IoP Email Issues Had to set timeout to 3000ms

[apostolakisl]

Since switching to IoP I had issues with email.  They would work, or they wouldn't, randomly.  I used the default mail server and then switched to gmail.  My old 994 was on gmail as is another 994 I have currently running gmail.  Also I have Blue Iris using gmail.  All had the timeout set to 1000ms and all worked perfectly for many many years.  In my frustrating trial and error trying to resolve this issue wit the new IoP, I tried increasing timeout to 2000ms.  Low and behold, it started working better, but not perfect.  Then 3000ms, now it seems to work 100% of the time.  Anyway, it seems to me you shouldn't need a timeout of 3000ms unless something is wrong with the way IoP is handling mail.  Anyone else having issues like this?

[larryllix]

Since switching to IoP I had issues with email.  They would work, or they wouldn't, randomly.  I used the default mail server and then switched to gmail.  My old 994 was on gmail as is another 994 I have currently running gmail.  Also I have Blue Iris using gmail.  All had the timeout set to 1000ms and all worked perfectly for many many years.  In my frustrating trial and error trying to resolve this issue wit the new IoP, I tried increasing timeout to 2000ms.  Low and behold, it started working better, but not perfect.  Then 3000ms, now it seems to work 100% of the time.  Anyway, it seems to me you shouldn't need a timeout of 3000ms unless something is wrong with the way IoP is handling mail.  Anyone else having issues like this?

I haven't been able to make gmail work with any ISY for the last 4 years.

Sure would like to get SMS working with ISY again without a random address generated each send that takes several minutes to scour out of your message list every time.

Any hints there also?

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

[vbPhil]

I too had the ISY/IoT email blues. I solved it by using a free SMTP2GO account (1000 emails per month). I'm using port 587 with a 10,000 ms time out. Mail has been working fine since setting this up.

[apostolakisl]

1 hour ago, larryllix said:

I haven't been able to make gmail work with any ISY for the last 4 years.

Sure would like to get SMS working with ISY again without a random address generated each send that takes several minutes to scour out of your message list every time.

Any hints there also?

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
 

I use google voice which is set to copy all texts to my gmail.  For this to work, you must use the same GM address in ISY as you use in GV.  Send yourself a text, go to your email version of the text, copy the "from" address and use in your ISY as "to" address in ISY.  The email address will look like this:

yourphonenumber.yourphonenumber.randomlettersandnumbers@txt.voice.google.com

 

The texts show up as coming from my phone number to my phone number, and the email version of it shows up as coming from my GM address.

 

EDIT: Occurred to me that if you wanted ISY to have its own "from" address on texts, you could create a gmail address for ISY and get a google voice number for that email address.  Send a text from yourself to your ISY GV number.  Then, open that text in GM (the one for ISY) and copy the from address.  Use that email address as the "to" address in ISY. 

The only trick is that GV is short on phone numbers.  You might have to keep trying and trying before GV has an available phone number.  Also, GV will cancel your phone number if you don't use it, I think that ISY sending email to texts will suffice to keep the number alive, but I can't be certain.  I do know that sending texts from the GV webpage keeps a number alive since I have a GV number for just that and only that.  It might be that you need to periodically send a text from the GV app or make a phone call from the app.

Edited October 16, 2022 by apostolakisl

[larryllix]

10 hours ago, apostolakisl said:

I use google voice which is set to copy all texts to my gmail.  For this to work, you must use the same GM address in ISY as you use in GV.  Send yourself a text, go to your email version of the text, copy the "from" address and use in your ISY as "to" address in ISY.  The email address will look like this:

yourphonenumber.yourphonenumber.randomlettersandnumbers@txt.voice.google.com

 

The texts show up as coming from my phone number to my phone number, and the email version of it shows up as coming from my GM address.

 

EDIT: Occurred to me that if you wanted ISY to have its own "from" address on texts, you could create a gmail address for ISY and get a google voice number for that email address.  Send a text from yourself to your ISY GV number.  Then, open that text in GM (the one for ISY) and copy the from address.  Use that email address as the "to" address in ISY. 

The only trick is that GV is short on phone numbers.  You might have to keep trying and trying before GV has an available phone number.  Also, GV will cancel your phone number if you don't use it, I think that ISY sending email to texts will suffice to keep the number alive, but I can't be certain.  I do know that sending texts from the GV webpage keeps a number alive since I have a GV number for just that and only that.  It might be that you need to periodically send a text from the GV app or make a phone call from the app.

I don't think Google Voice was ever permitted or launched in Canada, if that what GV means.

