Friday, July 12, 2013

The right ASUS RT-N56U settings for AirPlay?

This article is on firmware version 3.0.0.4.360 and first published on 12/Jul/2013.

I have been having problem with Apple AirPlay feature especially with Apple TV when I have source devices connected to the 5 GHz band of the RT-N56U.

The problem is less severe on my MacBook Air than what I have experienced on an iPhone and an iPad.  What'd happened is that the source devices will not discover AirPlay destination devices on the network.  This means they cannot stream multimedia data to the AirPlay devices.

The fix I usually do is to disconnect these source devices from the 5 GHz band and connect them to the 2.4 GHz band, or reconnect to the same 5 GHz band.  The AirPlay devices then automatically show up.  The 2.4 GHz band is slightly more stable than the 5 GHz band, although both will disappear eventually (perhaps a night or 2 later).

I read somewhere that AirPlay devices are using the Multicast feature to broadcast their presence.  I'm not sure if this is causing incompatibility with the router but I'm just guessing that this ASUS 'advanced' router may be trying to save energy by disconnecting/disabling/filtering some network traffic.

Now I would like to fix it permanently.  What I have done is setting these in the Wireless - Professional page (firmware version 3.0.0.4.360):
  • Enable wireless scheduler - No (default was "Yes") - I don't think this is causing the problem but just want to disable it regardless
  • Enable IGMP Snooping - Enable (default was "Disable") - edit: 4/Oct/2013 - this seems to be the only setting that matters
  • WMM DLS - Enable (default was "Disable") - edit 04/Oct/2013 - it seems that this setting is irrelevant

I have these set about 3 days ago.  So far it's been stable.  I hope this will last.

Update on 11-Aug-2013: I can see that my AirPlay devices are definitely staying visible more permanently.  I think perhaps in 1 occasion during past couple of weeks I upgraded the firmware on the RT-N56U, Apple TV disappeared on a 2.4 GHz band - My Apple TV is permanently on the 5 GHz band - I just apply the same settings mentioned above on the 2.4 GHz and restarted the router.  It's been working well since.

Update on 13-Nov-2018:  If you want to help me financially, even if it's just a little, I thank you!

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

This worked perfectly for me. Cheers for the advise. How it stays working.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your tip, been googling to find a soln to my iPad 2 missing icon after a router firmware update.

Anonymous said...

Awesome, dude. I was about to purchase a new router to solve this issue. Much appreciated!

Unknown said...

You're my hero!

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much, helped perfectly.

Anonymous said...

A thousand thanks. The IGMP setting worked like a charm.

Anonymous said...

Thanks!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes this works perfectly. The key is that you have to enable IGMP Snooping on any network that has an AirPlay target. I have one AppleTV on 5GHz and one on 2.4GHz (its further away). When I just enabled it on 2.4Ghz I only saw that ATV, enable it on both, now I see both.

I am still struggling with semi-regular stuttering and drop-outs over AIrPlay since getting an iPad Air. It worked perfect with the old iPad. The only thing I know Apple changed with the Air was to add MIMO support - so I will try and disable that and see if it makes a difference.

Unknown said...

Usually this issue is a Beacon/DTIM issue...

Make sure DTIM is set to 1 and beacon is set from 50-200 (most AP/routers default to 100)

100/1 is usually enough but some apple devices have issues and need 50/1

50/1 will cause more wifi overhead, but will keep the devices connected better

Anonymous said...

Thx man! worked for me as well. IGMP Snooping did the trick!
The only thing I want to try is enable WDS now for 2.4 and 5Ghz wireless

Mr. Bendera said...

Thanks to all of you for the comments and some advice from David.

Mark Nelson said...

Thanks a lot, I enabled IGMP Snooping and that seemed to do the trick for me. It worked right away. I've bookmarked this site. I report my status in a couple of weeks.

Mark Nelson said...

This is an update to my last post, this works but I need to have all of my devices on the same band. When I first tried it I was using my iPhone which was on the 5 ghz band and both Apple TVs are on the same band. However my wife's iPhone was on the 2.4 ghz band and it did not work, I connected to the 5 ghz band and it worked as well. Wish it worked on both bands but this is ok for me.

Mr. Bendera said...

Thanks for the update, Mark. So far mine has worked fine when I have wanted to AirPlay...or maybe I haven't been using AirPlay as often nowadays. I'm not sure about the different-band limitations, though I'm curious to experiment it in my setup.

Jacco Slok said...

Great Advice!

Anonymous said...

Works perfect-many thanks from Germany

Anonymous said...

Thank you SO much :-) This hasn't worked for me for half a year or so.

Unknown said...

Igmp snooping was the solution for my tp link switch as well. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Works nicely this far.

RowerRob said...

Thank you for this blog. You are very thorough. In I.T.? This will save me some time in troubleshooting the same problem I'm having. I just recently upgraded from a old open source linux router over to the Asus "fast WAN-to-LAN switching" RT-N56U. Cheers.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Thanks for your post

Now my Chromecast works perfect with zattoo hiq television

Anonymous said...

Thank You. So great to fix this problem. Only igmp snooping enable , then the AirPlay icon comming back;)

Anonymous said...

Shame the IGMP setting disappears when in repeater mode. Connected to Time Capsule = great. Connected via Asus in repeater mode = no airplay. :(

AmyK said...

After nearly two years this post is still relevant... helped me with my ASUS DSLN6U. Thank you so much!

Unknown said...

IGMP worked for me :) The connection between ITunes (Windows) and Apple TV is stable now.

Anonymous said...

Man, this just solved my issues after hours of trial & error when configuring my Pioneer VSX 830 AVR. I couldn't get airplay working at all but enabling IGMP Snooping on my RT-N56U did the trick! Thanks a lot, cheers!

Devlin said...

Thanks mate. Worked a treat.

Unknown said...

Since I posted ios9 has come out and my settings I listed above cause MASSIVE BATTERY DRAIN. I've had to set beacon from 100-200 and dtim from 3-5 ..that solved my iPhone iPad battery issues where they'd drain 30% in 4 hrs. Idling while locked in standby. The higher values don't harm the connection like it did in iOS. 7-8. It seems ios9 can handle up to 1000ms total time (200 beacon * 5 DTIM). I've had no AirPlay or adverse effects

Unknown said...

What I mean is experiment with beacon at 100-200 and DTIM from 3-5 vs. my prev low numbers of 1/50-75