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[email]

Hi

I recently got my cameras and software and fortunately everything works fine, I can see the pictures on my TV, on the PC and from thru the Internet web page gate.x10.com 

The only thing that I just can't make work is to have vanguard software sending me the e-mail notification that motion was detected. 

I have one camera on house code G1 and a flood light on house code G2, the transceiver on house code G and the Eagle Eye motion sensor on house code F1. So I added the camera located in G1, then I added the motion sensor located in F1 and configured it to send me an e-mail and to turn on the flooldight located in G2 (http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Motion_Recording_In_Vanguard_ICC) and I configured the e-mail settings. 

I walk by the motion sensor, I see the red light on it blinking and nothing happens, the light doesn't turn on and I check the e-mail and don't get anything. 

I did everything as instructed on the link above and just can have send me the e-mail nor turn on the lights. 

Guidance and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.   

Thanks

[tom j]

Hi

I recently got my cameras and software and fortunately everything works fine, I can see the pictures on my TV, on the PC and from thru the Internet web page gate.x10.com 

The only thing that I just can't make work is to have vanguard software sending me the e-mail notification that motion was detected. 

I have one camera on house code G1 and a flood light on house code G2, the transceiver on house code G and the Eagle Eye motion sensor on house code F1. So I added the camera located in G1, then I added the motion sensor located in F1 and configured it to send me an e-mail and to turn on the flooldight located in G2 (http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Motion_Recording_In_Vanguard_ICC) and I configured the e-mail settings. 

I walk by the motion sensor, I see the red light on it blinking and nothing happens, the light doesn't turn on and I check the e-mail and don't get anything. 

I did everything as instructed on the link above and just can have send me the e-mail nor turn on the lights. 

Guidance and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.   

Thanks

Hi did you ever get this resolved?? I was thinking about buying that Vanguard software package  just for the e-mail feature, but with all the horror stories well I'm just not certain now. That and the lack of support from x10.

Tom j

[email]

Not yet, and support has been very frustrating. I was about to return the whole thing but my 30 days satisfaction guarentee expired... and I'm sure that they will not give my money back even that the software doesn't do what it says it can do.

I wrote several e-mail to tech support (Eric Boyd) and he takes for ever to reply back, and stil haven't solved the problem yet.

Now the internet software does not work either, and I don't dare to write these guys again to have a response by January 15th.

Since I'm 100% sure that can't have my money back, I will use the cameras and the motion sensors to work together with the Vanguard software. They work nice. And I'm going to write a little program that reads the directory where the snapshots are stored. When a new files arrives means that the motion sensor saw something and turned on the associated camera on and have send me an e-mail and send the captured snapshots. That's the only way that I can have this thing notifying by e-mail.

I guess this is the only way to get something out of the 300 that I spent on this solution that promised a lot but I doesn't work as advertised.

Merry xmas.

[Tuicemen]

email: what are you using for your PC interface besides the VA11A?

[maxcrash]

Had the same problem.
In my case it's because my Internet Service Provider (ISP) does not allow outbound email except via their mail server.
  - when you setup your email client - you specify an email server for SMTP (or outbound email).  With my provider, all email MUST be sent through this email server - no exceptions allowed.
Vanguard tries to act as an email server rather than an email client.  It therefore uses DNS to lookup MX (mail exchange) records to determine where to send email.  It then tries to deliver email directly, potentially by passing the email server your ISP is trying to force you to use.
  - another problem in my case, the email server reported by MX (mail exchange) records is NOT the same as the email server I have to use to send outbound emails.
  - MX records are used to determine where to deliver email base on the domain name (the part after the @ symbol)
  - more on this below

(PS.  I now have 'ActiveHome Pro' and it doesn't suffer from this problem which is probably why you haven't received many responses)

Here's what I had to do - you may be able to get away with just using a forwarder, depending upon your ISPs MX record setup...
(there is potential for this to cause other email problems - like the inability to send to some email addresses of people who use the same ISP as you if you have to do step 4 and beyond)

