Background: UK user on openreach FTTP via PPPOE
I wonder if someone can provide the answer to this probably quite simple question please? I wanted to test functionality if www access wasn’t available.
So, I removed the modem Ethernet from the router and went to my LAN dashboard. I was actually surprised to see I couldn’t use it. I’d imagine the modem provides some sort of vital function even when it can’t access the www hence must stay connected. Thanks for your help.
Can you specify what you mean by this? Specifically, how did you access it (using what device, connected to what network, and using a hostname or IP address)?
If you have other local devices on your network like a printer with a web-based admin interface, can you connect to that?
This should work.
I’m glad it was meant to work. Makes me feel less dumb that it didn’t.
So, openreach network, with openreach modem, on BT, with a 3rd party mesh router system. it’s tplink deco - I believe the xe75 times 3
I took the Ethernet out of the router that connects it to the modem. I was using a LAN dashboard link in safari on an iPhone 12 Pro Max - all was working until I disconnected the modem from the router.
Absolutely no professional configuration on the network. I believe it’s all out of the box with no tweaks.
And by ‘went to my lan dashboard’ I mean I created a local dashboard with no cloud access and visited it via the link generated when it’s created
What does that link use? An IP address? Are you able to connect to other local devcies on your network? Is the device you're using connected to your home network (the same network as your hub; naturally, trying a phone on cell data and no Wi-Fi will not work to connect to devices on your home LAN, for example).
Looks like it’s the hub ip address and an access token by the url. The only stuff with local control on the network is Hubitat. Yeah definitely stays connected to the same network
Ignoring a dashboard, can you connect to your hub itself? Does findmyhub.hubitat.com show anything? Is the LED on the front of your hub green? Do you know that it's connected to your network?
I’ll try the findmyhub link next week when I’m at the property with the modem disconnected and report back
Note that this is a page on the Internet, so if that is providing your Internet access, this will not work. What you could do is use this page to discover the IP address while it is is connected, then disconnect and verify that the IP address continues to work.
Hello, thanks so much for all your advice. So I've looked and the link is IP Address + access token in a link. I will try and access IP address only next time I disconnect router from WAN.
To be clear, I meant the actual IP address of your hub, as a page like https://findmyhub.hubitat.com might help you discover (if you have Internet access to reach this page in the first place) or as your router's admin interface might show you somewhere (pretty much all of them should have some way to show connected devices and their IP address).
Taking your existing dashboard link and stripping it down to just the IP address, if that is what you mean, would not be helpful. The goal of any suggestion above is to make sure the IP address itself is correct in the first place -- no matter how you access it (plain to get to the regular hub UI, with the dashboard stuff at the end to reach your specific Dashboard, or whatever else you might be trying).
If mDNS is working on your network and you haven't changed the hub's default name on LAN in Settings > Hub Details, using hubitat.local instead of the IP address may also work.
When it worked prior to disconnecting the modem, did you have cellular data turned off to prove that you were connecting locally. I suggest taking this step before beginning your experiment.
After you disconnected the modem, did you turn off cell data on your phone?.
If the cell data is not turned off, the phone will not use Wi-Fi once it determines the Internet is not accessible. It will use the only data connection it knows is working, which would be the Internet, which we know doesn't have access to your local LAN.
Thanks for the additional input. I did not fully turn off mobile data HOWEVER, I had wifi assist switched off and the phone indicated it was connected to the WiFi by the symbol at the top
Ok, so, I realised I could try it right now. I took the modems Ethernet out the router. I stayed on the WiFi and tried to access the hub IP address with success but then couldn’t load the local dashboard. I had wifi assist off on the iPhone. I also tried the local link within the app. Didn’t work. I then turned off mobile data, tried everything again, still no luck. My conclusion is that the modem must handle something that the LAN needs in order for the dashboard to function. I got an error as well attached where you can also see proof I didn’t leave wifi
Although actually that error may be irrelevant as it was on the notification screen. Though I want to emphasise I tried the local dashboard link and it didn’t work in or out the app
I duplicated your experiment with my Pixel 7 phone (an Android device). I unplugged the LAN cable from my fibre router/modem. I then disabled cell data on the phone.
After using Chrome to connect to the hub, using the LAN IP, I was able to launch the dashboards, and control the devices.
After opening the app, it stated it was a local connection, and once again I could open a dashboard and control devices.
Edit. Perhaps it's an IPhone thing. Do you have any other devices you could test with. A laptop or desktop PC would be ideal.
Edit 2. In your screen capture, it looks like your phone was still showing signal bars for cellular.
Thank you so much. I appreciate your effort. The rationale for trialing this btw is to make the smart network fail safe. I can assure you there was no mobile data active, had I have had wifi off, the wifi symbol would’ve been replaced by emptiness where there would usually be ‘4g’ or ‘5g’ - I was meant to take my MacBook (I hope it’s not a whole Apple thing altogether 
) but forgot. I’m gonna try again with my mac. On reflection I had an iPad to hand and should’ve tried that. I’ll keep this updated and thank everyone who has contributed.
Just to add my 2 cents... I have an iPhone, an iPad, a Macbook, and MS Windows PC that all can access my Hubitat hub when the internet is down at my house. The iPhone, as previously pointed out, is the trickiest as it wants to switch over to using my cellular data network when it detects no Internet service via WiFi.
When you say
What exactly do you mean? What you should disconnect for this test is the WAN cable from your fibre router/modem. This might mean disconnecting the optical fiber if there is only one box provided by your ISP. If you have a Fiber to Ethernet box, and then a Router - simply unplug the Ethernet cable from the router's WAN port.
Be careful to not break the fiber optic cable/connector.
Sorry, I see how my description could be confusing. I have a Bell GigaHub fiber modem, with built in router and Wi-Fi capabilities. I have connected my own Ubiquiti EdgeRouter to the GigaHub in PPPOE passthrough mode (similar to bridge mode). This connection is from one of the GigaHub' s LAN ports to the EdgeRouter's WAN port.
All Internet within my house, including WiFi AP's, must travel through the EdgeRouter. So unplugging the cable I did, kills Internet to all devices in my home, both wired and wireless. Removing the fibre would not have provided any additional isolation.
Thats NOT a local dashboard but a cloud dashboard ... take a look at the url in the error message!
To try a local dashboard when not local you will need to vpn in
Try the local dashboard url directly in a browser. Not through the app.
It should look like this. Different token and ids than mine.
http://192.168.11.109/apps/api/33/dashboard/457?access_token=something
Download the Hubitat app
