Getting Hue Lights to work - activating mDNS?

[michims]

Hi,

I have a Hue bridge (Lighting system) connected to a router in bridge mode. This router is connected via powerline-LAN to the R7000.

The issue: Apple's Siri needs mDNS to work with the Hue bridge and it is enabled on the first router, but not on the R7000 as far as I know.

Question: How can I enable mDNS for the Netgear R7000?

Latest firmware for R7000 is installed.

[michims · Accepted solution]

Thanks for all the replies. I am still very sad regarding the netgear way of supporting their products (eg. not at all) but I'll connect everything to the main router to solve the issue...

[netwrks]

No way in stock. Maybe 3rd party firmware...

[michims]

That's a really sad solution for a premium router... I read, that Netgear was working on an update to fix this issue - any news on that?

[TheEther]

I haven't run stock firmware in a while, but mDNS just uses IP Multicast to operate.  AFAIK, the R7000 should not block IP Multicast on the LAN.

michims, do you have more details on what the issue might be or where you read that Netgear was working on a fix?

[michims]

I use the R7000 as the central router for my home.

The Philips Hue hub is connected to a second router, that connects via powerline LAN to the R7000.

The issue is: The Hue hub cannot be used by Apple Siri, as it has an issue connecting due to the lack of mDNS support via this setup.

The second router has mDNS enabled but with R7000 I have not found this option and read in some forums, that R7000 does have issues supporting mDNS when it is delivered via LAN (from the Hue hub) and accessed from Wifi (via iPhone/Mac).

I read this info in some forum, but might be false, as it was no Netgear forum...

[TheEther]

Ahh, Wi-Fi can be a little problematic with respect to multicast.  I've heard that reducing the DTIM interval can help but, IIRC, this setting is not exposed on stock firmware.

I saw a few claims that changing the IGMP Proxy setting can help, although I'm dubious.  It's harmless to try.  Enable IGMP Proxy, reboot and test.  Then disable IGMP Proxy, reboot and test.  If one of the settings works, then great.

The last option is to try 3rd party firmware.  I run Asuswrt-Merlin on my R7000.  It exposes settings for DTIM as well as Multicast rate.  I can confirm that mDNS works insofar that I can connect to a LAN-connected NAS from my wireless laptop using an mDNS-resolved hostname (e.g. mynas.local).

[michims · Accepted solution]

Thanks for all the replies. I am still very sad regarding the netgear way of supporting their products (eg. not at all) but I'll connect everything to the main router to solve the issue...