PSA - how to directly connect NAA to HQP without bridging in Windows

[tboooe]

Like many, I believe a direct connection between HQP and NAA to sound better than having to use a switch.  To me the sound is more dynamic, energetic, and clear.  To achieve this, I had to establish a Bridge between my two NICs in my HQP pc.  I used this configuration for a while before upgrading to Server 2016 from Server 2012 R2.  Unfortunately, with Server 2016 there is no minimal server mode so I had to pick between installing the full GUI or use core mode.  In core mode, bridging of NICs is not possible so I had to reintroduce my Cisco SG300 SFP switch back into my system.  I kept trying to find a solution that would allow a direct connection and thanks to @Miska and @AudioPhil I've been able to do it.  Another benefit of this direct connection solution is that you dont have to go through the hassle of bridging your NICs.  The drawback of course is that you cannot remote desktop into the NAA to troubleshoot since its no longer on the local network.  No big deal, when I need to remote desktop into the NAA I just plug it back into my switch.

 

Anyway, here is the solution....

On both the HQP and NAA pc, enable IPv6*

IPv4 can be enabled as well

Use Task Manager to ensure the NICs on both pcs are receiving IPv6 addresses

Connect the NAA to the second HQP NIC

Restart both computers**

Go into HQP settings and select IPv6 as the backend.  Your NAA should show up in the drop down.

High five yourself, thank Miska and bask in the glorious sounds made possible by this direct connection!

 

*since I run in core mode, there is no GUI so I go into the registry to enable IPv6.  For some reason the Powershell and netsh commands to enable IPv6 wouldnt work for me.  The registry key is DisabledComponents found at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\.  Set it to 0 to enable IPv6 and 255 to disable it. (please be very careful when editing the registry, perform a backup first, I am not responsible, blah blah blah)

**I would check to make sure IPv6 is still enabled after a restart

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

[tboooe]

1 hour ago, Hammer said:

Hi, I'm trying to do the same thing on Server 2016 as my HQPlayer machine.  I have a NIC setup for ipv6 only and I am wondering how this NIC gets an ipv6 address if it is just directly connected to my NAA pc.  If I need to manually set an address, what should it be and do I need a Default Gateway?  Thanks, Hammer

i am also running Server 2016.  Once you enable IPv6 and connect that nic to another device like a router, switch or NAA, an IP address is automatically assigned.  Thats one of the benefits of IPv6, no need for DHCP.  Connect your NAA to HQP PC, go into Task Manager and check the Networking page to verify that there is an IPv6 address.  

 

I dont know if you are using AO or not, but you may want to check the registry entry I listed in my original post to ensure IPv6 is enabled.  I couldnt enable using Powershell or netsh commands.

[tboooe]

1 hour ago, Hammer said:

To clarify, I see the address on the server 2016 side.  I can’t tell on the NAA side since I am running Miska’s x64 NAA image....I believe that has ipv6 activated, right?  Thank you again!

You need to check on the NAA side if IPv6 is enabled.  I am no Linux expert but I think you can type ifconfig on the NAA to see if an IPv6 address shows up.

 

Assuming it is enabled on the NAA, try restarting the HQP pc then check HQP settings.

[tboooe]

9 minutes ago, simonklp said:

Hi @tboooe, first of all, I must thank you so much for your kindness to share this solution of bridging HQPlayer and NAA without the switch under WS2016 Core. I had been successful to work in this way last night. However, I cannot work in this way again this morning. What I can remember is that after achieving this bridging, I had upgraded the AudiophileOptimizer from AO 2.20 beta 5 to the final release of AO 2.20.

 

When I found the bridging not working this morning, I had checked the registry key setting, and found that it changed from 0 back to 255. So, I had changed it back to 0 again. However, it still doesn't work.

 

In this case, could you please kindly advise what did you mean by "Use Task Manager to ensure the NICs on both pcs are receiving IPv6 addresses". How to check it out?

 

Thanks and regards, Simon

I noticed the same thing too with AO.  I had to re-enable IPv6.  After you enable it, did you first restart the NAA then HQP PC?

 

In core, press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to bring up the Task Manager.  Then select the Performance tab to see if your NIC is getting an IPv6 address.

 

BTW, do you think the music sounds better with this direct connection vs the switch?

[tboooe]

@Sevenfeet thank you so much for your input.  As an (ex) engineer myself I truly appreciate science, the data to explain things, and learning new things.  However, I've been in this hobby long enough to know that its really subjective and involves phenomena I dont even remotely comprehend.  Its these aspects about our whacky hobby that makes its so fun, interesting, and frustrating at the same time.  I personally enjoy reading different opinions and points of view but I let my ears make the ultimate decision.  I am fully aware that perhaps some of my perception of what I  think I am hearing is at least in some part influenced by confirmation bias, ignorance, etc.  At the end of the day, people will believe they hear whatever it is they think they do.  As long as they are enjoying the experimentation and ultimately how their music sounds thats all that matters.  

[tboooe]

8 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

Data is data is data.  If you put a packet sniffer on the network or USB cables, you'd see the same data every time hit the DAC.  It's a fact, period.  

I dont know the answer but I wonder if there is something else happening with the USB cable (and other aspects of audio) that could affect the sound?  We only detect what we are measuring for so perhaps there is some other phenomena happening that we dont quite understand yet that could impact the sound?

 

 

[tboooe]

2 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

very large well known pharma companies

Off topic...but I am also in the pharma/biotech space!  Small world.  One of these days I am going to get into a very low tech industry like selling plungers where I am not interacting with PHd and scientists all day long!  It can be exhausting.  

[tboooe]

9 minutes ago, simonklp said:

 

Hi @tboooe, thank you very much for your great advice on how to achieve the direct connection between HQP and NAA on WS 2016 Core. I have been enjoying this direct connection since then. After longer listening time, I increasingly agree with you on the observation that the sound is more clear, dynamic and energetic. Although some of the improvement may be due to the version upgrade of HQPlayer to 3.21.0, I am pretty sure that the improvement in SQ is also contributed by the direct connection after some switching back and forth between direct connection and network switch connection.

 

But there is an issue for me to use this direct connection, which is the disabling the use of the HQPDcontrol App in this case, even though I had changed the IP address accordingly. Do you have this experience? Is there any solution to it? Appreciate to your and/or others advice. Thanks!

I just tried HQPD and it works fine for me.  I assume you enabled remote network control in HQP?

[tboooe]

19 minutes ago, simonklp said:

Hi @tboooe, I had found out what had gone wrong. My Gigabytes Gaming 7 motherboard did not recognize the two onboard LAN ports. I had asked the technical support of Gigabytes on how to solve the problem. They told me that this motherboard does not support Windows Server 2016!

 

Eventually, I managed to install the driver of one of the two LAN ports by myself, and is able to use it for HQPDControl now. Cheers!

I also have a Gigabyte Gaming Mobo.  Does your have the Killer NIC?  If so, you can manually install the .inf file from the driver files.

[tboooe]

On 8/24/2019 at 8:00 AM, RubenV said:

 

Hi Tboooe,

 

After rearming my license for ws2016 I could not directly connect the HQP to the NAA. I just did a complete new install of the HQP machine with ws2019, and enabled IPv6 on both machines.

Unfortunately I can't get this to work. Once I detach the direct cable and connect the NAA to my router, I can select my dac in HQP. I have double checked that IPv6 is working on the NAA and rebooting this not sort it out. Could you please recommend other stept I could take or things I could try?

I apologize for the late reply.  I just saw this post.  When you run the command ipconfig on both HQP and NAA pc do you see an IPV6 address?