X10 Community Forum
📱X10 WIFI => 🐞X10 WIFI App problems or bugs => Topic started by: Ro Vicek on August 21, 2022, 12:10:25 PM
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Recently I upgraded our home to from 12Mbps to 1G since our town brought a fiber network right into the house. The only casualty of this change was that I could no longer control my X10 home automation through the WIFI (WM100 WIFI HUB) from my handheld devices. After review all the help and lessons learned on the web, I set off to solve the problem. I am sharing it here for others who might encounter the same problem.
The new network to the house required the installation of an EERO PRO 6 mesh router system. This router supports both 2.4ghz and 5ghz (dual band) automatically. The WM100 as we know will only work with the 2.4ghz band, and cannot work with a dual band router (At least I could not get it to work with this one). The router gave me the ability to turn the 5ghz off for 15 minutes to setup 2.4ghz devices like the WM100. But after three ground up (factory reset to new / unload and reload app) attempts I could never get this method to allow me to setup the WM100 for WIFI usage.
So, what to do next --- I still had my old routers including one very old D-Link router that had been configured as an access point on my old network. I brought that old router up on the new network with its own unique ID. I then again attempted the “Ground Up’ setup - and I swear here it gets weird!. I set the X10 APP to use the old D-Link router, and it still gave me a setup error – BUT – in relaunching the X10 APP, to my surprise, the X10 APP came up as CONNECTED, and I could reprogram it to control My network (45+ modules!) – and it worked perfectly. I then set the WIFI device to go off the new EERO PRO 6 Router network, and it WORKED!! – I have full control and functionality of the X10 APP. All my other ipads, iphones, ipods, reconnected fine then through the dual band EERO router.
I am back up and working – keeping the old D-Link router in case I have to do the setup again.
In summary:
- New Dual Band router would not facilitate setup of the X10 WM100 WIFI Hub even when 5Ghz was disabled
- Attached old WIFI Router as access point to new network with unique ID
- Setup X10 WM100 WIFI HUB through the old router (Following the ground up, hard reset, factory reset installation guidelines).
- Once setup was completed – operation of the WIFI HUB through the NEW dual band mesh routers worked fine
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It's been a while folks...It appears the WM100 does not work with 5G. This may very well be the end of the road for the WM100?
Did someone already address this issue? Thanks
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It's been covered. There's a lot of devices that don't support 5G but the solution is simple - just use 2.4G for the WM100. You should see two SSID's show up when you search for WiFi, the first being whatever name you chose and the second being the name followed by something like '_A' or '_5g' so you can tell them apart. If you don't see that, go into your router settings and set that up. There may be a setting for 'Smart Connect' which lets the router figure out the right connection. There's also a setting to enable separate SSID's for the the two bands. I'd be surprised if a router didn't have that option but in the event that's the case, you could set up a guest account SSID only allowing a 2.4G connection.
If you have a problem setting that up, provide your router make and model # and I'll have a look.
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I have an ATT gateway router, model,5268AC. Thanks for the assist
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I found these on the ATT forum and they're exactly on point to what I was talking about:
"You can access your gateway's settings through a web browser at 192.168.1.254, then go into each radio's settings and rename the SSID. That will disable band steering, and give you two separate wifi networks to choose from."
"Could be the 5268's band steering (where the use of 2.4 and 5 are optimized) is confusing your 2.4 devices. So get into your gateway (192.168.1.254), navigate to its wifi section, and give the 2.4 and 5 different ssid/passwords. That disables the band steering and allows your 2.4 and 5 devices to access the specific radio (2.4 or 5) by its respective SSID."
Once you're in the settings menu it should be fairly intuitive and doing the above you'll enable you to connect. I would leave your existing SSID as is for the 5g since you already have things working with that one. Set the 2.4 band with a different one and then use that for the WM100 and any other 2.4 only devices.
Let us know how you make out. If there's a problem another option would be to install a 2.4g access point but that shouldn't be needed if you make the change described above.
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BTW, I also found this which may be helpful in getting it done. A user was trying to do the same but it kept reverting until he found the "Advanced Options" button.
"There is a button for "advanced options" which finally allowed me to separate the names/PWs"
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Thanks for the assist. I will give it a shot when I have a little time and I build up my nerves
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I logged into My MODEM and tried to select the 2.4 WIFI setting, to connect the 2.4 device, then to revert to the 5G setting, afterwards. The system was defaulted to the 5G set, and it wouldn't allow the 2.4 set.
I checked out utube to see if there was a user friendly was to achieve my objective; the above procedure was outlined. At any rate, I will ask ATT about this. If I don't get anywhere, I will muddle through what it posted here. Thanks again
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Worst case scenario you could use a 2.4g WiFi extender.
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The extender thing might be the ticket for me. Thanks for the plan-B
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Just get a cheap one that's 2.4G only and set it up with a unique SSID.
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Will do. Thanks again
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So, I contacted ATT to see if they could assist to turn off my (Modem) 5g service, so, I could connect my WM100, using the 2.4G service. They did temporarily deactivate the 5G service, however the WM100 would not connect. After spending most of my day off working the issue, I walked away from it. I will work the 2.4 wifi extender route
By the way, I logged into my gateway router (ATT model,5268AC) to see if I could disable the 5G side of the house; no dice; ATT had to do it from their end. How strange...
Final question. Could X10 not simply put forth a software to make the WM100 5g compatible? or, dis X10 simply move on from the WM100? Thanks all
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It's not just software, it's a second radio that will work at 5GHz.
