Z-Wave in general is easily subject to DoS attacks from large scale packet insertion. But this is usually pretty obvious, and easy to track down.
The DoS I was referring to is a bit more subtle. It would be sending a packet to instruct the RE7 to reduce its transmit power to the lowest level. The intent would be to cause devices that are dependent upon the repeating functionality to loose connectivity. This would be a pertinent attack against intrusion sensors and the like.
Fine, but the repeaters will blindly repeat encrypted traffic regardless of how they are paired. Communication between Locks <-> Hubitat is end-to-end encrypted if the locks are paired securely to the hub.
Yes, that is what I meant, perhaps inarticulately, in my original post.
@bcopeland
I have this toy for about a YEAR.
My assumption was - it should improve ZWave Mesh.
However it does not route anything at all!
It just sitting silently om my ZWave mesh and does absolutely nothing.
Yes, my C-7 Hub is updated to the latest ZWave FW as well as latest SW.
I guess, it is time to unpair it and throw away this absolutely useless device.
From the other side, few of my regular Dimmers and/or Outlets are
doing routing in addition to their primary functions.
Routes won’t change if the Z-Wave radio believes it has a good route. One way to get the repeaters to work (painful) is to start over, exclude everything, reset the Z-Wave radio, add in repeaters (including mains-powered devices) from the hub outward, and then add battery devices. Or, now that the new Z-Wave radio firmware is released, do a full mesh repair, which previously was disfavored because it would overwhelm your mesh with traffic.
https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=How_to_Build_a_Solid_Z-Wave_Mesh
Well,
Looking into ZWave Details I observed many time Routes were changed.
However this Dedicated Aeotech7 Repeater NEVER was part of any route.
And this toy was added about a year ago.
I have no idea why this thing never was used but I found it absolutely useless.
This thread simply reminded me to finally unpair it and throw away.
Otherwise ZWave Mesh looks solid even before updating to the latest ZWave FW.
BTW, after updating ZWave FW I did not notice any change in the ZWave performance.
I saw the same thing with them on fw 1.02 which is why i undertook to upgrade them.
In general in the older fw they seemed unable
To maintain a reliable connection to the hub constantly changing routing. You can test it by looking at the zwave logs and issue a few refreshes . Even close to hub you will see it start 2,3.or even 4 hops unable to maintain a solid connection.
Off the 3 i have, I got one to upgrade to fw 1.05
The others no.. i replaced 2 with new ones that came with fw 1.03 and then upgraded With no issues. Aeotec is replacing one of them for which i found a receipt.
The seem much more stable and reliable and are suddenly being used on fw 1.05
Unfort. I cannot just easily replace 2 of them as i need the small size profile because they are in covered outdoor outlets.
How do you check the FW Rev on this device.
I don't see a FW rev in the Data field:
Also how to get a latest firmware from Aeotech?
Frankly, I am not sure I will try to mess up with this toy.
As of today the ZWave Mesh looks OK even without this dedicated repeater.
Plus, few other devices already doing the repeating job.
So, why to bother?
https://help.aeotec.com/support/solutions/articles/6000244478-update-range-extender-7-v1-05
It's so much fun.
Depends upon the driver. If you are using my driver, a refresh command will update it.
This is pretty common… I don’t like these at all..
Thank you for the input.
Just in case, I did update the FW to the latest 1.05.
Let me me see what will change if anything.
But now I am next to 100% convinced - this toy should go to the trash.
If you are looking for a good one.. I’ve had good luck with the Ring Gen 2’s.. They have the added bonus of a built-in battery for keeping your mesh healthy during power outages.
Thank you for the advice.
I am not sure, I even need one.
As of today mesh seems to be healthy "as is".
Few regular dimmers/outlets are acting as a repeaters.
Unfortunately the Ring Gen 2 repeaters (at least the ones I have had) suffer from a significant transmit power defect. They default to a transmit level that is several dB below normal (nominal/max) power. You can get them to transmit at normal power by using (incorrect) settings for transmit power. If memory serves, requesting something like -7dB actually produces full power transmit. I tried reaching out to them about a firmware fix for this, but received no response.
In my head I imagine they must have some cool auto power tuning that happens when the device when used with their controllers, mostly because I really want there to be some considered reason for the poor behavior. This may just be wishful thinking on my part. For general Z-Wave use, I think the Rings are okay in a dense network, but not a good choice in sparse / long distance networks. And I really like the battery. But in the end I removed all of them from my networks in favor of the Aeotec.
I would certainly re-evaluate the Ring repeater if they offered a firmware update to address the power issues, however I'm very doubtful of that happening though because generic Z-Wave is outside their focus. More likely that they drop repeaters altogether as part of a move to Z-Wave Long Range...
Denny - you're scaring me now. You haven't been hanging with Jo Rhett, have you? 
I'm glad you put the rofl at the end... It's been a couple of years, but if I recall correctly you were one of the people who had a front row seat for that show...
I've been much happier with the Ring v2 than the aeotec stuff. I've honestly just stopped recommending the aeotec repeaters. Kinda sad because all their other stuff is top notch
So, back to the original topic of this thread.
Is no one able to offer any useful comments as to why, when clicking "include with security" it does not ask for the PIN and just adds the device without security?
Could be a couple reasons for this...
Download the Hubitat app