1) setup a forwarding email address at your ISP if they allow this.   (cameraA1@isp.com  forwarding to my_work_email@work.com) or (cameraB1@isp.com forwarding to my_phone_number@my_cell_provider.com)
      if your ISP does not allow you to send email except via their mail server, you MUST send the initial email to an email address at their domain  (<address>@isp.com)
      most ISPs allow this because so many people forward to google mail or hotmail or yahoo mail accounts.
2) test the forwarder - by sending an email to the new address you just created and see if it get forwarded to the destination email box.  This has to work before you continue.
3) determine the IP address of your SMTP server (as defined in your working mail client like MSmail or Thunderbird)
      find the SMTP server (outbound mail server) in your mail client.    mine is 'shawmail.vc.shawcable.net'
      lookup the IP address for this server by opening a 'command prompt' (Start Menu / Accessories)  and typing 'nslookup shawmail.vc.shawcable.net' and hit enter.
             replace 'shawmail.vc.shawcable.net' with the name from your SMTP server
      write down the IP address (Internet Address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) - you'll need it later    (mine was 24.71.223.43)
3) determine if the MX record for your 'forwarding email address' uses the same IP address as your SMTP server
     your email address contains a userID and a domain name.  everything after the @ symbol is the domain name (in my case 'shaw.ca')
     open a command prompt again and type 'nslookup -type=mx shaw.ca'  (replace 'shaw.ca' with the domain of your email address)
     here's the results from my system
-------
nslookup -type=mx shaw.ca
Server:  localhost.home
Address:  192.168.100.1:53

Non-authoritative answer:
shaw.ca MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = idcmail.shaw.ca
shaw.ca MX preference = 15, mail exchanger = idcmail-mx1so.cg.shawcable.net
shaw.ca MX preference = 15, mail exchanger = idcmail-mx2no.cg.shawcable.net

idcmail-mx2no.cg.shawcable.net  internet address = 64.59.134.8
idcmail-mx1so.cg.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.71.223.11
idcmail.shaw.ca internet address = 24.71.223.11
idcmail.shaw.ca internet address = 64.59.134.8
--------
     this shows there are 3 MX records for 'shaw.ca' and then below, it shows the IP addresses for these MX records.
     none of the IP addresses matches my outbound SMTP server - so simply setting up a forwarding email address won't work for me

     IMPORTANT:
         if you find that your MX record(s) have the same IP address as your outbound SMTP server - then you shouldn't need to do anything else except test if it worked.
         however, if even one MX record doesn't match the IP address of your SMTP server - you may need to complete the rest of these steps.

4) now that I have the names and IP addresses of the MX records - I need to fool my windows system into using the IP address of my SMTP server anytime it tries to send something to my ISPs email domain
     this can be done by adding entries to the c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts   file.
     start 'notepad'  (under Start Menu / Accessories)
     select 'File / Open'
     Browse to 'Windows\System32\drivers\etc' directory
     (you might have to change the file type option from 'Text Documents *.txt'  to 'All files *.*)
     highlight the file 'hosts' and click 'open'
     add on entry to this file for every MX record defined by your ISP (as returned in step 3 using 'nslookup'
     for me that meant adding the following records
-----
24.71.223.43   idcmail-mx2no.cg.shawcable.net
24.71.223.43   idcmail-mx1so.cg.shawcable.net
24.71.223.43   idcmail.shaw.ca
------
     save the file using 'File / Save'
     
     by adding entries to this file, windows will always know the IP address of these servers and will not need to lookup them up before sending mail to them
     by forcing the IP address of these servers to be the same as your outbound SMTP server you should be forcing all email destined for <address>@isp.com through your outbound SMTP server
     so when Vanguard tries to send email to cameraA1@isp.com, it will lookup the MX records and based on the name returned - it will use the IP address in the 'hosts' file that you just created
5) test the forwarding email address you setup and see if it still works
6) test sending email to a friend using the same ISP as you and make sure this is still working (if it doesn't you might not want to leave this setup - simply remove the additions to 'hosts' file to fix it)
7) cause vanguard to send you and email and see if it gets to your forwarded email now.