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I then again attempted the “Ground Up’ setup - and I swear here it gets weird!. I set the X10 APP to use the old D-Link router, and it still gave me a setup error – BUT – in relaunching the X10 APP, to my surprise, the X10 APP came up as CONNECTED, and I could reprogram it to control My network
I had a similar experience when connecting a WM100 to a dual-band Linksys EA9300 wireless router. After multiple attempts to set up communications between the WM100 and my router I realized that at some point it had connected - even though the setup wizard had halted with a communication setup failure.
I did not have to disable WPA2 personal security on the router. I did not have to disable 5G on the router. I did have to disable 5G on the iPhone I was using to set up the WM100 because the phone kept defaulting to 5G and the device you use to run the setup has to be on the same 2.4G network the WM100 is trying to connect to.
I also had to disable MAC address filtering on the router until I had established a connection to the WM100 and could interrogate it for it's MAC address.
Making customers go through this exercise is a serious lack of customer support from X-10. Virtually every other manufacturer of equipment that needs to connect to a WiFi network has some way to determine the MAC address without re-configuring the network security twice. Most of them just stick a label on the unit. (My WM100 now has a MAC address label.) They know what the MAC address is when they make these units, I can't imagine it's very hard or costs much to put it on a label on the unit. It's GOT TO be cheaper than the help line talking people through the process of finding it.
Bottom line for me:
- The Linksys EA9300 dual band router will connect to a WM100 if you get the MAC address filter and the device you're using to run the setup wizard in the correct configurations.
- X-10 needs to get with the program by supplying their customers with the information they need to maintain their network security. (provide the MAC address)
- It looks very much like there's a bug in the setup wizard that throws a connection failure error - even when the connection is successful. Somebody who cares enough should find a reliable work-around =or= better yet, X-10 should find the fix and issue an update...
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If X10 came out with a 5g capable wm100 unit, I would buy it. I have a low tolerance for nonsense
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In the coming months Smartenit will be releasing the Harmony Pico which will do just that and much more (including Alexa control). Stay tuned.
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You guys rock! I went into the advanced Wi-Fi setting on my modem, and whalla! I was allowed to disable the 5G, to set up my 2.4G items, including 2.4g cameras. I then reactivated the 5g setting in my modem, and everything works.
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What more do you know about the harmony Pico?
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From what I've been told it will run on the same or modified app as the Harmony G1, G2 & P2 and control X10 and Insteon devices. It will NOT need an Insteon PLM or similar but plug directly into an outlet just like a WM100. However, unlike the WM100, it is Alexa compatible and has its own internal clock. I use a Harmony G2 as an Alexa-to-X10 interface and it's solid as a rock. Development and customer service are in Irvine, California and is very responsive. Projected price is $110 with NO monthly fee. I first learned about it in July and I know that they are still finishing development. It's shows on their website but there's no detailed info about it yet.
https://smartenit.com/product-category/gateways-hubs/
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No PLM sounds like a very good thing.
The PLM has been a problem with working long time.
Re builder and fix posts all around the problem.
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I've only had to reboot my PLM and Harmony twice and other than that, it's been pretty solid performer for an Alexa interface. Will the Pico have similar scheduling capabilities as current Smartenit app as far as you know? Would be great to have individual device scheduling right in the device listing.
I'm still depending on AHP and a CM15a for scheduled lighting control and WM100 as a backup device for phone control/web interface. I don't really use the Smartenit app.
I suppose with the outrageous pricing for a PLM nowdays, I could get the Pico and sell the PLM on ebay ;-}
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The new management. Has posted a time line sheet.
Brand new 2413S and 2413U PLM modules are scheduled for March 2023.
The shortage of PLM modules has spiked a sellers market on auction sites.
Not all of the PLM modules are reported failing. I have seen some say their 5 or more years old modules are still just working fine.
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Back to the WM100 connection to the modem thing; as I said I got it connected, along with other 2.4Gitems. I tried to control the various lights, etc that I have on the phone app...no control, thus far, however the WM100 is connected. Just a bit more work left to do, I suppose. Don't see this as a very big sticking point. The major issue is behind me.
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I've only had to reboot my PLM and Harmony twice and other than that, it's been pretty solid performer for an Alexa interface. Will the Pico have similar scheduling capabilities as current Smartenit app as far as you know? Would be great to have individual device scheduling right in the device listing.
I'm still depending on AHP and a CM15a for scheduled lighting control and WM100 as a backup device for phone control/web interface. I don't really use the Smartenit app.
I suppose with the outrageous pricing for a PLM nowdays, I could get the Pico and sell the PLM on ebay ;-}
My understanding is that the scheduling capability will be the same as for the other Harmony devices. Same app.
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The new management. Has posted a time line sheet.
Brand new 2413S and 2413U PLM modules are scheduled for March 2023.
The shortage of PLM modules has spiked a sellers market on auction sites.
Not all of the PLM modules are reported failing. I have seen some say their 5 or more years old modules are still just working fine.
I've actually never had one fail. I once bought a dead 2413U on ebay for next to nothing and recapped it but never had one fail in use. I must lead a charmed life! ;D
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To close the loop on this wm100 connection to the modem thing...I went into my phone app and checked the settings for the individual controls; they defaulted to (where the options are; is this a light? and, is this light dimmable?) no, on the light controls, for some reason. I made the light selection, saved it, now, everything is golden.
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Glad to hear you've got it working again!