Unable to connect when using Unifi AP - Troubleshooting / Wi-Fi - Rachio Community
Unable to connect when using Unifi AP
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
I upgraded my network to use Unifi equipment and access points and am now completely unable to get my Rachio gen 2 to complete wifi setup. I’ve opened a support ticket but they are very slow to respond and the info so far has not helped.
What I’ve done so far:
- Created a dedicated 2.4GHz wifi network called “RACHIO” with no outbound firewall rules and no MAC address filtering.
- Confirmed the controller connects to the network. It shows up in the list of attached clients, and the MAC address listed matches what’s printed on the controller.
- Looked at the “deep packet inspection” page for the controller to see that outbound and inbound traffic to AWS is happening
Even with all this the controller never finishes setup. It just keeps cycling from the 3rd blinking light for a while back to the 2nd blinking light.
The signal strength reported by the AP is 97% (-51 dBm) and the network channel is 11.
I’ve done all the configuration with my phone in airplane mode and only connected to the Unifi network I created specifically for the Rachio (the phone connects fine and can access the web fine). I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Rachio app on the phone too, since 1st level support said to try that.
I’ve read through all the other Unifi AP threads here and they never really explicitly had any solution other than trying 2.4GHz networks, which I’ve done and confirmed allows the controller to get on the network. It’s just never completing the setup.
Anyone have any suggestions? It’s getting to watering time and I really need the controller up and running.
post by dbmet on Apr 9, 2018
Just curious if you have done this? I believe I had to do it when I had a unifi network, but its been a while since I did. Not sure where the setting is located anymore
“Enable legacy device support (i.e. 11b)” on your access point (on the Controller in Settings -> Wireless Networks -> Options) In Controller - Edit your WLAN Group, re-enable Legacy. IEdit->802.11 Rate and Beacon Controls, select Legacy under 2G Data Rate Control
post by fpuig on Apr 9, 2018
I have a all Ubiquiti network including APs and I have zero issues. What router are you using? What AP / FW version? Just curious why you created a separate SSID for the rachio controller?
post by scorp508 on Apr 9, 2018
No issues with my UniFi gear here, we have 4 access points. Our Rachio connects to the AC AP Lite closest to it. Same SSID on 5 & 2.4GHz radios and it connects to the 2.4. My controller and APs are on the latest SW/FW versions.
post by DLane on Apr 9, 2018
@neile - I have no idea if this is an issue or not, did you upgrade from V2 to V3 of the software before you changed out the AP? One other suggestion would be to get the RouteThis app and run it so that information can be provided to Rachio. They have some good networking folks on the help desk. I might schedule a call with them when you’ll be home to troubleshoot it further.
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
I have a UniFi AP-AC-Pro (version 3.9.19.8123) and Unifi security gateway running on a Synology box via Docker.
I set up a separate 2.4GHz-only SSID because support told me to.
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried enabling legacy support and it didn’t help.
The behaviour is the same as without legacy support enabled: I can see the controller show up in the Unifi control panel as a connected device on the wifi network but it fails to finish the third light.
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
I don’t know, when did v3 come out? I’ve completely ignored Rachio since October when I turned off my irrigation system for the winter. The new Unifi deployment happened about two months ago and I completely forgot the Rachio needed to get reconnected until this weekend as I started to bring up the irrigation again.
I’ve used the RouteThis app twice and sent the results to Rachio twice. The first time they really didn’t seem to bother to look at it and just said to try setting up a 2.4GHz network and try again. When that didn’t work they bumped it to some other support person who just told me to ensure the outbound ports weren’t blocked (they aren’t). I sent a new RouteThis trace this morning but haven’t heard anything back yet.
Anyone know how to see the results of what RouteThis sends to Rachio?
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
Cool. Can I grab your network and controller and install it at my place?
post by scorp508 on Apr 9, 2018
Sure! Where shall I send it?
Sorry I didn’t mean it to sound all “works here, so should yours!”
Did you already override the AP config so the new SSID would not be broadcast on the 5G radio?
post by DLane on Apr 9, 2018
@neile - V3 was released March 1, 2018 6AM MST (edit changed to 2018).
