Airplay issues

[eastern_blok]

Hi .*,

I wonder if anybody here can maybe help me. I have a AX16000 router at home and use the Merlin FW (latest 388.1), all good and pretty happy with the setup, there is only one issue I can get working on my network. I have a Home Assistant (HA) wired to the router. HA does see the homepods connected with wifi to the same router, but when I try to integrate the homepods to HA, I keep on getting these errors:

Pairing not possible​

Pairing is required for AirPlay but it is disabled on the device. Please review potential access restrictions (e.g. allow all devices on the local network to connect) on the device.
You may continue without pairing this protocol, but some functionality will be limited.

I believe this is somehow a network setting related issues, but I dont seem to find what exactly it is. I do have IGMP Snooping enabled for all the Wifi bands, I did google a lot what setting could be this what restricts device to device communication on my network, but nothing what I was able to find.

Is a network expert who could help me with this?

Thanks a million and cheers!

 

[sfx2000]

There are two variants of HomePods - the big one and the Mini's... Mini's can act as a HomeKit hub, similar to an AppleTV 4K can...

There's also the Thread radio, which is only in the Mini HomePod, not the big one..

IGMP snooping should be turned off on the WiFi bands, as this can break multicast over WiFi, and Bonjour, along with AirPlay will be much better off...

How to Use HomeKit With Home Assistant in 3 Easy Steps

Home Assistant is a truly amazing platform for fully customizable home automation with support for virtually everything you could ever possibly want to integrate. Apple's HomeKit ecosystem is also quite amazing due to its tight integration with Siri and iOS. It would be great to integrate both...

wltd.org

 

[eastern_blok]

Do you know of any other setting which dont play nice with Bonjour and Airplay. I disabled IGMP snooping for all wifi bands but still get the same error in HA. I know this is not a HA forum, but on those forums nobody could help and I didn't get any useful information.

Btw I have both the small and the big homepods, also the apple TV. all 3 have the same issues when I try to set them up in HA. HA sees them on the local network but get there 3 errors the it fail:

"Pairing not possible
Pairing is required for Companion but it is disabled on the device. Please review potential access restrictions (e.g. allow all devices on the local network to connect) on the device.
You may continue without pairing this protocol, but some functionality will be limited."

"Pairing not possible​

Pairing is required for Companion but it is disabled on the device. Please review potential access restrictions (e.g. allow all devices on the local network to connect) on the device.
You may continue without pairing this protocol, but some functionality will be limited."

"Pairing not possible
Pairing is required for RAOP but it is disabled on the device. Please review potential access restrictions (e.g. allow all devices on the local network to connect) on the device.
You may continue without pairing this protocol, but some functionality will be limited."

"Apple TV​

Failed to set up device."

 

[heysoundude]

You disabled it for each band of wifi, hit apply at the bottom of each page and then tried rebooting?

 

[cc666]

There are two variants of HomePods - the big one and the Mini's... Mini's can act as a HomeKit hub, similar to an AppleTV 4K can...

There's also the Thread radio, which is only in the Mini HomePod, not the big one..

IGMP snooping should be turned off on the WiFi bands, as this can break multicast over WiFi, and Bonjour, along with AirPlay will be much better off...

How to Use HomeKit With Home Assistant in 3 Easy Steps

Home Assistant is a truly amazing platform for fully customizable home automation with support for virtually everything you could ever possibly want to integrate. Apple's HomeKit ecosystem is also quite amazing due to its tight integration with Siri and iOS. It would be great to integrate both...

wltd.org

I was having all kinds of problems playing apple music from my iphone to my homepods (4 large - 1 small).
I just applied this fix and now it works perfectly! Hands off instantly. THANK YOU

CC

 

[cc666]

What are the implications of disabling IGMP snooping?

CC

 

[eastern_blok]

You disabled it for each band of wifi, hit apply at the bottom of each page and then tried rebooting?

Yes I did apply it to all bands, did a restart (both HA and the router), and keep on getting the same errors.

Wonder the wired devices could cause some issues? There is a cable model (actually a router with wifi off in bridge mode) and a switch on the 10Gb port plugged in to the router...

 

[heysoundude]

Yes I did apply it to all bands, did a restart (both HA and the router), and keep on getting the same errors.

Wonder the wired devices could cause some issues? There is a cable model (actually a router with wifi off in bridge mode) and a switch on the 10Gb port plugged in to the router...

