Geddy

@vmastros, I second @MrBill's comment about the ISY Portal. For $20 for 2 years it's a steal (~83 cents a month!) for what you get with it and removes the need to port forward for remote access. Plus looks like the new UDI mobile apps (iOS and Android) will need ISY Portal subscription (or at least work better with one). (I mentioned this option in my reply above.) You still never let us know what brand/model router you're using. Or if you're using a Modem/Router combo that is supplied by Spectrum. Lots of people here have experience with a lot of different brands of routers so might be able to help troubleshoot your settings. @MrBill brought up a good point about the external IP being rout-able so that could be an issue as well. Since you don't use remote access often then it might not a big issue, but still wanted to try to help get it to work for those few times you do need it.

@vmastros Any luck getting things sorted out to be able to access the ISY while away from the site?

The Alexa app won't let you create the same group names, but you would be able to use them as room triggers. Make a group for living room and put the reading lamp and the echo in that group and should be able to say "Alexa, turn lamp/light on". Do the same for the office. Depends if you have other lights setup in the group already. You could possibly change the type to a plug and control it differently or give it a custom group name to help you finetune what trigger you can use. Maybe @bmercier can help confirm if this is possible or steps to do it differently with ISY and Alexa App setup. Trial and error never hurts though.

@vmastros what is your brand of router? Or are you using a Spectrum supplied Modem/Router product? Sometimes it is difficult to manipulate the devices you rent from the ISP. Additionally, while Spectrum might "confirm" that it's forwarded to 443 they might actually be blocking inbound to their customers at common ports. Try a different port on the WAN side to try it that way. Do you have a UDI Portal subscription? If so then you can use the information from there for the ISY address and bypass port forwarding (sometimes seen as more secure because you're not leaving an open door on your local router). From the Portal page go to Select Tools -> Information -> ISY Information the copy "Admin Console URL" and use that and use your portal login/pass rather than the local ISY direct connection admin/pass. But once you give us some more info about the router you're using perhaps there are some here that have experience with the same router to help correct forwarding rules. Good luck! PS: And go ahead and update to 4.9. I am/was like you in that if it ain't broke don't fix it and was on 4.75 and made the upgrade to 4.8 and then 4.9 without any issues. It won't help your problem, but it will keep you up to date on the current 4.x branch so I would suggest doing at least those updates.

@larryllix I haven't had issues on a regular basis, but I don't use the Alexa commands often. I know there have been some issues if Amazon's cloud service is down and have had some issues with Alexa reporting itself offline randomly with other instructions (i.e. turning a FireTV on or changing inputs on primary TV). I can't say it's specific between Alexa and ISY, but perhaps you're unlucky and having the issues when they (Amazon) are having AWS problems.

I'll keep an eye out on this in the future, but I've had 2 different tplink routers and no issues with the ISY. I forget my old model number, but currently been on the Deco 9+ for about 18 months and didn't have any issues going from one to the other and don't have issues accessing the ISY remotely. I know at one point their DDNS service was having issues and don't have the option to use another DDNS service directly in the router so it was a little tricky, but thankfully not having to reboot router or modem my IP has said steady for quite a while. Just my experience wasn't as bad as yours.

I also use a dedicated gmail account for sending alerts. I have a filter setup to move the sent mail to deleted rather than to sent. Just create the filter (screen shots below) with from (dedicated gmail account), to (your receiving address), and maybe a subject, but from/to should be good enough. Then "create filter" the next screen will give you the options of what to do with the message and select "delete it". Deleted emails should go away after 30 days. So you'll always have 30 days worth of sent alerts/notifications.

