Anyone who is more than knee-deep in this addiction we call home automation will have experienced some kind of connectivity issue with their hub at times.... Dark times, I know....
Thankfully I am too far gone that I am all but soldered onto my HE hubs... But for the benefit of others finding their way, let's try and pull together some of the recent wisdom of those who have experienced issues accessing their HE hubs, without needing to cut the flow of life-giving electrons...
I'm sure there is documentation I am too lazy to look up, example topics I have left to others to deal with, plus the simple stuff I have forgotten. If you are new and want to call out the great help you have received from either fellow Community members or HE staff, feel free to give a plug to those who helped you, whether it be here or anywhere on the Community.
I am also leaving this open to the regulars to provide common links to information gems that have evolved over time and people should be aware of.
It’s a broad statement. Not sure if you mean device to hub, access to the hub UI, or something else.
Here’s a very general one that might help someone. I use an iPhone and when I am set to 5G Auto, I sometimes cannot access the hub over WiFi. This is a known issue by Apple. They do state that when set to 5G Auto, the phone may try to access 5G, even when you’re in your home if it’s determined that the 5G connection is a faster than your WiFi. To fix this, I set my phone to LTE only and that instantly resolves the problem.
Yeah, I did leave it a bit open and vague, looking back.
More so accessing the hub / UI from a PC or mobile device, like you described, more so than Z-type or LAN devices communicating with it.
I guess my train of thought at the time (without wanting to do the work ) was to try and capture some of the basics of troubleshooting and common (or not so common) issues people can face and feel like their hub is not working, when in fact there is often something in the way it has been configured or the LAN has been configured.
Using the diagnostic tool in the mobile app to access a hub that may having some issues
Knowing how to do a reset, what type to use and when to use it, what they each do, etc (I'm certain this will be in the HE doco, not suggesting we need to capture that here)
Knowing the potential impact pulling the plug can have without doing a proper shutdown first
through to some of the less common issues with things like subnet / vlan setups, VPNs, jumbo frames, etc..... He says, like he knows what he's talking about
S2 security = shitty. When I first started researching and purchasing and setting up, I came upon NOTHING that said leave security OFF. So naturally we all think security is better so pair them with it. After months of thinking Z-wave was a complete waste of money it was suggested to repair everything without security and it's been fine for a couple years now. I'll never understand why security was added as an option to light switches when everybody says don't use it.
The absolute worst part about this hobby is the thousands of threads and posts and comments you have to dig though before "accidentally" finding a phrase that sets you straight.
So when I was on holiday I had an issue when the UPS died that powered my main router. This caused my hub to get an apipa assigned ip address. I got the neighbour to sort out the router but as the neighbour was old and my hub in a difficult place didn't feel I should ask to pull the power on it to reboot it.
So lessons learnt.
1.) Set static IP on hub
2.) Get a wifi extention lead so I can power off/on the hub remotely.
3.) Try and find a new UPS that fails powered on.
4.) Hub Protect subscription is well worth the cost for if you need to restore after pulling the power.
5.) If you don't have your own VPN for external access to your hub then an additional subscription for the Remote Admin is well worth investing in.
6.) Make sure you have a friendly and trust worthy neighbour
) was to try and capture some of the basics of troubleshooting and common (or not so common) issues people can face and feel like their hub is not working, when in fact there is often something in the way it has been configured or the LAN has been configured.
I have multiple Hubitat hubs, so I usually navigate to the IP directly.