Good luck.
(and I hope I didn't leave out any steps)

[email]

email: what are you using for your PC interface besides the VA11A?

Nothing else, just the equipment that I received from x10.

[email]

Had the same problem.
In my case it's because my Internet Service Provider (ISP) does not allow outbound email except via their mail server.
  - when you setup your email client - you specify an email server for SMTP (or outbound email).  With my provider, all email MUST be sent through this email server - no exceptions allowed.
Vanguard tries to act as an email server rather than an email client.  It therefore uses DNS to lookup MX (mail exchange) records to determine where to send email.  It then tries to deliver email directly, potentially by passing the email server your ISP is trying to force you to use.
  - another problem in my case, the email server reported by MX (mail exchange) records is NOT the same as the email server I have to use to send outbound emails.
  - MX records are used to determine where to deliver email base on the domain name (the part after the @ symbol)
  - more on this below

(PS.  I now have 'ActiveHome Pro' and it doesn't suffer from this problem which is probably why you haven't received many responses)

Here's what I had to do - you may be able to get away with just using a forwarder, depending upon your ISPs MX record setup...
(there is potential for this to cause other email problems - like the inability to send to some email addresses of people who use the same ISP as you if you have to do step 4 and beyond)

1) setup a forwarding email address at your ISP if they allow this.   (cameraA1@isp.com  forwarding to my_work_email@work.com) or (cameraB1@isp.com forwarding to my_phone_number@my_cell_provider.com)
      if your ISP does not allow you to send email except via their mail server, you MUST send the initial email to an email address at their domain  (<address>@isp.com)
      most ISPs allow this because so many people forward to google mail or hotmail or yahoo mail accounts.
2) test the forwarder - by sending an email to the new address you just created and see if it get forwarded to the destination email box.  This has to work before you continue.
3) determine the IP address of your SMTP server (as defined in your working mail client like MSmail or Thunderbird)
      find the SMTP server (outbound mail server) in your mail client.    mine is 'shawmail.vc.shawcable.net'
      lookup the IP address for this server by opening a 'command prompt' (Start Menu / Accessories)  and typing 'nslookup shawmail.vc.shawcable.net' and hit enter.
             replace 'shawmail.vc.shawcable.net' with the name from your SMTP server
      write down the IP address (Internet Address = xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) - you'll need it later    (mine was 24.71.223.43)
3) determine if the MX record for your 'forwarding email address' uses the same IP address as your SMTP server
     your email address contains a userID and a domain name.  everything after the @ symbol is the domain name (in my case 'shaw.ca')
     open a command prompt again and type 'nslookup -type=mx shaw.ca'  (replace 'shaw.ca' with the domain of your email address)
     here's the results from my system
-------
nslookup -type=mx shaw.ca
Server:  localhost.home
Address:  192.168.100.1:53

Non-authoritative answer:
shaw.ca MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = idcmail.shaw.ca
shaw.ca MX preference = 15, mail exchanger = idcmail-mx1so.cg.shawcable.net
shaw.ca MX preference = 15, mail exchanger = idcmail-mx2no.cg.shawcable.net

idcmail-mx2no.cg.shawcable.net  internet address = 64.59.134.8
idcmail-mx1so.cg.shawcable.net  internet address = 24.71.223.11
idcmail.shaw.ca internet address = 24.71.223.11
idcmail.shaw.ca internet address = 64.59.134.8
--------
     this shows there are 3 MX records for 'shaw.ca' and then below, it shows the IP addresses for these MX records.
     none of the IP addresses matches my outbound SMTP server - so simply setting up a forwarding email address won't work for me

     IMPORTANT:
         if you find that your MX record(s) have the same IP address as your outbound SMTP server - then you shouldn't need to do anything else except test if it worked.
         however, if even one MX record doesn't match the IP address of your SMTP server - you may need to complete the rest of these steps.

