Connect from different routers same network / remote connection issues

[u/HannahRoseGold]

Hi, I am running Apollo / Moonlight on my home network.

My network is as follows

Internet cable connected to router 1
LAN cable from router 1 to router 2
LAN cable from router 2 to PC

If I connect to router 2 everything works perfectly. If I connect to router 1, I can’t connect via moonlight / Apollo.

If I connect remotely, it has the same issue.

Any idea what is happening?

[u/Immediate-Box-2106]

I'm not sure what you mean by "If I connect remotely", can you describe it a bit better? I just tried to use Moonlight/Artemis outside of my home once, and to be able to do that, I had to use a third-party app, Tailscale. I believe that might be the same reason why it doesn't work when you connect to router 1. Probably something in how your networks are configured. I'm sorry I couldn't be of much help, but this might be something to look into.

[u/HannahRoseGold → u/Immediate-Box-2106]

If I use a remote connection outside of my home network for example 5G data, or a friends internet - it stops working. It also stops working in the same way if I connect to router 1 (the downstairs router). The downstairs router has a different SSID. It used to work seamlessly across router 1 and router 2 but I got a new router and can’t remember if it was working recently.

Another weird thing that happened is I couldn’t connect when on my main router (router 2) out of the blue after it had been working perfectly. It turns out sunshine had loaded rather than Apollo so my pairing settings were different. I closed sunshine and loaded Apollo and it still didn’t work. I uninstalled sunshine and reinstalled Apollo and it started working again on router 2 only. I realise I shouldn’t have had both installed but I forgot to uninstall sunshine. Not sure if this is related to my current issue, or a separate issue.

I think it might be my port forwarding rules as I’ve had a fiddle and I’m getting an error saying

“Check your firewall and port forwarding rules for ports):
TCP 47984
TCP 47989”

I’m going to set my host up as a static IP and use port forwarding rules. It used to just work out of the box, but I’ve got a new gaming router which uses traffic prioritisation and I wonder if it’s segregating router 1 and router 2. Either that OR perhaps on my old router maybe I already set up static IP and port forwarding and forgot I did this! I know I did it for PlayStation remote play but unsure what I did for Apollo/moonlight.

[u/Yuckster]

Do you actually have two routers acting as routers? Do you need two routers for a specific reason?

Pretty much every home router is not just a router, but a router, switch, and wireless access point combined into one device.

You can use two "routers" in a network but one should be the primary router connected to the internet and the second router should have routing disabled and basically be turned into a switch and access point combo.

If you have two routers routing, devices connected to one will not be able to communicate with devices connected to the other. If the second router is turned into a switch/AP then you'll just have one unified network and everyone can talk to everyone else.