Another WiFi Bad Actor - SOLVED - Wink Home Control

[whitex]

Thanks for the tip. I don't have the Unifi Security Gateway yet. When you mentioned "no additional hardware required", I was thinking you meant I could do that already via an existing router. Reading it again, I see you meant that I could do it if I had the Security Gateway.

Yes, or if you had another router that can create multiple separate networks on separate VLANs. Unifi AP lets you create multiple wireless networks and keep them separated on different VLANS, but then you need a router to route the VLANS independently. I've been using the USG-PRO4 for a few months now and it works great. The only pain is if you have more than one public IP and run servers, then you need to get old school command line config on the USG because the UI doesn't support that yet.

 

[PaulR]

6 months of pure frustration and only to find out that WINK was my problem! Thanks go to you guys for pointing it out.

I removed the WINK from the network and all was well with my Model S.... with it in the system (a mesh network with EERO's) I couldn't get either WiFI or Bluetooth to behave in the car.

I really like the WINK system to control my lights and other things so what can I do to make them both behave nicely together?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

6 months of pure frustration and only to find out that WINK was my problem! Thanks go to you guys for pointing it out.

I removed the WINK from the network and all was well with my Model S.... with it in the system (a mesh network with EERO's) I couldn't get either WiFI or Bluetooth to behave in the car.

I really like the WINK system to control my lights and other things so what can I do to make them both behave nicely together?

If your router has the ability to create a separate guest network, that should fix the issue, assuming you have the car on a separate network from Wink. We found that not all routers created a true guest network and originally, Orbi seemed to still allow devices on the main network to interfere with the Teslas on the guest wifi network. I think Orbi might've changed this since we now have no problem with the Teslas on the guest wifi network on the Wink on the main wifi network.

 

[pinball_player]

As others have said, I have a guest network with 'client isolation' enabled. There is no need for me to connect to the car, so using the guest network is the best way to make it work and not worry about other devices conflicting.

I use a separate WiFi access point from a company called Engenius. It is the ECB1200 which is a pro grade access point. What it does is it has its own DHCP server for guest devices, and the only place traffic can go from those guest devices is the router that connects to the internet.

So my home network is 192.168.1.x/24 and the guest network is 192.168.200.x and those devices can only connect to 192.168.1.1 (the router).

It means I do not have to worry about any other devices causing the Tesla to not connect. Of course I seem to get updates a few weeks after they start coming out, but that is a different story....

 

[PaulR]

Well, I solved the problem with my WINK.... turns out that the EERO mesh system provides an entirely separate "Guest" network. I renamed it, made up a new password and connected the Tesla to it and it solved the problem. I notice by previous comments that some routers don't really provide an entirely separate guest network so it doesn't work for everyone, but those using the EERO mesh routers can utilize it and it works fine even with the WINK.

 

[GreenT]

.

Snip.

Sorry to be late to the party.

I have used WINK for years. It in itself is not so good. I have Bali blinds, Leviton switches, Genius power strips, etc attached to a Model 1 hub. All my app ever does is Refresh ... but ...
I want to know more about the conflicts between my Model S and WINK. Can you tell me how to reproduce the problem?

TIA

 

[jdjeff88]

snap.
If it ain't happening with winks in your network can't say why. Wink for me is great. But I did switch to the gen 2. Gen 1s didn't have problem but local control in the gen 2 is helpful. But in three different houses with Winks on the networks I can't get the Tesla to connect. I get the cycling of LTE/Wifi/reboot. When I put a separate router in a different subnet and different IP range the problem goes away. I did months of trouble shooting. Took every device off the network individually until I discovered it was the wink. Wink 1 and Wink 2. Equally Tesla unfriendly.

 

[jdjeff88]

Well, I solved the problem with my WINK.... turns out that the EERO mesh system provides an entirely separate "Guest" network. I renamed it, made up a new password and connected the Tesla to it and it solved the problem. I notice by previous comments that some routers don't really provide an entirely separate guest network so it doesn't work for everyone, but those using the EERO mesh routers can utilize it and it works fine even with the WINK.

On the Orbi, using a guest network doesn't fix the problem.

 

[PaulR]

Snip.

Sorry to be late to the party.

I have used WINK for years. It in itself is not so good. I have Bali blinds, Leviton switches, Genius power strips, etc attached to a Model 1 hub. All my app ever does is Refresh ... but ...
I want to know more about the conflicts between my Model S and WINK. Can you tell me how to reproduce the problem?

TIA

The actual problem was that when I was parked in my garage at home my Tesla would constantly "re-initialize" both the WiFi connection and the Bluetooth connection. Every 10 to 15 seconds the WiFi would "toggle" between the LTE cellular indicator and the WiFi indicator. It seemed as though it was trying to connect to my Wifi but could not seem to do so and defaulted back to the LTE cellular indicator. That's abnormal as it should change from the LTE over to WiFi and stay there as long as I was parked in my garage (provided that I have a good WiFi signal in the garage - which I do) . I could not attach my phone to Bluetooth and I could not hold a signal long enough to download software updates from Tesla. Very frustrating. After seeing that others have had the same problem made it easy for me to do so as well.

Turns out that my WINK 2 Hub (which was on the same mesh network) was "fighting my WiFi and Bluetooth" for a connection. The solution turned out to be to put the Tesla WiFi on a completely separate network so that it isn't competing with WINK. The trick is to make sure that the separate network is truly separate. Some routers seem to let you set up a "guest network" but it really isn't separate and the overlap with WINK is still there. It seems that my EERO routers do, indeed, have a separate network and it solved the problem.

I would agree that WINK isn't great, but it sure beats Samsungs Smart Things, in my opinion.

By the way, if you are not having the conflict with WINK, don't change anything... If it ain't broke, don't fix it as they say;.

