AC68u - Throws receiver off LAN

[Baune]

Hello,

I have a rather weird problem that i hope someone can help with. I use a Denon AVR-X1200W with spotify connect and online music, which of course means its connected to my wireless network. I have a problem where, whenever i turn on the screen of an android device that is connected to my network, my reciever loses it's ip adress and i have to wait a couple of minutes before it gets a new one. (yes i realise it sound stupid but i am certain it is the android devices, having tested my theory with 3 different phones)

I have tried to troubleshoot this to my best knowledge doing the following without any luck:

• Completely factory reset the reciever
• Running ethernet instead of wifi
• Reset router completely, clearing nvram from SSH etc.
• Connecting Phone and Reciever to a hotspot from another phone (this worked but is obviosuly not a solution)
• Installing older firmware and other firmware(Tomato)

What i think caused the problem was connecting a friends phone to my reciever via airplay, after that it hasn't worked.

I am running Merlins 380.69 on my RT-AC68U

It is important to note that this has worked for several months since i got the reciever, and for a couple of years before when my father used it before he gave it to me. I hope someone can help as i am at a loss.

 

[KevTech]

Have you tried IP reservation (Manual Assignment) so the devices always have the same IP?

 

[marelit]

So from my guess it would be the receiver that is causing the issue.
Maybe try turning off AirPlay (if possible).

After you reset the receiver did you upgrade the firmware to the newest version available?
Does your receiver have the same IP after it reconnects?

 

[Baune]

I have tried with static IP in two ways. I entered the configuration into the reciever itself, with an entirely new ip adress so i wouldn't get an ip conflict, i also tried reserving an entirely new ip in the DHCP server, but none of these methods solved the problem.

As for the reciever, it is not possible to turn off airplay, unfortunately. Regarding the firmware it doesn't go back to factory defaults in terms of firmware version, only the settings is reinitialized, meaning it is still on the same firmware as before which is the latest.

Is it possible to log the traffic from the android devices to the reciever in any way, and would that make sense in terms of troubleshooting?

 

[marelit]

I think it might be possible with wireshark, but I am no expert.

But if you do not use DLNA or anything similar, I would suggest - as a temporary workaround at least - to set up a guest network with no Intranet access which would isolate the receiver an Android phones.

 

[Baune]

Okay with some fiddling with different software i got wireshark fired up, and i think i might have found the problem. I'll leave the "solution" here if anyone faces the same problem as me.

Wireshark showed a whole lot of MDNS packages being fired from the phones whenever the screen got turned on which got me remembering this article from XDA-Developers:
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-home-chromecast-connectivity-issues/

To summarize it seems like a lot of routers are facing problems with connectivity whenever chromecast devices are connected to the network as they build up a whole bunch of MDNS packages and send them all at once, which apparently makes the network unstable.

A part solution was to uninstall all cast related features from the phone or disconnecting all cast devices from the network. This enabled the receiver to maintain it's connection no matter how much i tried from my own phone to get it kicked off. Unfortunately it didn't work on my girlfriends phone, and it continued to throw off the reciever no matter what i did, so i will have to wait for the fix Google will be releasing to know for sure if this is what is causing the problem.

I thank you guys for your assistance, i will probably be back if the fix doesn't resolve it.

Best regards