@MrBill True geofences don't work because of cell tower/wifi, but as you said the phone has to adjust the GPS. In my experience it was an older iOS (I think 10 or 11) and I noticed that Google Maps would think my GPS would bounce if I turned wifi off and connected to a cell tower. At the time my cell provider was having tower issues near the house and I would use a tower further away (with just barely a signal) and so between GPS and data jumping around my location would move about a mile or two away from the house before location would settle to within a few feet of where I actually was. It was strange to see it happen, and would be annoying some evenings when my trigger would happen as though I left/returned the area after midnight. I think iOS 14 is a little quicker with GPS as I don't seem to have as much of a jump when leaving the house...if I watch Google Maps or other Apple Maps when leaving the wifi. It's fun to get geeky at times on GPS and I've tested locations with three different phones just to see how they react. iPhone X, 8, and 12 (mini) all running iOS 14.4.1 somehow must bounce to different towers at the entrance to my neighbor hood and the GPS for all three phones goes different directions for a moment before they settle to the same spot. The issue I see coming sooner or later is that Apple might end up being like Android and continue to move to block more location based apps/services in the background. It's already difficult to make sure they're "always running" in location settings. I hope they don't as many Android users have experienced issues with geofences for several years because of changes to background apps and location settings.

Just to follow up what @MrBill says about auto opening the door...there have been times (few and very far between) that my phone would drop wifi while at home and hit a tower that's just outside my geofence and would trigger programs when it realigns the GPS to being inside the geofence. So the last thing you would want would have that happen while at home, in the middle of the night. Some things just shouldn't be automated...entry/access points are at the top of that list for me. Good luck with your programs. Look intense!

Also received the message recently. I am also overly cautious about messages like this so I don't click on the links in the message, but go to known domain/site directly and check for news/messages and change passwords just to be safe. It's a pain with all the hacking going on these days. I'm glad the message on the site said "Please note that, we do not store any credit card and/or payment information anywhere in our infrastructure." So at least that's one less thing to worry about...today.

There's been issues with Windows Updates, but more than likely you also had a java update. It's always a good idea to clear the Java cache following a java update and then reload the launcher. You should be using the launcher found here (https://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/24381-isy-launcher/) Microsoft keeps making it difficult for the java to run, but it's working. Just causes issues many were not expecting when other programs "update" or planned obsolescence. Glad you got it working!

@vspete going back to your original post...have you had success with the phone/watch connecting quicker as expected? I had similar issues with the phone really being slow to connect/refresh all dashboard devices. I hadn't thought too much about it and I don't use the app as much these days, but it appears iOS 14 changed the local handling of direct connection. @InsteonNut made a post that fixed the slowness issue I was having instantly! Now when I open the app while on my LAN the dashboard is instantly updated and when I go to sync with ISY to test it out it updates a ton faster than before I made the change. I apparently did not allow local network access when opening MobiLinc after updating to iOS 14.4, but after making the change things are much smoother and quicker to reply. I am on Firmware 4.9 so don't have 5.x or nodeservers running so can't help with other issues you've posted about, but wanted to say if the original post of sluggish or disconnecting from the ISY while inside the LAN this could be your issue as well.

Above options work for intended option to look for what you're looking for. I would throw out a third option to try: On the main "My Programs" folder right click (or if you're MAC equivalent of Windows right click). Select "Copy Folder to Clipboard". Paste to Notepad (or other text editor (i.e. Word). Then within Notepad (or Word) search for the scene name. This process copies all your programs and will paste all the text for the programs and all devices and options will be searchable.

I had this problem ages ago (maybe 2 years) and it was Java and/or computer related. Have you restarted the admin console? Be sure to exit completely. Reboot the computer. Log back in. If still having problems then clear java cache and reload the launcher as linked here: If having problems after that maybe somebody else has options to try. Or open a ticket with UDI to get it sorted out. I also hope it isn't PLM related. Shouldn't be since it's on the admin console side and not really communications side.

@julian I hope they're able to get you sorted out. Try to report back if you get it fixed and know the steps you/they go through. Might be helpful to others in the future if they search and find this thread.

Might be time to open a support ticket with UDI to see if they can help get you working again. support@universal-devices.com or here: https://www.universal-devices.com/my-tickets If might be something you just need to factory reset and start over to get access to admin console again then restore a backup. It's starting to sound like you might have something messed up through the processes you went through of trying to replace PLM then upgraded firmware then replacing devices. So many things changed and not sure if the PLM was malfunctioning when you were doing the firmware upgrade (4.7.3 -> 4.8.0) that the ISY update might have not settled completely/accurately.

