Notification troubleshooting

[Tim Wilson]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm trying to get notifications working, and I'm not having any luck so far. I've entered the SMTP setting for Fastmail, one of my email providers. I set the timeout to 10,000 ms and have tried the "Test" button on the console interface. It spins for a while and then nothing happens. Is there supposed to be some kind of confirmation that the test worked or failed?

 

I set up an SMS notification using my mobile providers email to SMS gateway system. I configured a standard email notification. Nothing goes through. No error message, just no messages!

 

Any tips?

 

-Tim

[MWareman]

A common problem is not having something in both the subject AND the body.

 

If either have no string in them the email won't get sent.

[Tim Wilson]

A common problem is not having something in both the subject AND the body.

 

If either have no string in them the email won't get sent.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion. That's not the case here. Both fields contain text. Any other ideas?

[stusviews]

Selecting test should inform you if the test fails. The only indication of success is receiving an email.

[MWareman]

Run a level 3 log, and perform a test. The next most possible issues is either a DNS or crypto issue. The log should say more...

[Tim Wilson]

OK, here's the update.

 

I carefully entered the SMTP settings for Gmail and Fastmail, two email providers where I have accounts. Neither of them worked, and I began to suspect it had to do with the two-factor authentication I have set up for both. For example, I created an app-specific password for Fastmail and still wasn't able to get anything through.

 

In desperation, I tried setting up SMTP for Comcast which is my ISP. I never use their email service, and there's no two-factor in place so a regular username/password is all I need for the ISY's notification configuration.

 

Bottom line: Comcast worked straightaway. That supports my original theory that the two-factor authentication was the complicating factor. I'm going to go back to work on the Gmail config and try again to see if I can get it working. I'll let everyone know what I find out.

[MWareman]

With Gmail, not be not do you need an app specific password - but you also need to enable 'less secure' apps. Otherwise, authentication won't work.

 

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en

Edited April 17, 2017 by MWareman

[Tim Wilson]

Quick followup: Gmail worked too once I created an app-specific password and entered that in the password field of the ISY's SMTP settings. Not surprisingly, by the way, Gmail was quite a bit faster than Comcast.

[shlepr]

I am having the same issues with notifications.  I have two separate notifications setup.  One is an email to my comcast email and one is a text message through AT&T's texting email service.  Both work just fine when I do a test, but when run within a program, neither one works.  The programs are pretty simple.  Basically:

 

If

     Time is 12:00:00PM

 

Then

     Send Notification to 'Alert' content 'Daily Email Alert'

 

Else

   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

Any suggestions or tips?

 

Thanks

[Techman]

I am having the same issues with notifications.  I have two separate notifications setup.  One is an email to my comcast email and one is a text message through AT&T's texting email service.  Both work just fine when I do a test, but when run within a program, neither one works.  The programs are pretty simple.  Basically:

 

If

     Time is 12:00:00PM

 

Then

     Send Notification to 'Alert' content 'Daily Email Alert'

 

Else

   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

 

Any suggestions or tips?

 

Thanks

 

The subject and body of the email notification must be populated otherwise the ISY won't send it out. That might be your problem.

[shlepr]

Thanks for the followup.  I just realized that I populated the 'From' field with just some text.  When I removed the text and then checked the 'Use Default' button, it all worked.

 

Thanks again.

[ES1400]

A question about notification reliability

 

I use Notifications for many different reports and the tracking of events. I have notice intermittent missing notices over the last several years that causes me to have concern I might miss an important message. Both Email and TEXT notifications have the same intermittent issue. 

 

I try to keep my ISY 994i up to date now on 4.6.1.  I ASSUME the intermittent problem is my Email host. (Yahoo.com)

I have the Time Out timer set for 10s and tried both 587 and 465 ports at different times over the last year or so. I have WAIT times of 6 to 8 seconds after each notification command thinking the ISY will blow off the notification if you don't wait for it. Keeping in mind the notifications work 99% of the time unless the yahoo mail servers are down. 

 

 

My question is there anything else I should be doing to improve notification reliability?

 

ES1400

 

 

 

 

[larryllix]

Other than a multiple try or a better mail server I don't know.

 

Repeat 2 times (Canuck = twice )

...send X email notification to ES1400

...send X sms notification to ES1400

...wait 1 hour

Repeat 1 times

Edited July 6, 2017 by larryllix

[jca001]

A question about notification reliability

 

I use Notifications for many different reports and the tracking of events. I have notice intermittent missing notices over the last several years that causes me to have concern I might miss an important message. Both Email and TEXT notifications have the same intermittent issue. 

 

I try to keep my ISY 994i up to date now on 4.6.1.  I ASSUME the intermittent problem is my Email host. (Yahoo.com)

I have the Time Out timer set for 10s and tried both 587 and 465 ports at different times over the last year or so. I have WAIT times of 6 to 8 seconds after each notification command thinking the ISY will blow off the notification if you don't wait for it. Keeping in mind the notifications work 99% of the time unless the yahoo mail servers are down. 

 

 

My question is there anything else I should be doing to improve notification reliability?

 

ES1400

 

I had basically the same problem and determined the ISY would only try to connect to the email Server 1 time and if it failed for whatever reason (DNS, email Server not responding ...) it did not queue the request to try again later. This was with a Comcast and GoDaddy accounts. So I searched for an email Relay Service and found ultrasmtp.com. It seems to be very reliable as far as accepting a connection and then queuing the email to be delivered to wherever. If the final email Server does not respond for whatever reason it queues the email and keeps trying every few minutes. Once it is able to deliver the email it send me an email there was a delay in delivering the email, which is an option. There are reports you can review to see how often that happens. Since making all my email notifications go through ultrasmtp.com I have only missed a few email notifications and I suspect that was because my internet was having problem in general and ISY could not get to ultrasmtp.com.

[Techman]

Take a look at the ISY error log. Any SMTP errors should show up.