📱X10 WIFI > 🧾Wish list

Release the WM100 protocol

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bevhoward:
>> It doesn't require an internet connection but does require a WiFi router to connect to your Phone and the app. <<

fwiw, I've spent some time delving into how the VM100 communicates and I have found that it is both very interesting and very confusing.

...but, then things begin to make sense.  (Apologies if this information has been posted elsewhere)

The WM100 does indeed require an internet connection, but it apparently does not use that connection the way most devices do... i.e. to "phone home"

As others have done, I disconnected my lan from the internet and when I tried to connect, the app error message explicitly stated that it could not connect to the "Hub" ...the WM100 five feet away from me.

The WM100 uses the internet to communicate with the app on the user's device even if the user and the WM100 are on the same LAN and Wifi network.  The key to this discovery was in the line in the product description that explains;

"control all your same X10 units you have grown to love from your Apple or Android smart device anywhere you have internet access"

On a hunch, I connected my lan back to the internet, and then turned wifi OFF on my phone.   I still had a cellphone data connection which is completely outside of my lan, and when I started the WM100 app, the phone connected instantly to the WM100. 

So, in normal use at home, when you use your phone to connect to the WM100, the phone uses wifi to connect to the internet and when connected to the internet, the app uses the lan's wifi to internet connection to then connect via the internet back to the wifi lan where the WM100 resides.

Ironically, this resolved my primary concern, needing to program lights in a vacation home at a location that was subject to frequent blackouts.  I had already determined that if there was a power failure while I was away, the WM100's clock time would then be incorrect.  Another example is that if a DST change happens between connections, the WM100 does not update the time, but rather, detects the time difference when the phone connects and asks to update the time at that point.

Since, in this case, our vacation home location has an internet connection.  This means that I can address my concern by connecting to the WM100 remotely to assure that the time is updated and the schedules are still in place as well as edit or add them if necessary and there is no need to configure ways to tunnel or otherwise set up firewall crossing access options to access the remote lan.

During an earlier conversation with the vendor I was told that since communication between the phone and WM100 was direct and restricted by the unique QR code on every WM100 so that security concerns had been met by the direct connect schema.  I am cautiously optimistic that this is the case, especially since this is the only cross firewall control connection that I have, that they are correct.

Looking forward to learning more.
Beverly Howard

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