Unifi Network - Setup Chromecast between VLANs

Fortunately, it is nowadays very easy to use the Chromecast within different networks/vlans. All you have to do is make a few settings within the Unifi Network Application.

I replaced my old Unifi Security Gateway (USG) with a Unifi Dream Machine Pro (UDM-Pro) and made the choice to build everything from scratch and not migrate the settings. So all settings are set by default and from there I make the necessary adjustments.

In my case I have configured the following networks:

• IOT-VLAN (with a Nvidia Shield and a Chromecast Ultra)
• CLIENT-VLAN (with devices that can cast)

You can read more about setting up my vlans here.

Enable Multicast DNS

As a first step I have enabled Multicast DNS for the above mentioned networks.

1. Go to Settings and Networks
2. Within the Global Network Settings enable Multicast DNS and add the networks with devices which need to cast. In my case:
   • IOT-VLAN
   • CLIENT-VLAN
3. Click Apply Changes

Setup WiFi Multicast Management

I have created a WiFi network for both my IOT-VLAN and the CLIENT-VLAN network and set up Multicast for each wifi network.

1. Go to Settings and WiFi
2. From the list at the top, open the WiFi network settings by clicking on the network
   Advanced Configuration
   • Click Manual
   • Disable Client Device Isolation
   • Enable Multicast Enhancement
   • For the IOT-VLAN I also enabled Multicast and Broadcast Control and added the MAC address of my wireless Chromecast. IMPORTANT: Also make sure that the gateway (for example the UDM Pro) is added to the list
3. Click Apply Changes

Troubleshooting

If casting doesn’t work you can test by temporarily adding a client device to the IOT-VLAN. Then try again to see if the casting works, and if it does, then it could possibly be a problem with the firewall. You can read more about that in the note about my vlan setup.

Read other notes