Linksys Velop Configuration
Janie Leverone
The conclusion here is that so long as the Homekit Hub device is NOT connected to the new Linksys WiFi, Homekit will work, even if the iOS or MacOS devices you use to control Homekit are on the Linksys WiFi, but the Homekit Hub will not work with Linksys.
It is impractical for me to be adding all three possible Homekit devices to the Apple Airport AP as the whole point of replacing the Airports was to have an improved wireless signal but it seems at the cost of being able to use Apple Homekit. I have a large number of devices and need this to work.
Note my iPad and two Apple TVs are listed. In this example, the smart devices are showing "No response" because Bedroom Apple TV is currently the "Connected" Home Hub, but this Apple TV uses the Linksys wireless. Only RMT-Mini (iPad) uses the old Apple Airport with a different SSID just to help with this issue.
Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. As you can see, this is not a basic issue, there is a more complex problem here and Apple and Linksys need to collaborate to get a resolution. I have spent a lot of money with Apple purchasing Apple Homekit enabled smart devices and I need this to be working without using old Apple Airport technology.
It seems that the APs will only work on un-managed switches. Due to the layout of my house, the two Velop Nodes were connected via ethernet cables and between those ethernet cables was a managed switch.
This has been a very frustrating and long resolution but this does go back to what several people mentioned either on here on Reddit which is that these APs are very basic in terms of what you can do with them when setting them up. The features they offer are very limited. If you have issues such as mine, the only option is to replace your expensive switches with cheap ones.
Whilst both APs are now working (with the double NAT) and Homekit is working, I have been unable to join both APs with the ethernet backhaul as both refuse to connect and the child inevitably goes to red which means to connection.
Thanks to everyone who helped with this and also to the two guys at Linksys who knew their stuff. Unfortunately, you have to go through a lot of not so experienced, script readers with Linksys support before you get to deal with the guys who really know their stuff and these guys did.
I finally got through to Daisy Jane P at Linksys Support. I am getting one sentence responses from her every 10-15 minutes which basically say "I am still checking things at my end". First she told me it is my EE Smart Router at fault. I pointed out that HomeKit worked faultlessly with the same EE Smart Router and Apple Airport APs before so this is certainly not a router issue. She then just keeps saying she is checking, 10-15 minutes later, I message again...still checking. This has been going on for around 40 minutes so far.
Wireless Bridge Mode isn't even supported on this router. The only option available with Bridge in the name is Bridge Mode which is says: 'Select this to use Bridge Mode if your ISP requires it. You can choose to obtain an IP address automatically, or enter the information for your internet address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS entries. This information will be provided by your ISP'.
Every time I select this option, the router goes offline, I can connect to the setup SSID but I am completely unable to obtain a DHCP IP address on my client machine, if I try and enter in manual ones, I still can't locate the AP.
I have never known such a frustrating and impossible situation. Anyone reading these posts, DO NOT BUY A LINKSYS VELOP. The time that has been wasted on this trash is just unbelievable. It is quite obvious that their tech support are dealing with more than one customer at a time and expect you to wait 10-15 for a response, to which they give you a one sentence reply and then leave you waiting another 10-15 minutes.
Hi, another update from me, yet again, set it to Bridge Mode, this time using a web browser on a computer following the guide on the second link you gave me, light is purple showing ready to set up, totally unable to connect. It is giving no IP addresses at all when set to Bridge Mode and when I connect to the set up wifi SSID.
I have tried disconnecting and re-connecting, it is making no difference. Totally unable to proceed. I have tried to contact LinkSys support, I have been in a queue of 10 people now for over 30 minutes. It should not be this difficult.
Have always ensured that AP firmware is up to date, so the useful but now irrelevant info on Reddit re upgrading firmware won't help, but thanks, has been very interesting to read that. I will go through the comments on that thread next, but yes, as you sensibly suggested, I have been focussing just on the one node, rather than using both.
