I've been troubleshooting zwave network issues, and came across some info online that had me questioning this.
Theoretically, I should be able to pair a new zwave+ device that is far from the hub provided there are some zwave+ repeaters nearby. But then I read that this isn't possible on devices using authentication? In other words, if I try to pair a new zwave+ device and the repeaters are all using S2, will it not be able to pair by hopping through that device?
What you read is wrong. Repeaters repeat traffic for their unique ZWave network/mesh. S2 is not a factor.
There are older devices where NWI won’t pass but those old devices don’t do S2 anyway so it’s still not a factor. Any device that supports S0/S2 is fully backwards compatible, because the loopholes that allowed NMI fail in the distant past isn’t optional anymore.
Thank you!
except in reality i do have devices that will not pair when not near the hub even with aeon 7 or ring extenders right near them.. Are these bugs in the devices or the hub firmware or what is it?
and there were not old devices.. a zen16 or other plug in switches come to mind.
To avoid the slim possibility of man-in-the-middle attacks during pairing key exchange, secure inclusion is done at reduced transmitter power, I understand. So, while the distance to first repeater might be ok for normal communication, it might be too far during reduced power.
interesting the repeaters were about 15 feet from the devices.
The test would be to try NWI with no security.
im not sure you can becuase it is doing a secure join till you uncheck the checkboxes.. and i never got the checkboxes to come up? it wasnt the last part that was failing. just no response whatsoever. im leaning toward bugs in newer devices firmware.
I don't know, but here is an example. (C5 here).
I paired a bunch of switches one day, maybe 4-5? I think there were mostly Zooz and maybe a GE if I remember correctly. In any case, all of them except one Zooz dimmer paired in place perfectly. That last damn switch would not pair no matter what I did, even though it was literally inches away from ones that did pair fine not 1 minutes previous. This pain of a switch was identical to the one next to it in every way, firmware, brand, model, location, wiring, power source, and so on.
So I had to move the hub closer. I tried with the hub about 5 feet away, and could not get it to pair after trying maybe 5 more times. The next time I held the hub about 2 inches from the switch, and it paired fine. And it has worked great since, never given any trouble at all.
So what was different about that one switch? I don't know if I will ever be able to tell.
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