I’m guessing that may be the problem. There is a new backend to the system. Therefore the new app is trying to find the device in the V3 environment, but it doesn’t exist.
I think Rachio can convert your controller over to the V3 platform for you. That may solve the problem.
I’d mention that on the next conversation or ticket.
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
Yep, the new SSID is only broadcasting on 2.4GHz. I don’t think it’s a “connect to wifi” problem since I can see it in the Unifi UI and I can see in the deep packet inspector that data is getting sent/received from AWS.
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
I bought my Rachio from Amazon on August 29, 2017. I assume that when I did the initial setup it would have had a forced upgrade or offered the upgrade to v3.
post by franz on Apr 9, 2018
It looks like your controller data was migrated over to our new V3 application but it can not receive the new firmware.
Have you tried a WiFi reset in the app?
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
Thanks for the reply Franz. I’ve tried those wifi reset steps more times than I can count, most recently today when trying on both my 2.4GHz network and then my combined 2.4GHz/5GHz network.
post by franz on Apr 9, 2018
Do you have a hotspot (most phones have this capability) by any chance that we could at least get the controller’s firmware updated and connected to the cloud?
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
I can enable hotspot on my phone, yes. Then tell the Rachio controller to connect to that hotspot and hope it finishes updating?
post by franz on Apr 9, 2018
That’s what I’m thinking, at least to see if we can get the controller connected to another WiFi network. Once connected it will get new firmware that probably won’t help your Unifi issue but at least might tell us if the controller can connect to other WiFi networks.
post by neile on Apr 9, 2018
I’ll give it a try later tonight, but to be clear, as far as I can tell it is connecting to my wifi network.
post by franz on Apr 10, 2018
I enabled hotspot on my Android phone and the Rachio app never showed the network in the list of networks to configure.
I enabled hotspot on my Windows 10 laptop, forced to 2.4ghz mode, and the controller successfully connected to the laptop and showed in the connected devices list. It sat with the blinking third light for a while then fell back to a second blinking light, and is now showing the third blinking light again.
I assume this means that it failed to download the firmware update again.
Can I just RMA this thing and get a replacement unit with the right firmware in it?
post by franz on Apr 10, 2018
I’ll talk to our success team tomorrow about your configuration. It’s really not the firmware but the inability to connect to internet. If they don’t have additional ideas I’ll work with them on next steps.
post by DLane on Apr 10, 2018
@neile - Oops my bad. Yes 2018. Just over a month ago.
post by lucasc on Apr 10, 2018
Can you try this for me? Go into your phone’s settings and forget the wifi network that you are connecting the Rachio to, then run a wifi reset on the controller (up button and circle button until all lights around the circle are lit) and then try onboarding the controller. If that doesn’t get you online, open up the help center of the app (click on the person button on the bottom of the main screen that says no controllers/add controller -> Help Center) then click run wifi scan (make sure you are still connected to the same wifi network you are trying to onboard and run the scan. Shoot us a ping when you’ve ran it and I will look into your scan results
Thanks
post by neile on Apr 10, 2018
Up button or down button? The app says down button to reset the wifi.
post by neile on Apr 10, 2018
I did the following:
- Forgot all wireless networks on my phone
- Put my phone in airplane mode
- Connected my phone to the dedicated 2.4GHz network I have for the controller
- Ran the Rachio app
- Powered up the controller and held up and round button until all the lights blinked, even though the app says down and round button
- Finished the app steps to select the network and password
As with every other attempt the controller connected to the wifi network (I can see it in the list of connected devices), blinked the third light for a while, then went back to blinking the second light.
I did the wifi scan and sent a report. I put “neile” in the description of the issue.
post by DLane on Apr 10, 2018
@neile - the up button is for a factory reset, the down button is just for WiFi reset.
post by lucasc on Apr 10, 2018
@neile It looks like we were unable to make a connection to our servers. Please configure your firewall to allow inbound and outbound connections mqtt.rach.io … There are a few other DNS addresses in there as well, but I have a feeling that if you just allow this one, the other should work ok.
post by lucasc on Apr 10, 2018
@neile I just wanted to add a bit more context for you on my last response. This is what your scan came back with
And it should look along the lines of this (This is a scan done from our ubiquity setup)
Please do not hard code those IP addresses, as they constantly change through AWS. Hope this gets you working. If you want to run another scan before you go through connecting I can help with reviewing.
