Offloading Echo skill to a 2nd hub

So…what ISP are you using? And what “meshed network” are you using? Is there a chance that you have a double-NAT situation? I wonder if that might be leading to the Alexa Skill wonkiness.

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Yep, that is the only reason i have Alexa on my primary hub.. I have enough problems with her thinking i have multiple devices with the same name (I don't), no reason to make it worse.

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I have a Velop MX5300 and everyone in the family loves it. Had a couple Netgear routers prior, the last being an X6S. I was always having to reboot the thing, devices constantly disconnected, and it only seemed so be able to handle about 500Mb/s over fiber. After switching, no issues; AirPrint even works (thought it was my printer), and no problems getting gigabit down and up.

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Verizon is my ISP. I have a Linksys 5-node Velop network hanging off the Verizon router. The Linksys is in bridge mode, which should eliminate double-NATting. The Verizon device provides DHCP. I did a complete reboot of the whole system (which, with Velops, is a nightmare) yesterday, no difference.

Both of my hubs are on an unmanaged switch hanging off one of the Velop nodes. Since the secondary hub has no radios enabled I could move it down to the basement and plug it directly into the Vz router as a test, but honestly I haven't made any changes to the router or network configuration recently. The Velops are NOT set for auto-update (went through that hell about 2 years ago). I also tried to coordinate it to an HE update but no luck there either.

When I posted about this issue a month ago gopher.ny seemed to think he saw something going on that was causing the app to send multiple events but I never got any more information from him or from my support ticket, so I'm trying to figure it out with a little help from my friends :slight_smile: The fact that it was filling the logs made it virtually impossible to diagnose other issues!

I think this would be a very interesting test, just to see if the Velop node is somehow to blame. I have heard of other instances where the mesh nodes somehow create their own little network for the devices that are attached to them. I am not saying that is what is happening in your case, bit it seems like the test would be fairly quick and simple to perform.

I have a full Ubiquiti UniFi network, and it has never thrown these Alexa Skill errors to my hub's logs. I have Spectrum cable as my ISP, so just a cable modem without router from Spectrum. The Ubiquiti UDM handles the all of the routing.

I really hope you can get this sorted out, as I am sure it is frustrating.

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Indeed. Though offloading the problem to a secondary hub has eased my frustration somewhat.

I have looked at the UniFI stuff... it seems ideal for a small- to medium- sized business but I fear becoming a full-time network administrator. The last time I did that we had just replaced twinax with STP token ring.

Understood. For me, I was interested to learn more about networking and I wanted to have a very fine level of control over things. Once set up, my network has been very stable, actually requiring less support effort than my previous Asus-based network which seemed to require a reboot from time to time to keep things running smoothly.

Yeah I might have to bite the bullet. My installation is slightly more complicated because I have to rely on wireless backhaul rather than Ethernet. I wish their website was a little more straightforward in helping you figure out what components you need and what works with what.

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Have you looked into powerline adapters? They can work pretty well depending upon your house wiring..

Yes... I have tested them. I get better throughput on wireless backhaul.

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Let me try again! :wink:

That is interesting, thanks. I have had mostly good experiences with various clients and will usually recommend if necessary.

I'm kind of into the whole UniFi setup now.. Have a UAP Pro and a Flex now which replaced my Orbi RBK50 system. Has been working out very well and the interface is great. I am looking at upgrading to WiFi 6 at some point. Still debating on getting a UDM Pro...

If you can point me to some documentation that describes what components I need for meshed wifi that would be great. The Ubiquity website is not simple to navigate. Winter is coming... :slight_smile:

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I've played around with powerline quite a bit. In my experience (in my house anyway), they work great if both the powerline adapters are on the same phase. The work horribly if they are on opposite phases.

Just wanted to add, there are phase couplers that can be used to overcome this issue. Leviton makes one that I can't find right now. But I did find this one, which does the same thing:

http://www.pcslighting.com/pulseworx/products/tools/ppc#wiring-diagram

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I have my Unifi stuff hard-wired and POE. When I was running the Orbi it was with wired backhaul.

It looks like a very simple process though...

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Yeah... hard wired is rough for me. I may attempt creating a raceway next to one of the chimneys over the winter. But then I still need horizontal cabling, and in an old house that just doesn't work well.

For now I'm going to take my secondary hub and plug it into the Verizon switch in the basement just to eliminate the Linksys meshed network as part of the root cause to my current problem. Will report back.

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I hear you! I live in a "historic" community and the older houses are a nightmare to configure, full of suspicious wiring AND signals propagate oddly.. My house is on the oldish side (by US standards haha) but was originally very small. Slowly over time it mutated and grew to the "frankenhouse" it is today.. We have done several renovations because we like to spend money apparently but the upshot is I got to run cables everywhere.

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Any updates on this the above test scenario, yet? Genuinely curious...

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No change, And apologies for not reporting back.

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My experience with ORBI is that the WiFi on the satellites losses connection often.

Good to know if I ever consider Orbi! I tried going 100% hard wired right to the switch that's part of my ONT. No change.