WebUI doesn't connect

[MURALI SITARAM]

My Brennan B2 is connected to my wifi all fine. I haven't assigned a fixed IP, so it changes every time I reboot the B2. 

My Brennan Android app connects to the B2 fine, but it drops the connection a few minutes later. At that point, I need to go rescan on the app to find the "same" IP and ask to reconnect. This seems a hit or miss affair. 

On the Web, I have a related but different problem. The WebUI doesn't connect at all to the IP address. It fails to load and the error says "<IP addr> refused to connect".

Any suggestions? I have both a 2.4 Ghz and a 5 Ghz network. My computer and phone are on the 5 Ghz network. It seems to work most of the time, except sporadically on occasion like described above. My router and wifi points accept both 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz devices so we are good I believe. 

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi,

I would suggest that your house WiFi is not providing a strong enough WiFi signal for your B2. You can ask the B2 to tell you the signal strength it is seeing using the menu system.

Fred

[MURALI SITARAM]

Thank you for the quick response. I will check the signal strength. All other devices around the same room/location work, so not sure that is the problem, but clearly something to verify. Another oddity is that my wifi router/mesh system does not see the Brennan B2 connected. I don't see it in the list of connected devices to the network. What is the default name used to connect to wifi networks? Is there a way I can change the device name? 

Thank you!

[PMB]

Hi Sitara...,

The first step is to check the WiFi signal level at the B2 - use the front control to go to Settings >> Maintenance >> WiFi Strength. It needs to be around the -50dBm mark (-40dBm is a stronger signal and -60dBm a weaker one) for a reliable connection.

The system appears to be working if you can connect via the Android app and the drop outs may be related to the signal strength.

The B2 likes to be connected to the main router, rather than one of the satellites.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi,

The fact that the B2 gets an IP number means that some sort of connection is happening (the IP number is issued by the router, not the B2). Which, means that if the number is not visible on your router/mesh system, the problems are with that not the B2.

F.

[JFBUK]

Hi,

as Fred says, this sounds like a network issue. Can you post some more detail of your mesh system and how it is configured ?

John

[MURALI SITARAM]

The wifi strength indicator is regularly between 47 and 51 I see it occasionally strength to the mid 30s as well. I have a Google mesh network connected to an ultra high speed cable model from my local provider COX. I have 7 wifi points for this large home. The B2 is about 12 feet away from the main Google router connected to the COX cable modem. I have another wifi point on the same floor as well. The other points are on the lower level (not the level the B2 is connected). 

I am intrigued why I can't see the B2 listed in the wifi connected devices list on my Google Home app. I see every other device there, so can't imagine this is a problem with the mesh network. 

What should I be looking for in the device name on the wifi network? I suspect its got something to the wifi dongle. I can't somehow get the antenna to stand straight up, its now flat parallel to the desk I have the B2 placed. 

I tried Maintenance -> Switch wifi and connect back to the same wifi SSID I am getting better results. Still can't see the device on the connected devices list, but the webUI finds it now.

Since I can't find the device on the device list in the Google home list I can't assign a fixed IP address either.

One strange thing I noted, sometimes DHCP assigns a lower IP number in the range (21), sometimes it assigns in the higher range 44+. The higher range IP works better. I know technically this has no bearing on anything, but something really strange is going on here. I am wondering since the device is not really known to Google wifi/home, perhaps they are assigning it again to some other device? 

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Sitara,

Given that you say [ The B2 is about 12 feet away from the main Google router connected to the COX cable modem],

I would really recommend that you try and make an ethernet connection with your B2 using a cable (I assume your Google Router has Ethernet sockets).

The B2's Ethernet port is internal

and I would recommend you use a whiptail extension  (something like this)

https://thepihut.com/products/rj-45-ethernet-round-panel-mount-extension-cable-30cm

out of the B2 so that if you have to move the B2 for some reason you do not have to take the back off again to disconnect the cable.

NOT if you do go to using an Ethernet cable you MUST remove the WiFi Dongle from the B2's USB port. The B2 does not like 2 live connections!

Using an Ethernet cable connection gives you the best B2 experience and will sidestep your WiFi problems.

Fred

[Graham Smout]

Hi there

I would suggest that your  issue is that different devices are connecting  on different frequency bands, The B2 will only connect on the 2.4Ghz band and the other devices you are using to access the B2 might be connecting on the 5Ghz network. I  had this same issue : devices would only talk to each other via the network if they are on the same band. In my home the 5Ghz band is turned off and this dealt with the problme. If you have 5 access points I can't see why a 5Ghz band would be of any benefit

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Got this reply to my private email.

----------------------------------------------------

Understand. Thanks. Will research a wired connection into the B2. I have to solve some logistics problems to enable this. By the way is there a way to report the network SSID the B2 is connected to? I have a few wifi networks and want to verify that the B2 is connected to the right one.
------------------------------------------------------

The SSID that the B2 is using will be the SSID you initially chose (from the Front Panel)

 when you set up the B2's WiFi. The B2 will remember WiFis it has been set up on (so that if you move it between houses you do not need to set it up at each house every time you move it),

If you have forgotten the SSID you chose you can use the "Reset WiFi" command and set the B2's WiFi up again from scratch. This will let you choose the SSID you want to connect to again.

