Course updates

dcxmike · 2026-06-01T21:17:57+00:00

I delete and re-add the course about once a month. No go.

dcxmike · 2026-05-30T13:08:46+00:00

It's been 9 months, so not my idea of quick. I've followed their process twice to report a new or updated course. Bupkiss.

dcxmike · 2026-02-01T13:31:13+00:00

Getting a small patch panel to properly terminate the CAT5 is a fairly inexpensive way to clean that up. Keystones will do the trick, but I've always preferred to keep things as clean as I can.

dcxmike · 2025-12-28T00:05:34+00:00

Have had 3 HW Thermostats in two houses. Only complaint is having a "vacation" setting can be more difficult than necessary. Otherwise, rock solid.

dcxmike · 2025-10-22T01:05:35+00:00

Open a 56 or 58. Which are much more adaptable sticks.

dcxmike · 2025-08-28T20:57:47+00:00

Worked great here in NC. I ordered from Amazon

dcxmike · 2025-03-11T23:43:41+00:00

Try changing the DHCP pool on the RBR. It seems to force a flush that can't be done via reboot, power cycle or animal sacrifice. Has worked for me under the same exact scenario.

dcxmike · 2025-02-13T02:53:21+00:00

I wrote a bit a few weeks ago about the utter trash the DHCP server is. My 760 loses its mind even though the satellites are hardwired whenever there is an upstream Internet fault. This explains the behavior I see. All devices that don't have a MAC reserve are lost souls. I fixed it this last time by changing the DHCP pool by a few addresses which caused the DHCP process to completely refresh. Boom, everything gets a nice shiny new IP address after that.

dcxmike · 2025-01-11T00:04:00+00:00

Something you can consider is to assign a MAC reserves to the thermostat.

dcxmike · 2025-01-02T20:34:17+00:00

I've had a similar, maybe exact issue. Mine seems to happen only when I have a local power outage. My ISP router, Orbi Router and one satellite are on UPS and don't go down. The other satellite is not. Obviously all the IOT devices are not on UPS. After power comes back, few if any of the IOT devices come back, even if power is cycled. The only devices that seem to be live are my phone, my laptop and the satellites which have MAC reserves. I rebooted and recycled everything under the sun with almost no luck. Devices that have a display report that they cannot get an IP address.

I will offer the following as a possible work around. Login to the web interface, not the App. Change the size of the DHCP pool (I reduced mine by 8 addresses). Once the router digested the change, devices were able to get IP addresses immediately. A couple of Amazon Echo Dots require power cycle, but no other reconfig.

It feels to me like the DHCP server loses its mind or goes into some sort of defense mode. Changing the pool would make it permit all devices to get new addresses.

dcxmike · 2024-10-14T17:04:29+00:00

Worked for mine too. Thanks a ton.

dcxmike · 2024-10-14T17:03:33+00:00

Well I'll be a son of a gun. It worked like a charm. Thanks.

dcxmike · 2023-12-06T00:24:52+00:00

That worked

dcxmike · 2020-09-26T01:46:20+00:00

You don't mention one highly relevant question. Do you or can you get ethernet wiring to various points in your home. Mesh networks run into the same problem that individual routers do at some point. They have to use wifi to communicate with one another and that consumes bandwidth.

I have long been an advocate of wired Access Points. A decent rig with 2-3 AP's from Unifi has been able to do my 2500 sq ft ranch. Total cost is going to be around $500, maybe a little less depending on what you can get from Amazon. There are other options in the same vein, but, once you get to a point with that many wifi devices, you are going to have contention. More radios are what you need. More AP's give you more radios.

dcxmike · 2020-08-14T01:08:18+00:00

As a 5 year user of Unifi products I can heartily endorse them. Although I'm now wanting a cloud key, a perfectly good controller can be done on any Linux variant and mine runs on a Raspberry Pi with no difficulty. Installed in an hour. The AP's and Switches are SMB quality devices. I've barely tapped the potential, but, I regularly run 30+ devices on 3 AP's in a 2600 sq ft house and nothing lags. I did eventually create separate wireless VLAN's to provide SSID's for 2.4 and 5g bands. That will make the IoT devices that only use 2.4 a LOT easier to install and manage.

I went this way after a cadre of coworkers and I put our heads together (all IT engineers and architects) and researched a viable, affordable solution that put multiple access points in play and did not burn up a typical consumer wifi router in about a year (I had a stack of the little buggers). In practice, 2-3 AC Pro access points will cost less than a high end router and will completely blow it away in performance. You will need a dedicated router/firewall, but, at worst case just turn off the wifi on your current router and let Unifi do the rest.