It's not just a matter of switching the option to "Disable" - you also have to hit "apply" at the bottom of each page for the changes to stick.

 

[heysoundude]

What are the implications of disabling IGMP snooping?

CC

IGMP snooping - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Internet Group Management Protocol - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

but start here => https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/network-layer/what-is-igmp/
are you IPv4, IPv6 or Dual Stack?

 

[eastern_blok]

It's not just a matter of switching the option to "Disable" - you also have to hit "apply" at the bottom of each page for the changes to stick.

Thanks a lot for pointing this out (since for the first time this was not so straight forward), but in this case this is definitely not the issue... I hit the apply for all of the bands and just after that I restarted the router. After restart I checked and all are "Disabled".

 

[eastern_blok]

IGMP snooping - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Internet Group Management Protocol - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

but start here => https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/network-layer/what-is-igmp/
are you IPv4, IPv6 or Dual Stack?

BTW this also might be helpful for my case. On the Asus router I have IPv6 turned off. But on the crapy router/cable modem one gets from the ISP (and the FW is pretty dumbed down) I dont know how things are set up. One thing is for sure if I wire (ethernet) the HA rapsi to the Asus router everything works (except the homepods/apple TV integration), but if the HA instance is wired with the cable model loads of things dont work. So the issue might be some setting on that ISP router/cable modem...

This is kinda the topology of the network:

things work (except homepod)
asus router <---- WAN ----- ISP router (in bridge mode)
| |
| |------> Wifi -----> homepods
|
|-----> wired ----> HA instance
\-----> wired (10GB) -----> switch for other wired connections

Things are broken:
asus router <---- WAN ----- ISP router (in bridge mode)
| | |
| | |-----> wired ----> HA instance
| |
| |------> Wifi -----> homepods
|
\-----> wired (10GB) -----> switch for other wired connections

I start to suspect the ISP router is messing something here up. Might be wrong, not the network expert just a hobbyist...

 

[eastern_blok]

BTW this also might be helpful for my case. On the Asus router I have IPv6 turned off. But on the crapy router/cable modem one gets from the ISP (and the FW is pretty dumbed down) I dont know how things are set up. One thing is for sure if I wire (ethernet) the HA rapsi to the Asus router everything works (except the homepods/apple TV integration), but if the HA instance is wired with the cable model loads of things dont work. So the issue might be some setting on that ISP router/cable modem...

This is kinda the topology of the network:

things work (except homepod)
asus router <---- WAN ----- ISP router (in bridge mode)
| |
| |------> Wifi -----> homepods
|
|-----> wired ----> HA instance
\-----> wired (10GB) -----> switch for other wired connections

Things are broken:
asus router <---- WAN ----- ISP router (in bridge mode)
| | |
| | |-----> wired ----> HA instance
| |
| |------> Wifi -----> homepods
|
\-----> wired (10GB) -----> switch for other wired connections

I start to suspect the ISP router is messing something here up. Might be wrong, not the network expert just a hobbyist...

Ok the tool seems to remove some of the spaces on second the HA instance is connected to the ISP router...

 

[sfx2000]

What are the implications of disabling IGMP snooping?

CC

Really - no impact for most folks.

 

[heysoundude]

BTW this also might be helpful for my case. On the Asus router I have IPv6 turned off. But on the crapy router/cable modem one gets from the ISP (and the FW is pretty dumbed down) I dont know how things are set up. One thing is for sure if I wire (ethernet) the HA rapsi to the Asus router everything works (except the homepods/apple TV integration), but if the HA instance is wired with the cable model loads of things dont work. So the issue might be some setting on that ISP router/cable modem...

This is kinda the topology of the network:

things work (except homepod)
asus router <---- WAN ----- ISP router (in bridge mode)
| |
| |------> Wifi -----> homepods
|
|-----> wired ----> HA instance
\-----> wired (10GB) -----> switch for other wired connections

Things are broken:
asus router <---- WAN ----- ISP router (in bridge mode)
| | |
| | |-----> wired ----> HA instance
| |
| |------> Wifi -----> homepods
|
\-----> wired (10GB) -----> switch for other wired connections

I start to suspect the ISP router is messing something here up. Might be wrong, not the network expert just a hobbyist...

a call to your ISP tech support line should help you login to their modem/gateway equipment to check settings/update.
You should also google "what is bridge mode" so you can understand