you've made just in case it makes things worse.
This will increase network traffic (broadcasts will go to EVERY device rather than just those that request them), but it's the only way to rule out the problem.

I confirm WiiM is using mDNS. I have a WiiM Pro in a different subnet and it works fine. To achieve this, you must enable mDNS forwarding from the zone where your WiiM is located, add firewall rules to allow mDNS broadcast from the WiiM subnet and a rule to allow access to the WiiM subnet from your Wifi subnet. It's not a simple setup (different for every router) and that's why WiiM recommends to use the same subnet.

 

[BucYouUp68]

Have you set a static IP on the WiiM's

 

[Witterings]

Have you set a static IP on the WiiM's

Don't know if you realised but that's a reply in a thread that hasn't been active for 9 months.