Can my hubitat hub work without being connected to router

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1

Can my hubitat hub work without being connected to router via LAN cable?
Is the Hubitat hub a standalone hub once its been registered via LAN Internet.
Can it function without being connected to the router/Internet

Regards John F

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It has to be connected through LAN as far as I know.

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Yes, once configured, the hub will execute any rules and operate Z-Wave/Zigbee devices that have been connected to the hub. If you need to make changes, you will need to reconnect the hub to local network so you can access the web interface from a different device on your network.

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4

Yes. Obviously you need to initially connect it to the LAN in order to connect and configure, but at any point after that you could disconnect the ethernet cable and it will happily continue to work communicating with Z-Wave and Zigbee devices.

Remember though that it (obviously) won't call out to cloud based services/apps such as IFTTT

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Plus, if you wanted to island yourself, you could plug in a non web connected laptop to the hub. I think. I haven't tried this yet.

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You'd need to set the hub with a fixed IP address first, or run a DHCP server on your laptop to allow it to lease an IP though - right?

But once you'd set the network details in the hub, then absolutely you could use a laptop to independently connect

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Don't know. Maybe I'll try later today/tonight.

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Let us know how you get on. As far as I know there is no way of configuring the hub with a static IP, instead the only way of doing this is enforcing a static lease over on the DHCP server.

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The hub really does need at least a LAN connection in order for it to maintain Date/Time accurately (if accurate time-based triggers are important.) In fact, the hub depends on an NTP server to achieve this task, as it has no onboard RTC/Battery. One may use a local, LAN-based NTP server.

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11

Would an old router laying around the house do the trick?

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As long as you had an ntpd running on that old router ....

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Thank you for your replies.
I have noticed my hub will not work independently.
It seems as though it has to stay connected to the router to work.
I am using the android app on my samsung s10 plus phone to get to the hub.
Not sure why I can not unplug the Hubitat hub from router to get access to the hub?

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NTP server?
What is that and how would I set that up?

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If your Hubitat hub is unplugged from your router, then how is your phone going to access the hub? The Hubitat doesn't have a WiFi connection to your phone.

For your phone or computer to access your Hubitat, the latter must have LAN access. It does not have to be internet connected.

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Click on the link in my response to @velvetfoot.

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The hub only uses DHCP.

Correct, although the hub might need a reboot in order to promptly request a DHCP address. I have never tested this scenario.

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What issue are you trying to address by wanting to unplug the Hubitat from the router? If you need to run it at a location without internet you'd still need a router of some kind (just for the DHCP server and possibly for the NTP server although you can run an DHCP and/or NTP server on an always on Windows machine as well) I used an old WiFi enabled router to do this for about 6 months and used Network Time on a PC as the NTP server. If you just don't have enough ports on the router you can buy a cheap Ethernet switch to connect to the port the hub was connected to then plug the hub and any other devices into the switch. If you want to prevent internet access you can subnet your network with a more advanced router or could run another router as above for offline use. Either way the hub will need an IP which it gets from a DHCP server as you cannot set a static IP on it and that DHCP assigned IP should be reserved for the hub's MAC address so the IP doesn't change since that IP is what you'd use to get to the dashboard or to the management pages.

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19

If you have simple rules and automation you do not need to have it connected to the router. If you are looking to control it via your phone or tablet, it needs to be connected to your router as your phone or tablet or computer has to be able to connect to it via IP to reach the internal web server of the HE. If you are wanting to forgo that and instead just have pure automated processes then once programed you can disconnect it from the lan. Another option if you're worried about it connecting to the internet is to set up a vlan that goes only one way so it's isolated but your ip connection to it isn't,

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20

Ok even though the Hubitat hub is connected to the router via ethernet cable, it cannot be accessed via the Internet or WAN?

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If the router is connected to the internet and the hub is connected to the router then the hub can and will talk to cloud.hubitat.com and an NTP time server. It gets it's time updates from a NTP time server on the internet if you don't use the community device type to add a local NTP server and it talks to cloud.Hubitat.com to register the hub the first time, get updates on Geofencing info from mobile apps and to make any dashboards you allow cloud access to available to your mobile apps or browsers. The firewall in the router will prevent all other traffic from coming back in from the internet to your hub so the management pages will not be accessible from the internet nor will any dashboards were you disable cloud access.

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