4) now that I have the names and IP addresses of the MX records - I need to fool my windows system into using the IP address of my SMTP server anytime it tries to send something to my ISPs email domain
     this can be done by adding entries to the c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts   file.
     start 'notepad'  (under Start Menu / Accessories)
     select 'File / Open'
     Browse to 'Windows\System32\drivers\etc' directory
     (you might have to change the file type option from 'Text Documents *.txt'  to 'All files *.*)
     highlight the file 'hosts' and click 'open'
     add on entry to this file for every MX record defined by your ISP (as returned in step 3 using 'nslookup'
     for me that meant adding the following records
-----
24.71.223.43   idcmail-mx2no.cg.shawcable.net
24.71.223.43   idcmail-mx1so.cg.shawcable.net
24.71.223.43   idcmail.shaw.ca
------
     save the file using 'File / Save'
     
     by adding entries to this file, windows will always know the IP address of these servers and will not need to lookup them up before sending mail to them
     by forcing the IP address of these servers to be the same as your outbound SMTP server you should be forcing all email destined for <address>@isp.com through your outbound SMTP server
     so when Vanguard tries to send email to cameraA1@isp.com, it will lookup the MX records and based on the name returned - it will use the IP address in the 'hosts' file that you just created
5) test the forwarding email address you setup and see if it still works
6) test sending email to a friend using the same ISP as you and make sure this is still working (if it doesn't you might not want to leave this setup - simply remove the additions to 'hosts' file to fix it)
7) cause vanguard to send you and email and see if it gets to your forwarded email now.

Good luck.
(and I hope I didn't leave out any steps)

Thanks for the very detailed workaround. I'll give it a try later today.

[Tuicemen]

email: what are you using for your PC interface besides the VA11A?

Nothing else, just the equipment that I received from x10.

If you have nothing else other than the VA11A connected to your PC, then Vanguard can't detect X10 RF activity! (thus no e-mail trigger)
You need a PC interface!
Also you need a transceiver to change the RF signal from your motion sensor to a PLC so your cam can be turned on! Many times X10 sales assume the buyer knows all that is needed so the additional equipment isn't  recommended!
You either need the CM19A and a transceiver(usualy comes with a TM751) or the CM15A (has a built in transceiver & comes part of AHP)

[email]

Sorry for the late reply, my computer blew and I just received back from the shop

In my previous reply I didn't detailed all the gear that is attached to the PC.

Tonight I will setup again everything and I'll detail all the equipment that is attached to it.

email: what are you using for your PC interface besides the VA11A?

Nothing else, just the equipment that I received from x10.

If you have nothing else other than the VA11A connected to your PC, then Vanguard can't detect X10 RF activity! (thus no e-mail trigger)
You need a PC interface!
Also you need a transceiver to change the RF signal from your motion sensor to a PLC so your cam can be turned on! Many times X10 sales assume the buyer knows all that is needed so the additional equipment isn't  recommended!
You either need the CM19A and a transceiver(usualy comes with a TM751) or the CM15A (has a built in transceiver & comes part of AHP)

[KJM]

1. Can you manually send snapshots email ?
 2. When motion is detected, does it go to the right camera and is the right camera number noted on the picture ?

[zach1234]

Did you get it to work?

[Lonny]

I have a new system that sounds like this one, with exactly the same problem. The range of the eagle eye sensor seems to be about ten to fifteen feet. If the motion sensor is withing ten feet of the computer, a picture is taken from the correct camera and an email is sent. If the sensor is farther away from the computer, nothing happens. I have purchased an extension usb cord and placed the cm19a up by ceiling. I read in this forum that placing a wire 18 to 19 inches long against the cm19a will help extend the range. I also read that placing a wire on the left side of the motion sensor will extend the range. Now I have a system that looks like it came from mars and still does not work. Tech support has been a joke. They act like it's something new proprietary to my system. Guess they need to read the forums.

[zach1234]

Try a RF repeater. http://cgi.ebay.com/X10-Smart-RF-Repeater-Extender-SR731-PSX01_W0QQitemZ110263693989QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item110263693989&_trkparms=72%3A552%7C39%3A1%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14