Hey guys,

Installed a system consisting of A Russound C5 controller and DMS3.1 Media Streamer.

The system works great, but the customer is having issues. I've had to do a reboot three times over two months. It appears as though the units are losing their Network connection.
Checked to be sure the router is DHCP enabled. There are no other reported issues with the Network.

I'm wondering if these units need to have a static IP address assigned to each. I've checked the manuals and they don't talk about that at all.

We have 2 other same set ups and so far no other complaints.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
GP

Did you try just reserving the addresses? On the advice of someone here I did that and it worked for me on another product.

Craig.

I have same issue on my own unit for stream 1 only.
It needs a reboot about 1 a month.
Getting ready to put in DLI or WattBox with schedule setup to reboot at 3am every other week or maybe once a month.

Check with Russound re firmware version. It may be as simple as that.

Yes Fred, we did check and it is the current version, sorry I didn't mention that.

Mario, I would really like to discover why this is happening, but your suggestion might be a good idea if it remains an elusive fix.

Craig, would it just be easier to assign a static IP to each unit?

George

Russound has instructions available regarding establishing a static address. I set my system up with that, and I've not had the need to power cycle since I upgraded firmware...

My system is on static address; that's not it, at least in my case.
It happened today as a matter of a fact.
Paid Pandora asks if I'm still there (press play/pause to resume).

I press play and then it just says loading...
It will stay that way for ever.
I press menu and get into the main menu for the source where I have a selection of service I want to listen to. I select Pandora and after few second buffer music is playing again.

There seems to be some sort of timeout thing going on that then locks up reconnect.

We have the same system in our showroom and it has to be rebooted every week. All firmware is current.

We also have several in the field, but don't get any service call about them. We loose power every couple of weeks in summer due to storms, so maybe that's their reboot:)

To reserve an IP you do it just through the router's network settings without having to adjust anything in the PC. The router automatically assigns an IP, you then select it out of the list of devices in your network and you router reserves that device and put it in the list of reservations. DHCP is still used to assign an IP when ever needed except that it always assigns that IP address that you reserved, to the device it was reserved for. It is faster than assigning a static IP so I guess you say it's easier, but not much. The reason I suggested it is that for some reason my desktop PC kept getting booted off the network. This stopped that from happening. I think it's because I have a cheapo D-Link router.

Anyway it doesn't sound like it will fix your issue based on what others are saying. Maybe try the static IP. I'm learning lately that this seems to be best practice and it is easy to do so why not.

Does the manual recommend one vs the other?

No, there's no suggestion in the manual, but I did find the instructions in Russound's Dealer Document File.

So here's going to be my approach.
1} Assign Static IP addresses to both the controller and streamer
2} Check to be sure we are up to date on all firm and software.
3} Install A UPS.

If that doesn't work, "I'll be back".

Thanks guys,
GP

Hello George,

Thank you for your interest in Russound products. We're sorry your system is experiencing some network issues. We would be happy to work with you to try to resolve these issues, and it is usually best to discuss these types of questions over the phone. Please contact Russound Dealer Support at 1-866-888-7466, M-F, 8:30AM-7PM EST. If you prefer, you can contact us by email at [email protected]

In the meantime, you can check for a few things. You may benefit from some network logs to look for clues as to the network dropouts. There are some free applications to download, such as WireShark and Microsoft Network Monitor that may help show IP traffic and give some clues as to what events occur on the network before the MCA drops out.

If you have access to the settings in your router, you may be able to turn logging on. This will also help get a view of the network events for clues.

Static IPs generally aren't necessary but in some cases they are required, depending on how complicated the network needs to be managed. Also, Static IPs can be useful on products that are permanent on the network, such as an MCA or IP Cameras, to keep them conflicting with DHCP devices that may hop on and off the network (your phone, tablets, computers that are turned on and off, etc).

Last, make sure your system is running the most recent firmware. At this time, the most current MCA-C5 firmware is v 7.01.00, and most current DMS 3.1. firmware is v 5.02.03.

We're always looking to improve our systems to give you and your customers the best possible multiroom audio experience. Please feel free to contact our support department any time.

Jay Volpini
Russound Support
1-866-888-7466

I use to recycle my power every day. With the new firmware ver 7.01.00 loaded on all 3 of my controllers my system has worked great even from the My russound app. No more lockups whatsoever. I have a static ip on everything. The mcac5 and all 3 streams on the Dms 3.1. I've installed around a 100 of these systems and they work much better with ver 7 installed. Installing firmware can be finicky but usually works after a few tries. I have the dms 3.1 along with a Sirius st2 tuner from russound on my system with 18 zones of music. This by far is the best multi room system around for the money and all my customers love them.

Cap'n, with all due respect, Northstar is not typically associated with NOLA. You a transplant?