Internet Access and Device Communication Problems (I Think)

[j.rieff]

I have not been on the forum for quite awhile. I guess when things are working smoothly, there is no need to search for answers to problems I am not having. However, over the past few months, anomalies have started to pop up and show their somewhat ugly heads. This note is actually an observation/question about 3 problems I seemed to have encountered recently. I have not made any major changes to my systems in at least a couple of years. Only minor changes to programs. I have an ISY944i.

1. Lately I have been having problems accessing the system. When I click on the ISY Admin Console icon I just get a blank Admin Console screen with no ability to logon. When I restart my PC and repeat, I may get the logon dialog window. Since I have not been on the forum lately I am not sure if there has been any firmware or Admin Console updates. The last time I was able to logon, I did check for firmware updates and there were none. 

2. Recently I had to update my cell phone. Prior to the update (can not say how long), I was able to access the system form locations off my home network using Apps like Simple Home Controller and Agave. Now, I am unable to accomplish that. I use a DNS form No-Ip dot com. That has always worked great. Now, I cannot even access the system by using the IP address directly. Not sure if I have missed something again from the forums. 

3. Today I was having some strange occurrences with lighting. when I activated a light switch for one room, it would cause the lights in another room to come on. This also happened with a couple of motion sensors. When I was actually able to logon onto the system and perform a diagnostic on those devices, I received a Socket Open Fail Socket Timeout Exception error. It was only on those devices. I tried the diagnostics on other devices I had no problems. 

 

Not sure how to proceed. Thanks for any assistance. 

[larryllix]

I would try a Restore on each suspect device from the ISY admin console. You could do a "download link table" and then a compare to see if some have actually changed, first, and then follow each with a Restore.

My guess is this will fix most of your problems. You may have corrupted links in some devices and this should fix that.

[j.rieff]

@larryliix I did attempt to do a Restore on one of the specific switches. However, the Admin Console just "sat" there appearing to do nothing. Usually there is a progress bar reminding me not to Power Off the system. When the diagnostic did work, I did a Compare which did indicate an error. However, the Restore functioned as described above. I was thinking maybe I should just do a blanket Restore Devices on everything rather than select a specific device. I  do have several battery operated devices (motion senses, remote switches, ...) in the configuration.  Not sure how the Restore would work for those. Also, I was thinking maybe going back to the main menu under File and perform a Restore ISY using what I think is a good backup. Thoughts?

 

I think this is a fairly easy solvable problem. The internet access is the puzzling one. 

 

Question - there has been a couple of Java updates recently.  Could this be affecting some of the strange anomalies with the Admin Console?

 

Thanks again. Better quit now. My fingers are not hitting all the right keys. 

[MrBill]

1 hour ago, j.rieff said:

I did a Compare which did indicate an error.

seeing error is normal, I'll let one of the others explain it better than I can, but there is a single byte that is common to see as error.  It takes a little more info than just relying on the comparison showing an error.

 

1 hour ago, j.rieff said:

I was thinking maybe I should just do a blanket Restore Devices on everything rather than select a specific device.

Even if you need to restore every device in your system, I would do them one at a time.  More importantly rather than Restore Device, I would suggest factory resetting the device first then applying the Restore Device.   the 2477D dimmer factory restore is pull the Air Gap switch out for 10 seconds, then push it all the way in and hold it until the long beep stops, after which you should hear two beeps.  The same procedure works on many other devices but if in doubt type "Insteon <model number> manual" into google and check the particular models factory restore instructions because they do vary.  (the best google search results to pick are a PDF file from cache.insteon.com)

Edited October 24, 2021 by MrBill

[j.rieff]

@MrBill - Thanks for the reminder. Completely forgot about the fall back fix to everything - factory reset. I will try that later. When I do the Factory Reset, do I then need to do a Restore Device on that specific device or should everything be back in alignment. 

Thanks. Love the User Name. Takes me back to the good SNL days. 

[MrBill]

3 minutes ago, j.rieff said:

When I do the Factory Reset, do I then need to do a Restore Device on that specific device or should everything be back in alignment. 

Yes.  Factory Restore clears the memory of the device.  "Restore Device" then puts it back the way the ISY thinks it's supposed to be.  Work with one device at a time.

[j.rieff]

Thanks for all the replies. All appear to be working OK, so far.