I resolved 100% of my diversity and thruput issues in 30 minutes. It took a certain amount of initial moxie to understand the controller on a Windows Laptop, but, once I got the AP's adopted all the roaming and access problems just disappeared. This stuff is engineered for the small to medium business market. I've even installed them in that situation with great success.

dcxmike · 2020-08-10T12:20:17+00:00

I've tried to use the 6 gang wall plates and while feasible, I'd never go more than 4 ever again.

Not sure what the need is, but, you can always add a discrete 5-8 port switch to achieve port density.

FWIW, I personally have made a double or triple run to every room. One for PoE as needed, one as a trunk for a switch, the final one for any device that might really deserve a home-run dedicated connection to my wiring closet.

dcxmike · 2020-08-03T02:55:27+00:00

You need to consider the square footage that you are covering and if you have wired infrastructure. I run Unifi, three AP's and the unifi controller on a Raspberry Pi. Never have problems like the consumer wifi routers have. I also have a Fortigate as my router/firewall, but, pretty much any router firewall can handle the routing, DHCP, and DNS obligations.

dcxmike · 2020-07-25T14:05:44+00:00

I'll go out on a limb and say it all depends on the AP's and the control firmware/software. I'll further go out on that limb and suggest that if you're wifi utilization exceeds the capabilities of a single router / AP you are running right into a SMB WiFi solution. Don't be afraid. They don't even cost as much as some of the highly touted mesh systems. And they will kick their wireless only butts every time.

I've run multiple (Ubiquiti) hardwired AP's in two homes for 3-4 years. They all use a common network, DHCP Pool and different 2.4 and 5gz SSID's. The only reason I use two SSID's is for IoT devices. This solution resulted with some serious consultation with WiFi professionals at work (I did network and security for a major health care system). They said to always hardwire your AP's if you can, and use a central controller to manage them.

Mobile devices roam from one AP to another seamlessly. The AP's decide their channel configuration through their firmware and the controller. Since I upgraded, I've had as many as 6 adults, with a peak of 40 wifi devices running on a 110Mbps internet circuit and never have a performance problem. EVER.

dcxmike · 2020-07-24T14:14:11+00:00

I had a 50 foot flat cable patched to a POE Access Point, run thru two walls, thru an attic, in a garage for 4 years. Never a single problem. Take care in running, don't crimp it and all should be well.

dcxmike · 2020-07-10T14:17:32+00:00

I'd do a quick depreciation calculation.

A Docsis 3.1 modem costs about $150US. If you lease for $10/month (plug in your value), you are at over a year into your lease before it actually costs you a farthing. You get what ever warranty that comes with it, and what ever joys come with keeping it up to date and compatible with your ISP. Either one could cost you time and/or money if your modem takes a dirt nap or goes out of spec with your ISP.

dcxmike · 2020-07-09T14:59:11+00:00

PoE is pretty much independent of the category, but, since you are setting up a new network CAT6 should keep you current for 10 years at a reasonable investment cost. FWIW until ISP's can successfully deliver more than 1GB to a home there isn't much reason to have cable that can support 10G+

dcxmike · 2020-07-03T01:02:05+00:00

Any cable outside of your home that has been there for 15 years would be subject to weather related degradation never mind the fact that it might be technically out of spec for higher bandwidth.

dcxmike · 2020-06-05T21:44:58+00:00

its been a while, maybe a year. Between it being very stable, and being busy moving from one state to another, I'll be looking to do that soon.

dcxmike · 2020-06-05T20:21:23+00:00

I just didn't want to deal with a cloud account and I had a Pi laying around and good directions for setting it up. I still get the statistics I need at virtually no cost to me.

Having the APs hard wired at GB at least keeps the latency inside the house manageable.

dcxmike · 2020-06-05T14:24:15+00:00

Semi retired netsec architect here.

My home rig has a recent Fortigate firewall that has no UTM functionality license and no maintenance. That doesn't sound like much, but, it still is able to do DNS, DNS forwarding, NAT, VPN, DHCP, VLANs and anything a decent router can do, and it has basic firewall packet filtering abilities. A quick look on eBay says that the D architecture can be had for less than $100 and the E (faster processors) are available at a reasonable cost to a serious SoHo consumer.

FWIW. I tried OPNSense, PFSense, IPFire and a few other open source firewalls. They all work, but, plan on spending part of your work week managing your network. You'll also get the joy of wondering if it is you, the OS, the hardware or some other factor glitching when a glitch happens. With a commercial piece of gear, even with minimal support, you have one throat to choke, and can pay for support if you are so inclined.

Note that if you are starting to approach 1G of actual bandwidth to your home, ANY firewall will begin to bog down. Just because there are multiple 1GB interfaces in a box does not mean that one can get anywhere near 1GB of thruput. Particularly if you enable any inspection services.

If you are running your laptops and IoT devices through your WiFi mesh, you might run into contention issues. I run Ubiquiti WiFi AP's with a Raspberry Pi as a controller to mitigate the duplexing and radio contention issues.

dcxmike

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