[apostolakisl]

12 hours ago, larryllix said:

I don't think Google Voice was ever permitted or launched in Canada, if that what GV means.

GV works anywhere you get internet, though I assume you are correct when you say there are no Canada phone numbers.  Might not matter if you have a US phone number since I think for the most part calling back and froth from Canada to US is free.  To a large extent it doesn't matter since GV mostly works over IP.  I was just in Europe and had no issues using my GV number there.

But, in short, I don't know what your original question was about the random address.  When I use GV it shows it came from my phone number when I send from ISY linked to GM.  When I send from ISY email to text to my phone's native number (@tmomail.net) it shows up as having come from me as well.  I believe it sees the email address and looks it up in my contacts.  Perhaps you are using the default ISY server?  When I use the ISY default it always showed as coming from "alerts@universaldevices.com"

Anyway, I don't have issues with GM working on the ISY now that I switched to 3 seconds timeout.  Same with the using ISY default.  I have GM set to 2 level authentication so for outside apps to work you have to go into your GM settings and have GM create a custom password that only works with that app (in this case ISY).  

 

EDIT: Also, the whole reason I have ISY using GV instead of native texting is my T-mobile email to text has proven to work like crap.  At 9:38 ISY sent me a text simultaneously to GV and to TMobile.  The GV text arrived in less than 1 minute.  The TMobile text took 45 minutes.  Sometimes it comes right away, sometimes it takes hours.  Anyone else using TMobile and having different results?

Edited October 17, 2022 by apostolakisl

[Geddy]

On 10/16/2022 at 11:38 AM, apostolakisl said:

Then 3000ms, now it seems to work 100% of the time.  Anyway, it seems to me you shouldn't need a timeout of 3000ms unless something is wrong with the way IoP is handling mail.  Anyone else having issues like this?

Not using email notifications on IoP yet, but I  remember this post from @Michel Kohanim suggesting to use 10,000 for timeout. I mean it's "only" 10 seconds. You're using 3 seconds. Does it make a huge difference?

 

On 10/16/2022 at 11:45 AM, larryllix said:

I haven't been able to make gmail work with any ISY for the last 4 years.

Sounds like a setup issue. I've been using gmail with notifications for ever and haven't had any problems. Must be they don't like emailing Canada. 

On 10/16/2022 at 11:45 AM, larryllix said:

Sure would like to get SMS working with ISY again without a random address generated each send that takes several minutes to scour out of your message list every time.

This has also been covered that it's a carrier issue. It's not handling the envelope for the email to text correctly and showing up as different random number. I tried this recently and it came through just fine from same accounts from UDI.

 

I don't get why so many still use email to text...it's so outdated and unreliable.  Use the UD Mobile notifications and network resources or a node server. All alerts are INSTANT or darn near! 

 

 

Also note that Google Voice no longer directly texts your phone, so @apostolakisl method above is forcing the email to text route. Google Voice stopped forwarding SMS messages earlier this year because many carriers were starting to block them more due to the amount of spam texts that go through email to text route. Google Voice will still accept text, but it only notifies you through their app. This is another reason not to rely on email to text notifications!

 

[larryllix]

Looks like GV just became available to Canada in 2020

https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2020/05/google-voice-now-generally-available-in-canada.html

Things may be just an IP address but Google and other Internet snoop companies know exactly where you are by your IP address and cut many services off across the border. Try sending some government docs to Russia and see what happens. It's more than just an IP address. It has locations affiliated with it. Sure would be nice to get NetFlix in Canad that USA people get. Ours is chopped down and restricted content.

I used gmail text converter for many years until it stopped working and then switched to the default UD servers. However the UD servers started creating random email addresses so that every message now comes from a completely different source and must be deleted from as many different accounts as text messages. This has been a real PITA, flooding my cell phone account listings.

I have tried every combination of setup I can figure with the gmail servers again with no luck. I have to assume they just won't allow it in Canada since about the last 3-4 years now.

 

It seems every method of communication is being ruined by spammers and nobody wants or can do anything about it. Now, nobody will even answer their phone if it comes from a number not in their personal directory. SMS is one of the last mediums that doesn't report back to the sender and I now see Apple is ruining that also now.

Edited October 17, 2022 by larryllix

[apostolakisl]

5 minutes ago, Geddy said:

Not using email notifications on IoP yet, but I  remember this post from @Michel Kohanim suggesting to use 10,000 for timeout. I mean it's "only" 10 seconds. You're using 3 seconds. Does it make a huge difference?

 

Sounds like a setup issue. I've been using gmail with notifications for ever and haven't had any problems. Must be they don't like emailing Canada. 

