As the subject says — after a few months of successful use, I now get a “Failed: No response” error when using the wi-fi button on the hub in VCV Rack, although browser upload works as expected. The error message appears immediately on clicking the button — there’s no pause while it tries to connect.
– I just updated my MetaModule to firmware v2.0.3.
– The MetaModule Hub VCV module is at version 2.0.14.
– The System page in settings on the module displays the wi-fi expander’s IP address, the same one it’s had since I first set it up.
– When I hover over the wi-fi button in VCV, the hub screen displays the same IP address.
– I’ve double-checked the IP address in the hub’s settings in VCV.
– The expander is about two feet from my wi-fi router, mounted in my rack, with nothing but air between them, and the light on the expander is consistently green.
Any idea how I can get the wi-fi button to work again?
yeah, hub and browser use same port. so router firewall cannot differentiate.
however, an OS one could,
that said :
a) unlikely to be done on an intranet
(192.168.x.x would usually considered 'local)
b) the fact it worked before within vcv (from OP) , means it not a firewall (which would always block) assuming no rule changes have been made there
does the hub give a message? is it just timing out?
frankly its a bit odd…
it could be that the browser code (which originates from the wifi module) has a more ‘generous’ timeout than the hub code, but you’d think it’d be similar.
I can’t say Ive seen any difference in my setup, works in both browser and hub.
The hub says “Failed: No response” — but it displays that message immediately on clicking the wi-fi button. There’s no indication that it’s searching the network before giving up.
One thing about the Wifi Expander is the connection between it and the MM is critical. If the wireless connection is solid, a transfer can still fail when it goes between the MM and the Wifi Expander. So check the 8-pin cable is secure, and is not running near any electronics or other cables that might cause interference.
That’s strange it’s not a timeout. If it gives that error immediately, then there’s probably a network issue. I can get that message immediately if I turn off wifi on my computer, for instance. But if the MM is not behaving (e.g. it froze) then I get a timeout.
The fact that the browser works but VCV doesn’t is strange. I’m wondering if there could be some OS-level permissions?
Does VCV behave normally if you use the Library menu to log in and check for updates to plugins?
If there are any other modules you have that use network access (not just opening a browser tab, but actually downloading/uploading in the module itself) then that would be a good test to see if something with VCV or your OS is blocking network access to non-secure websites (e.g. http:// not https://)
Another thing to try is enter in a bad IP address. Make sure the first four numbers are the same, but just change the last number to something between 1 and 255. If you still get an immediate “Failed: no response” then you know the message is not even leaving VCV. On the other hand if you get a 3-5 second delay and then “Failed: no response” then that indicates something is wrong outside of VCV (e.g. the Wifi Expander or router/network)
I discovered that Stellare makes a module that connects to the internet, so I loaded that into a patch per Dan’s suggestion. Loading it prompted a macOS security dialog saying “Do you want to allow VCV Rack 2 to connect to devices on your local network?” I clicked allow, and that resolved the problem with the MetaModule.
I wonder why my attempts with the MetaModule didn’t trigger that warning? Maybe at one point I accidentally clicked “Don’t Allow” or something.
I find the security protocols in the current generation of macOS very annoying!
Yeah — if anyone else runs into this issue in the future, I think the fix is Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network and make sure VCV is turned on.
