I have read & read what I could find on this subject & have yet to find a definitive answer to a few questions.
Thanks,
Kev
Hi Kev, I have two direct ethernet connections from my Roon ROCK computer. One to the Bridge II and the second one to a Raspberry (with RoPieee).
The “Bridge II - subnet”: Roon ROCK ip: 5.1.1.1 and Bridge II ip: 5.1.1.2
The “RoPiee - subnet”: Roon ROCK ip: 6.1.1.1 and the Raspberry ip: 6.1.1.2
The subnetmask is always: 255.255.255.0
Gateway and DNS-server always: 0.0.0.0
I use two pass through cables.
Mario
Thanks Mario,
So now I need to know how to make mine work! I’m not network literate, so I will be looking for step by step setup instructions.
Thanks,
Kev
bugeyed saidIf you want to connect your PC directly to DS via ethernet both devices need a static IP on the same subnet. In Windows control panel "network and sharing" you need to select IPv4>properties then enter a static IP eg 192.168.1.1/255.255.255.0 and on the DS you need to give it a static IP eg 192.168.1.2/255.255.255.0 (refer to manual how to do that). You can also make the link wirelessly without the need for Ethernet cable.So now I need to know how to make mine work! I’m not network literate, so I will be looking for step by step setup instructions.
An imho more easy way in Windows is to bridge the network connections. No need to set an static ip in this case (you should have a DHCP-server running in your network of course). Today I replaced my Roon ROCK ssd by a former used ssd with Windows Server 2012R2 Essentials, AO, Roon Core and the LMS installed. After updating everything I bridged the ethernet connection (to the router) with two usb-ethernet adapters (once for the Bridge II, the second for a Pi3 with the piCorePlayer).
For now it seems to work smoothly. Roon and LMS. One advantage of the bridged network connection is you can use the Bridge II with Roon and with MControl (e.g. for MQA playback). The Bridge II remains visible for apps as MControl or Bubble.
I hope the bridged connection still works after booting the Windows Server in Core mode (to my surprise Roon works in Core mode now. Thanks to Phil!). 
How about connecting directly to the Bridge 2 with a Mac mini?
Kev
There is a thread on this forum somewhere where someone claimed the best sound quality he had achieved was with a direct ethernet connection PC to Bridge II. That could be what the OP was talking about vs a networked connection using a router or network bridge.
I am also looking for a direct ethernet connection PC to Bridge II but it seems PS forum changed & such useful topics lost.
To do a direct connection you need a “crossover cable”, try searching for that on the forum. I found a few posts but wasn’t sure they were the best thing to link to. I’ve never done it so I can’t be of any other assistance!
I have the X-over cable. I had no luck doing this with a PC, but that was long enough ago for me to forget what I did. I am now using a MAC Mini & want to make a fresh start at trying this. I like the idea of not adding any hardware (switch/router) if it will work???
Kev
There should be no threads or posts lost, and the titles of the threads have remained the same.
Try searching. Unlike the old forum, the new forum’s search function works well.
It’s really a fairly simple setup. PC to DS using x-over cable. PC and DS must be on the same IP network, for example one could use 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 for each respectively. Subnet 255.255.255.0. No need for gateway/default route as no packets will leave this private, dedicated network.
The PC needs another network interface to communicate as normal on your home network for control, etc. if desired.
There should be little to nothing to be gained by doing this though. Any power supply or other noise will still be able to make it’s way via either Ethernet connection (or not), but you’ll learn how to setup a 2-node network.
Search works great on the new forum, but all the links from Google et al are broken and drop to the top of the forum. I supposed Google will reindex all of it soon enough.
Yes, some external Google searches work fine and point to this forum; others fail, pointing to locations on the old forum. This is a Google problem, but their crawlers are most certainly on the job.
For now, I suggest sticking to the internal search function.
If both ethernet ports are gigabit, a crossover cable should not be necessary. The specification for gigabit ethernet allows two devices to be connected with a standard patch cable and it should work just fine.
Your average CAT 5 or CAT 6 ok then?
Yes either cat 5 or cat 6 will be fine, but you will need to make sure that you manually set the IP address and subnet masks of each of the devices correctly.
For example, you could set the address of one of the devices as 192.168.1.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and the other device as 192.168.1.2 also with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.
They should then be able to communicate with each other by IP address across the Ethernet cable…
Let’s assume that you have a computer on 192.168.1.1 running Jriver and the dac is configured to use 192.168.1.2.
You could then stream music from Jriver by using the JRiver user interface on the PC to tell jriver to play files from your library on the direct stream dac which should show up as a device called Bridge II by default.
Keep in mind that you won’t be able to use the mcontrol software on your mobile device to control what plays because there is no way for your mobile device to communicate on the private network running over the wire between the two devices.
Take a look at this thread starting around post 23 (I think–look for amgradmd’s posts): Bridge II to Mac Mini? (via Ethernet)
Modern Mac Minis, and probably PCs, can auto sense the type of connection so either pass through or crossover cables should work.
As discussed in that thread, I used a Thunderbolt adaptor to create a second ethernet port for my 2011 Mac Mini. One port is connected directly to my Bridge II and the other to my router. DHCP has worked fine for me.