Static IP

I’m having an odd issue with Rachio failing to receive a DHCP data and going randomly offline while still connected to a WIFI access point. I’m still trying to troubleshoot what is different and what is going wrong, but meanwhile I would like to see if a Static IP can be assigned to the controller. I’m comfortable using advanced methods such as using CURL to manually interact with the WiFi Setup process.

In case normal troubleshooting steps will help explaining DHCP issues, here is the RouteThis key: DU8AZP6T

I don’t believe so, we do not have those programmatic abilities built in. I’m not even sure where that happens in the connection process?

Here are the results from the routethis, rarely see an inconclusive analysis. If you are using a range extender I’d try connecting directly to the router.

What generation of controller do you have?

:cheers:

Thanks @franz. I have Gen 3, I’ll send you details via PM.
I have Rachio connected to the a higher security IoT network where I did disable UPnP to prevent unauthorized port forwarding, this is the first time I’ve heard that it is important for controller operation (thought everything was done via secure MQTT). Client Isolation is interesting, I’ve not enabled it on the network in question so I’m not sure what triggered it.

Thanks for the feedback on Static IP, I guess it can be added to a list of feature suggestions :slight_smile:

I’ll keep an eye out on the DHCP issues, likely it’s on my end that it is getting lost along the way. I do not have a simple router, instead I’m running a virtualized pfsense firewall with two managed switches between it and the access points which provide WiFi coverage.

P.S. The app detected an Incomplete Analysis, because I’ve minimized it to check that I’m still connected to the right WiFi network.

Oh man, one of those people :joy:

Ill help as much as I can, but I’m already over my head.

:cheers:

After it goes offline, does it come back by itself after a while, or do you have to reset something?

Since you have managed switches, it should be easy to set up port mirroring/monitoring to capture DHCP traffic to your PC and analyze with Wireshark. You can temporarily set the DHCP lease time short so you’ll get many ‘hits’ in a reasonable time. You could also capture traffic on the pfSense LAN interface and copy the Sniff_output file to your PC for analysis.

Although you can’t set a static IP, you can (and probably should) set up static DHCP, so the controller will be at a known address that you could periodically ping.

IMO, UPnP is not used during normal operation. Possibly, it’s there so tech support could enable direct access to the controller for troubleshooting.

Thanks @Stewart, yes I’ve been monitoring Pocket Capture on the pfsense side and see Request come in & response go out, alas somewhere there seem to be a packet loss. Rachio often recovers by-itself, but if IP times out completely I sometimes have to reset the AP to get everything back to order.

May 22 16:12:35	dhcpd		DHCPACK on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 16:12:35	dhcpd		DHCPREQUEST for 10.0.20.138 (10.0.20.1) from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 16:12:35	dhcpd		DHCPOFFER on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 16:12:34	dhcpd		DHCPDISCOVER from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:48:09	dhcpd		DHCPACK on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:48:09	dhcpd		DHCPREQUEST for 10.0.20.138 from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:27:07	dhcpd		DHCPACK on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:27:07	dhcpd		DHCPREQUEST for 10.0.20.138 (10.0.20.1) from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:27:06	dhcpd		DHCPOFFER on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:27:05	dhcpd		DHCPDISCOVER from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:02:59	dhcpd		DHCPACK on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 15:02:59	dhcpd		DHCPREQUEST for 10.0.20.138 from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 14:50:38	dhcpd		DHCPACK on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 14:50:38	dhcpd		DHCPREQUEST for 10.0.20.138 (10.0.20.1) from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 14:50:38	dhcpd		DHCPOFFER on 10.0.20.138 to b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20
May 22 14:50:37	dhcpd		DHCPDISCOVER from b8:d7:af:xx:xx:xx (Rachio) via vmx1.20

I’ve not yet setup port mirroring, it’s on my to do list in case I fail to discover where the loss is occurring.

Interesting. This may be the same problem that has plagued many other users.

Somehow, it’s in a state where it thinks it’s still associated / authenticated with the AP, yet no traffic passes. There must be Wi-Fi packets being sent and received, otherwise it wouldn’t ‘know’ when the AP was reset. I don’t have a Gen 3 so can’t help with debugging this. Do you have a device that can capture Wi-Fi packets in monitor mode?

@Gene @Stewart I wish I had your networking skills!!!

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@Linn trust me, the “skills” are overrated, KISS is the best approach, but my system is complicated as it is simply because I’m forced to exercise the skills I use for work.

Update: Rebooting one of the managed routers seems to have fixed the issue, ability to support a static IP would still be a very useful feature for any network connected device, but the DHCP issues I’ve experienced were not caused by the controller.

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AMEN !

M

I set my router up to have issue static IPs so that the IP addresses are always the same. From the device’s perspective, they are DHCP (but magically always get the same IP).

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Yes, static DHCP enteries are good in cases you need persistant address for firewall / routing purposes, but original request for static IP support was to get around the problem with DHCP packet loss…

Edit: @Thomas_Lerman, didn’t mean to substract from your input. Static DHCP may be a perfect solution for many cases where Static IP is needed, but I wanted to make it clear that original post was about a situation where DHCP connection itself was unreliable, thus remind Rachio engineers why static IP support is still a good idea to support.

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Good point. If the DHCP connection is unreliable, the static DHCP would still have issues. I probably should have read the whole thread instead of just the quote about ability to support a static IP . . . Thank you Gene.

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Was there any resolution to this? I also have the same issue and have to reboot it all the time and do a full reset on it. Sometimes going into my wireless and bumping the client forcing it to reconnect helps. Otherwise the IP shows up as a 169 even though it’s still connected to Wifi. Lasts about a day to a week then does it all over again.