It is also important to note that the B2 is actually a little computer running on "Linux". This means that you can make an SSH connection to it and log in to it using the ID "root", Password "brennan" 

eg using a free Windows utility called PuTTY

you get this login terminal

you can then run the "ifconfig" Linux command to see what connections your B2 has (Mine is just an Ethernet connection so there is no WiFi SSID)

Fred

[PMB]

Hi Fred,

A very comprehensive reply...... 

Paul

Brennan Support.

[PMB]

Hi All,

Sitara replied via email -

"Wow, thank you for the very specific and complete reply! Will try this for sure to understand exactly what is going on!"

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Graham Smout]

Hi -

I have a couple of ideas for you to investigate

Is it possible that Your B2 might  be connecting to a different network form the one you are in charge of? You said that sometimes the B2 displays an IP address in a different range to your anticipated address. This isn't very likely unless there is a router nearby which is not  yours, which is an open network with no password protection.

To check this  you can download a simple program called Netspot. ( https://www.netspotapp.com/download-win.html)  This scans the immediate area for Wifi networks and you should be able to identify the names of networks and if they are open or an insecure network . See below for an example. 

If there is an open network then try and find out who is in charge of it and tell them to switch it off, or to activate security.

NetSpot will also reveal possible interference issues that can prevent a  device successfully logging onto a network as well as if networks are using the 2.4 or 5ghz band. Look at the Netspot Graph below. It shows that  two wifi channels are being used by two nearby networks on the 2.4Ghz band . The Green graph is the info for the stronger of the two networks  and is  broadcasting in Channel 6. Overlap with the purple channel on Channel 13 is non existent so interference between the two channels is minimal and both will be easy to connect to. But if the two networks were broadcasting on the same channel and one was weaker than the other then some devices could find it harder to stay connected. Ideally to avoid network interference when weak channels are involved,  set your router so that it broadcasts your network on a clear channel with as little overlap as possible.

Finally  log into your own  main router and find out the IP address range it uses . There should only be one IP address range  and that's the one you should always be connected to, Any other IP address  range is probably a different network serving wither a different property or a different purpose . (Its possible that someone has set up a device with no security and also as   DHCP server, which would be very negligent.) 

 There is a lot more you can do with NetSpot to iron out WiFi issues. Download the free edition and see what you can find out.

Good luck

Graham

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Wow, Graham!

That is a really useful post, I can see I am going to have to have a play with Netspot.

Thanks

Fred

[JFBUK]

Hi All,

I will throw in my two-penneth  as I think there is a danger of over complicating what may be the issue that Sitara is experiencing.

1. Although the B2 will only connect to a SSID broadcast on the 2.4Ghz frequency band it is irrelevant that other devices are connected at 5Ghz on the same network subnet(IP address range). The router knows about both frequency bands so can happily route the traffic unless the router has software bug (as some British Telecom routers did)

2. For the B2 to unwittingly connect to another unsecured network it would mean that the Brennan software would have to explicitly allow such a connection without any confirmatory dialogue and that is such a security chasm that it cannot be the case.

3. Most routers will automatically pick a frequency band channel that is least utilized unless explicitly set manually so I'm dubious about interference from nearby routers. Symptoms are more likely to be performance because of network retries.

3. If the B2 is picking up an IP address the simplest way to check whether it is in the same subnet as your other devices is to visually compare them and  you can also ping or traceroute from one device to another.

4. If the COX equipment is a router and not just a cable modem then if the primary Google mesh router has simply been plugged into the COX and the COX is still acting as a router itself ,rather than be placed in bridge (modem only) mode, then there will be two DHCP servers active and its possible that some devices will get their IP addresses from one and some from another.

Given that the COX and the Google Mesh are likely to be offering two different DHCP IP ranges and thus two different subnets then devices will not be able to see each other.

e. g. COX range 192.168.0.10 to 192.168.0.255, Google Mesh range 192.168. 86.20 to 192.168.86.250

Fred's suggestion of a wired connection will hopefully solve the problem for the B2 but any other shared network resource that gets its IP address via DHCP over Wi-Fi could have the same issues

John

[JFBUK]

Sitara replied to me via e-mail

Thank you all for all this amazing perspective. I have done several things and will report back on results.

1. Disabled Wifi on my Cox cable modem

2. Put the Cox Gigabit cable modem in Bridge mode

3. Used Netspot (amazing utility!) to verify if there are any other rogue networks around me broadcasting over overlapping wifi channels. I don't see any that could cause problems. The only ones I see are the 2.4 and 5 ghz networks through my Google wifi mesh system, now that I have disabled 1. above

Given all this, I now see the Brennan B2 on the list of connected wifi devices on the Google Home app. I will recycle the entire system (now that I have turned off wifi on the modem and put it in bridge mode) later today and verify if I get better visibility across the network for the B2.

But with a limited test, things look better.

I don't believe that the Brennan was connecting to another network as it was able to broadcast to my Sonos devices on the Google mesh network. I was able to connect intermittently through the B2 Android app and through the web UI, so some other clash was making it such that the network saw it at times and not others.

I am hoping that this simplification and reduction of crossing wifi networks and putting the modem in bridge mode might solve this conundrum.

Will report back in a few days. I hope to see consistent connectivity and visibility of the B2 to the rest of the wifi system.