Beryl doesn’t appear to pass MDNS traffic

Technical Support for Routers
1

I’m using my Beryl (MT-1300) router with the latest firmware (4.3.10) and nothing using MDNS is discoverable on the router.

I can’t see my Roku, AirPlay targets, Spotify connect devices, or any other devices on the network in their respective apps.

I used the iOS “discovery” app from the App Store which allows you to browse the MDNS domains and it’s totally blank. Typically I would see at least a few items on the list.

Any idea what might be causing this? Do I need an MDNS responder?

Are there others out there using AirPlay, etc with a GLiNet router?

2

To add, I have no subdomains or VLAN configured. Everything is under the default 192.168.8.1 IP range.

Devices are spread across the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz wifi bands.

3

I just downloaded the Discovery app, connected over wifi from my iPhone to Slate AX v 4.50, (AFAIK the same release running on Beryl?) and under _airplay._tcp. I can see my Roku, Apple TV and MacBook Air, these are all LAN over Wifi connected. Do you maybe have drop in gateway enabled?

4

So odd, are you using a default install?

I do not have drop in gateway enabled. I checked just to be sure.

I guess I can factory reset and see what happens.

5

I did a factory reset and so far everything is working as expected. I can see the various devices in the Discovery app.

I changed the SSID to the one I use and everything is still working. I’m going to leave it like this for a little while and see what happens.

I did change it so the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz are using the same SSID but other than that everything is factory.

It’s strange because I don’t make many changes from default so I still don’t know what caused the original issue.

All I do is use NextDNS for encrypted DNS and I loaded a VPN profile. To be clear, both of those were disabled while I was testing and having issues. So no idea why it was happening.

1 Like
6

Default install router mode, except added VPN client with VPN policy based on client device. My Slate AX does sit behind a primary pfSense router, so DNS is provided by the primary router, but all the MDNS devices are Slate AX WAN clients, so I don’t think the DNS affects anything.

7

Glad it is working now. I don’t have any proof, but I suspect that some configuration options don’t get reset properly when configuration changes are made. I prefer to think this instead of suspecting user error. :wink:

8

Ha ha , yeah that might be it. I plan on doing a little more testing to see how things behave with various options. Maybe I’ll narrow it down.

I’m not sure how they setup the NextDNS proxy so maybe that’s a factor? Can’t see it being VPN.

9

So the next time I moved my router the MDNS was not working again.

Im largely running a stock firmware other than adding a VPN client profile, renaming the SSID, and adding a NextDNS profile.

I’m guessing it’s the NextDNS profile but I still have the issue even with it turned off.

I did a factory reset and everything started to work so something is certainly affecting MDNS.

At this point I’m leaving everything stock other than changing the SSID so I guess we will see how that goes.

10

You may be onto something, as I don’t use NextDNS. I see a couple discussions on the net about NextDNS interfering with avahi/MDNS repeater. If this is the cause, here’s one possible solution
https://www.reddit.com/r/nextdns/comments/p8hepr/prevent_nextdns_from_listening_on_port_5353/

11

Ok, so this time I did a factory reset and only changed the SSID. The MDNS repeater worked amazingly well all day.

I went to sleep and when I woke up nothing was in the discovery app and none of my apps were finding my speakers or airplay devices.

So, I guess the problem isn’t anything I was changing (no NextDNS or VPN this time) and it something else. No idea what it could be.

12

Two things to add here:

  1. In my previous post I said “repeater” but I don’t think there’s anything installed specifically. The point is that whatever is allowing MDNS to pass (which it should do on the same subnet without help) seems to work fine for a period of time and then stops.

  2. I rebooted the router and reconnected everything and MDNS is working now. All the expected items showed up in the discovery app.

One other point I did notice is that the router’s client list was showing connected devices that were not connected before I rebooted. For example, my Roku stick was in the list (one of the MDNS devices that wasn’t working) and yet I know the Roku was turned off. Maybe related? Who knows?

13

I think that the client list normally shows clients that are no longer connected for some period of time.

I am stumped about why MDNS stops working, unless something is going to sleep or power save and need something like a wake on lan to wake up.

Sorry that I ran out of ideas other than try gl.inet tech support, they have been pretty responsive when I had issues.

14

I really appreciate all your help regardless. It’s such a strange issue because the MDNS traffic should just work if everything is on the same subnet and it is.

It really is like something is going to sleep. I don’t even know where to go to troubleshoot it because all the hits I’m getting are about it not working cross domain.

15

Maybe you could check with gl.inet to see if there are any wifi power saving configuration or auto sleep option that could be changed on the router.