 

[bmah]

Moderator note: Moved a few posts about Orbi firmware to:

Wifi Router chatter

Bruce.

 

[jdjeff88]

That is exactly the problem and that is exactly the solution. I connected an orbi on 192.168.2.xx to the wan port of a legacy router on 192.168.1.xx dedicated to Tesla and voila! No more WiFi/lte/reboot cycle of death. Despite many promises, no orbi and no wink updates have fixed this.

 

[NewTMSMan]

All posts above are correct regarding using Wink on the same WiFi network as your Tesla (both Gen 1 and Gen 2, I tested both and with Wink hardwired with Gen 2, also has the same problem). The behavior is very similar to the behavior when you have a DLNA server on the same network as your Tesla.

In addition with an Orbi network the Guest network is not completely separate from the main network and does not solve the issue for Orbi users. My solution, as many have noted, is a completely separate WiFi network just for my Telsas.

 

[Langhorne]

Be good if you opened a ticket with Wink also, I have done this too.

On my home control system I am primarily using MicasaVerde Vera, and use Wink primarily as a bridge for the Lutron Caseta light switches I have been using recently. I also have a Lutron Hub I could move over to and eliminate Wink from my network, but I also like some of the Wink features and the App is more accessible for rest of the family for basic light controls.

If I can find a way for them to coexist I will post back here as well.

Oh man! I also use Veraplus as my primary hub. I have mostly zwave devices but do have several GE Link zigbee bulbs that I was controlling with the old Link hub (not Wink). Wink killed the Link hub a couple of weeks or so ago (the product essentially got abandoned when Quriky went belly up). I was getting ready to buy a cheap gen 1 Wink hub just so my Vera could see the bulbs. I might have to get the Smartthings hub now.

 

[NewTMSMan]

Oh man! I also use Veraplus as my primary hub. I have mostly zwave devices but do have several GE Link zigbee bulbs that I was controlling with the old Link hub (not Wink). Wink killed the Link hub a couple of weeks or so ago (the product essentially got abandoned when Quriky went belly up). I was getting ready to buy a cheap gen 1 Wink hub just so my Vera could see the bulbs. I might have to get the Smartthings hub now.

Yeah I would recommend that as the Wink plugin for Vera no longer works and is not supported anymore by the developer so I have a split home control network right now.

 

[GreenT]

The actual problem was that when I was parked in my garage at home my Tesla would constantly "re-initialize" both the WiFi connection and the Bluetooth connection. Every 10 to 15 seconds the WiFi would "toggle" between the LTE cellular indicator and the WiFi indicator. It seemed as though it was trying to connect to my Wifi but could not seem to do so and defaulted back to the LTE cellular indicator. That's abnormal as it should change from the LTE over to WiFi and stay there as long as I was parked in my garage (provided that I have a good WiFi signal in the garage - which I do) . I could not attach my phone to Bluetooth and I could not hold a signal long enough to download software updates from Tesla. Very frustrating. After seeing that others have had the same problem made it easy for me to do so as well.

Turns out that my WINK 2 Hub (which was on the same mesh network) was "fighting my WiFi and Bluetooth" for a connection. The solution turned out to be to put the Tesla WiFi on a completely separate network so that it isn't competing with WINK. The trick is to make sure that the separate network is truly separate. Some routers seem to let you set up a "guest network" but it really isn't separate and the overlap with WINK is still there. It seems that my EERO routers do, indeed, have a separate network and it solved the problem.

I would agree that WINK isn't great, but it sure beats Samsungs Smart Things, in my opinion.

By the way, if you are not having the conflict with WINK, don't change anything... If it ain't broke, don't fix it as they say;.

Thanks for this ... I reproduced the problem ... BUT when I powered down my WINK hub the problem still persisted.

 

[whitex]

Thanks for this ... I reproduced the problem ... BUT when I powered down my WINK hub the problem still persisted.

I never had a WINK and can repro the problem as well. The new MCU by the way does better, but I still managed to get it to do its version of the same problem. Eventually I gave our Teslas it's own network - Tesla obviously doesn't do much compatibility testing and/or doesn't have a high level of network expertise inhouse.

 

[Kant.Ing]

Before I was also trouble shooting this compatibility issue and had tried several brands' routers. Besides playing with guest networks, DLNA, UPnP, non 11N, and 20Mhz, I've also tried different IP ranges, and I ever settled on a specific IP range where the car would stay connected for a longer time but very shortly after some new devices easily broke the equilibrium. I couldn't root cause it. I ended up sticking a small access point (TP-LINK RE305, $15 used on eBay) to the wall, dedicating it to the car.

 

[bmah]

Moderator note: Moved a few more.

If you find this WiFi stuff interesting you should be reading that thread anyway:

Wifi Router chatter

Bruce.

 

[sdendle]

I found the car would give trouble if the network address was 192.168.20.XXX.
I changed my gateway to 192.168.21.1 and let DHCP addresses follow that (192.168.21.XXX) and that worked.

I changed the LAN on my (Australia) NBN router from 192.168.20.x -> 192.168.21.x and the WiFi connected.

Thanks ShockOnT, this has been driving me crazy!

Other details:
NBN router - ZTE H268A
Channel = 6
Mode = 802.11b/g (not b/g/n)
Beacon Interval = 100ms
Transmitting Power = 100%

 

[boaterva]

I *really* hate it when vendors hard-code networks for their own use like this.... <steam blowing>

All these old and new comments really makes you want to be sure to have a router that has a guest network that also does it by VLAN. For other reasons, I use the Orbi's and they only sorta segregate the guest, but it works for me. They don't go so far as a separate VLAN. If I added 'some other smart home stuff', I'm sure it would break.