This has also been covered that it's a carrier issue. It's not handling the envelope for the email to text correctly and showing up as different random number. I tried this recently and it came through just fine from same accounts from UDI.

 

I don't get why so many still use email to text...it's so outdated and unreliable.  Use the UD Mobile notifications and network resources or a node server. All alerts are INSTANT or darn near! 

 

 

Also note that Google Voice no longer directly texts your phone, so @apostolakisl method above is forcing the email to text route. Google Voice stopped forwarding SMS messages earlier this year because many carriers were starting to block them more due to the amount of spam texts that go through email to text route. Google Voice will still accept text, but it only notifies you through their app. This is another reason not to rely on email to text notifications!

 

The GV email to text works great and is basically instant.  I like it because it shows up across all of my platforms simultaneously.  The downside is Tasker can't read them, parse them and act on them like a native text.  But now that Tmobile has gotten so unreliable about delivering email to texts (sometimes taking hours), the Tasker profiles have become useless. 

Regarding Michelle wanting the timeout set to 10seconds, that is fine, I don't care about a few seconds, but they should change the default to 10 seconds then.  Like most people with an ISY, you can't be expected to read all the threads on here, so how are you supposed to know it should be 10 seconds?  Especially when 1 second has always worked fine and is default.  You have a problem and you waste a bunch of time not knowing the root cause.  The issue is not waiting a few seconds, the issue is it doesn't work at all and you don't know why and you futz around wasting time and effort and get frustrated.  

[apostolakisl]

3 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Looks like GV just became available to Canada in 2020

https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2020/05/google-voice-now-generally-available-in-canada.html

Things may be just an IP address but Google and other Internet snoop companies know exactly where you are by your IP address and cut many services off across the border. Try sending some government docs to Russia and see what happens. It's more than just an IP address. It has locations affiliated with it. Sure would be nice to get NetFlix in Canad that USA people get. Ours is chopped down and restricted content.

I used gmail text converter for many years until it stopped working and then switched to the default UD servers. However the UD servers started creating random email addresses so that every message now comes from a completely different source and must be deleted from as many different accounts as text messages. This has been a real PITA, flooding my cell phone account listings.

I have tried every combination of setup I can figure with the gmail servers again with no luck. I have to assume they just won't allow it in Canada since about the last 3-4 years now.

 

I know it is possible to block service to certain IP ranges. but I don't think Canada is blocked.  Based on some threads on Google's website, it looks like they do not block connections over GV to Canada IP addresses.  In fact the Google rep suggested to one person to buy an OBI200 unit to use GV in Canada as a VOIP service.  I used GV over IP on my phone all over Greece and The Netherlands this summer.

[larryllix]

4 minutes ago, apostolakisl said:

I know it is possible to block service to certain IP ranges. but I don't think Canada is blocked.  Based on some threads on Google's website, it looks like they do not block connections over GV to Canada IP addresses.  In fact the Google rep suggested to one person to buy an OBI200 unit to use GV in Canada as a VOIP service.  I used GV over IP on my phone all over Greece and The Netherlands this summer.

I think Canada may be different. I have experience many cases of video streaming choked down to a a few hundred Kbps where the same streams to US users, simultaneously, has been full 2-3Mbps. Netflix streams will not cross the border. It seems mostly data with entertainment content. As I posted GV was not available until May 2020 to Canadians, google or gov. control? I don't know. Likely Google by Canadian gov. order?

On that note, is your NetFlix starting to insert advertising in your streams? Ours is.

With phone services, Canadians cannot get a US cell service subscription and we cannot use a US bank, although many are starting proxy phone and bank services that look like US accounts.

[apostolakisl]

1 hour ago, larryllix said:

I think Canada may be different. I have experience many cases of video streaming choked down to a a few hundred Kbps where the same streams to US users, simultaneously, has been full 2-3Mbps. Netflix streams will not cross the border. It seems mostly data with entertainment content. As I posted GV was not available until May 2020 to Canadians, google or gov. control? I don't know. Likely Google by Canadian gov. order?

On that note, is your NetFlix starting to insert advertising in your streams? Ours is.

With phone services, Canadians cannot get a US cell service subscription and we cannot use a US bank, although many are starting proxy phone and bank services that look like US accounts.

Just get a VPN and don't worry anymore.  I assume that big brother in Canada isn't blocking VPN.  And I would have to ask my kids about Netflix, I never watch it.  Oh, wait, just remembered, I had insomnia one night and watched 5 episodes of "Never Have I Ever" and there were no commercials.  Yes, I am as embarrassed as you might expect about that.  But it was narrated by John McEnroe, so I should get a pass for that.