When I set them up, the backhaul was working via ethernet between them both, not sure if there is a way I can check that now to ensure that they are still connected to one another via ethernet. Both lights are blue on them so they are connecting. I had a lot of difficulty when setting them up and found that enabling STP on my network switches which connect between them both solved the issue.
Very good suggestion re maybe connecting the Airport onto a Linksys and also disabling 5ghz on the airport. I will give that a try as currently I have turned off Airport and I am seeing that Homekit randomly works, but most of the time doesn't. I have also disabled it on both Apple TVs and put my Hub iPad onto the Velop Wifi so Airport AP and respective SSID is currently not there anymore.
It would appear that the Velop system has it's own DHCP server enabled whereby any devices connecting via the Velop Wifi get their own IP address starting 10.215.1.10 with a max user count set at 245.
Note that there are no Velops in loft relying on Powerline connection, however I had to enable STP on loft switch to get the Velops to behave when first setting them up as they would not talk to each other.
@Lordothers mentions below about changing to bridge mode - I tried this, utter nightmare, couldn't connect to either APs, ended up having to factory wipe and start again so this 100% did not work for me. But thanks for the suggestion.
I had two chats with Linksys support yesterday, I got cut off of the first incredibly long one. In total, I was in a chat with them for four hours something. Just ridiculous that this would all take so long and still no positive result.
In the below photo, I have set the 'Router IP' to the address I want it to be and then within seconds, it changes back to a 10. Address again. This section is not the section you use to give the Velop a dynamic IP address, you do that in the basic tab, there is another section for that and I have ensured it had the right subnet and gateway as well as a free IP from the EE router DHCP range.
Every time I hit apply on this, within a minute, it goes back to the 10. IP range for the IP address under Router Details. It just will not accept this IP address. This is at the same time as it having a dynamically assigned IP. If I leave the Velop as DHCP, I still can change the IP address under Router Details but again, it will revert back not long after applying.
Anyway.. you will need to dig around in forums.. others must have run into the same issue. This takes time but often the big suppliers are unable (unwilling) to help. Here is this choice little snippet. _velop_triband_ax4200_wifi_6_gets_homekit/
You may find running ethernet between nodes is essential. And perhaps to use the old airports for now.. plugged into the Linksys routers as a way of working around the issue. Only use the 2.4ghz .. you should be able to turn off 5ghz in later Airport Utility.. almost all IoT uses 2.4ghz only.
I would test just using the main router unit.. turn off the node for now and make sure you set to wpa2. Use short name, no spaces and pure alphanumerics. Same rules for passwords but longer. See if you can get it working.
That would be because, by default, the WAN-side setting of your "main" Velop module is configured as a DHCP client. That means it would get its IP address (which would be a local address) from the upstream EE router. This also means that you would have a "Double-NAT" condition and why any clients connected to the Velop system cannot communicate with any connected to the EE ... except for Internet access. You an see this by the fact that the Velop (as you surmised) is providing DHCP service in a different subnet range.
The question becomes: Is this what you want or do you want all network clients to be in the same subnet at the EE router? For the latter, you would need to reconfigure your "main" Velop module in bridge mode. This would allow the EE to passthru DHCP services for clients connected to the Velop system.
Unfortunately, the user guide that I downloaded from Linksys, does not provide enough details on how to go about making this configuration change, and I can only guess that you can do so from the Advanced Settings > Internet Settings > Connection Type option.
Yes, this seems to be the case, though some connections do seem to go through. As an example, a wireless device connected to the Velop WiFi system can access my NetGear NAS drive which is connected to ethernet to the EE Router and thus gets an EE Router DHCP address, but the systems on the Velop WiFi are obtaining an IP from the Velop WiFi system and not the EE Router, so some connections seem to go through.
I had already tried twice what you suggested in terms of setting the AP to bridge mode and every time, it completely cuts out and shows a red light, as does the child node. I am then totally unable to gain any access, the WiFi is not able to be connected to and I am not able to proceed at all. The App will not open the APs and I am not able to access them via the web interface. The only option was to factory reset and re-set them up with the app which does not provide any options to set them up in Bridge Mode thus I am going round in circles.
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