@slimypizza was the Cree a dimmable bulb (I know you said it was, but perhaps it isn't)? Sometimes I think the dimming devices don't act right if the bulb isn't really a dimmable bulb. I use many Cree dimmable bulbs without issue in 2472DIV outlets. I'm not sure about the lamp module. Could just be a bad bulb.

@MrBill doesn't the launcher work with 5.3.1? Why would we need to get the specific one for 5.3.1? I haven't ventured into 5.x upgrade yet, but have had this lingering question. Since launcher is supposed to be UI/FW auto-match why wouldn't that just work in the upgrade process? Just to be sure it's really needed rather than just relying on the ISY Launcher version.

@smarthome_newbie if it's the ISY power light that isn't on then you probably have a faulty power supply or SD card has gone bad. Power supply options: You can try any power supply that outputs anywhere between 5 volt and 30 volts,center positive, 2mm barrel connector Help with replacing SD card: https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Replacing/Formatting_an_SD_Card What happens when you plug it in? Boot up sequence: Power, RX&TX, momentary blink of Memory/RX and TX, and then Power only For power supplies check if you have any old router plugs or cordless phone plugs laying around. Just see if you happen to have anything in the house currently to test with first. If that solves your problem and you need the plug elsewhere then look at ordering one or buying one locally. Good luck!

@jmfa Neat. Glad that worked out. Wasn't sure about the node side of things as I haven't started using those yet. Final note - I've found it's usually quicker to check what Alexa/Echo sees for spoken option on the website rather than the isy portal or Alexa app. Check it out here: https://alexa.amazon.com/ Smart Home -> Devices It's also quicker to delete them here and then have Alexa re-discover devices.

@jmfa If you wanted everything controlled through the ISY you should disable the brand specific skills and then only have the ISY smart home skill enabled and manage the spoken through the ISY Portal link. Based on what you're saying it suggests that you have Echo KASA and Wemo skills enabled and account linked for those specific devices. If you unlink and disable the brand specific skills you could then rely on the ISY Portal spoken names. Just be sure those devices are actually added to Echo through the ISY Skill. There's a little more setup by using the ISY, but if you're wanting ISY Skill to manage the spoken this would work. You would still be able to use the brand specific apps on mobile devices. This suggestion only impacts the skills used on the Echo devices.

@narciro not sure if I can help since I don't use motion sensors, but perhaps you've got too much interference/traffic by trying to control so many devices at one time. Is the "routine" within the ISY as a program? If in a program maybe a "wait" parameter of just a second or two would help allow the traffic to properly reach the switches you're trying to control. And now you've created a scene to try to help, have you tested with different controllers to see if the scene acts properly if a switch is activating it? Perhaps copy/paste the text of the program here for others to help out. Right click on the program and select "copy to clipboard" then come here and paste that. Good luck!

@berko Sorry that your setup isn't working with the hotspot. It might be that it's not an always on connection so trying to send messages while the connection isn't on/strong could be an issue. Or AT&T is blocking some SMTP relay ports. Did you take a minute to read @MrBill linked thread above? You should specifically read this post: It specifically says if you want/need to use the alternative email you need to contact support @ universal-devices . com (remove the spaces) to get setup security credentials. Good luck getting notifications working again. Take a moment to help yourself by reading what others have attempted. Damn spammers ruin nice things for many of us. Sign of the times.

And here's the wiki on how to telnet to ISY https://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Telnet_To_Your_ISY It looks a little different in Win 10 (at least when I just tried it). I hadn't ever done it so wanted to look up the steps. First part is the same (have to enable it/turn it on in Win10), but then when run I just had to "open #.#.#.# (isy ip address)" and it connected. The port wasn't needed. (added only because not everybody knows how to do this (I hadn't attempted before) so added link to wiki for ease of reference.

I'm not sure how the emails are setup for the Tags, but are you trying to send emails from your own address to a Gmail address or using the Google Gmail SMTP? If trying to use Gmail SMTP make sure you're not using Port 25 (often default port for SMTP) as it appears to be blocked by Cox (and most other ISPs). It's that it wasn't a secure enough port option for people sending emails from ISPs and resulted in a lot of spam. The new(er) port would be 587. There's also a suggestion to use port 2525.