Thanks!
post by neile on Apr 10, 2018
Aha! This isn’t a firewall problem, it’s a DNS problem.
My DNS config is as follows, and gets sent to clients when they obtain their IP address via DHCP:
192.168.1.81
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
The first one is a DNS server I run internally to provide name resolution for devices on my internal network. The other two are Google and handle everything else. My DNS server doesn’t forward on requests for domains it doesn’t know: it expects the clients to fall back to the other two name servers that were provided as part of DHCP.
All other clients on my home network correctly handle this. It appears the Rachio DNS client doesn’t do this, and simply gives up when it gets a “nope” response from my DNS server.
post by franz on Apr 10, 2018
Is this why we can’t have nice things?
post by neile on Apr 10, 2018
I think it puts Rachio on my “not nice things” list, since every other network connected device I own can handle this properly
Is there any known way to make the Rachio behave properly or am I going to have to change my DNS setup just for this one device?
post by franz on Apr 10, 2018
According to our firmware team this is a limitation of the Gen 2 firmware.
post by neile on Apr 10, 2018
Is there a way to exchange my Gen 2 for a Gen 3 since it doesn’t support this configuration?
post by scorp508 on Apr 10, 2018
I’m surprised a bit that the others work. Normally a “no such domain” error is considered a valid DNS response and the client accepts that answer so there is no need to move on.
If you do a nslookup against your local DNS server what response do you get back since it has no forwarder setup?
post by neile on Apr 10, 2018
I can’t remember the exact wording, but it’s not “no such domain”, it’s something like “yeah, no, we’re not gonna give you one”. It’s probably a REFUSED response from looking at the list of common DNS response codes.
post by plainsane on Apr 12, 2018
I would have expected a nxdomain response, it’s weird if it wasn’t that. Refused typically means an acl didn’t allow for the query
Honestly I would forward out of your name server since you have one. It provides you more control over bad actors on your network.
post by neile on Apr 13, 2018
The response I get back via nslookup is “Query refused”.
Yes, I’ll be forwarding out of the name server and will see how that goes later today.
post by plainsane on Apr 13, 2018
that sounds acl based.
post by neile on Apr 13, 2018
It isn’t. The difference is literally unchecking the “Enable resolution services” option in the Synology DNS UI. From Synology’s help topic on the setting:
You can enable resolution services to allow the DiskStation to resolve recursive queries. A recursive query occurs when the DiskStation is not authoritative for a requested domain. In this case, the DiskStation queries other domain name servers until the information is found, or until the query fails.
For example, if a client queries your DiskStation for the address of “synology.com”, but your DiskStation is not authoritative for this domain (i.e. you do not own synology.com), it will query other domain name servers or forward the request to specified forwarder servers, and then relay the result back to the sender of the query.
post by neile on Apr 13, 2018
And for completeness: enabling DNS forwarding on my DNS server resulted in the Rachio connecting almost instantly. No need for any special wifi network or anything.
post by scorp508 on Apr 13, 2018
That makes sense then, as a device should move to the next DNS server in its list. If it got back a non valid domain response then I’d expect it to stop at that response.
post by neile on Apr 13, 2018
Rachio engineering confirmed that the firmware for v2 devices doesn’t support falling back on a refused response. Ah well, I’m just glad I was able to sort out what was going wrong.
post by tadasauce on Jul 3, 2020
Thanks for the suggestion! This worked for me using a Rachio 3 with Ubiquity UniFi AP-nanoHD firmware v4.3.13.11253 and Cloudkey Gen2+ on controller firmware v5.13.29. Also running Untangle 15.0 UTM Firewall.
The path in the Cloudkey Gen2+ Settings -> WI-FI -> Wi-Fi Networks Groups -> Select the WLAN Group -> Edit -> Slide switch to enable Legacy Support.
To add to this, I will setup a dedicated WLAN group with a single AP-nanoHD that has the Legacy Support on. This way legacy support is enabled only on this AP. The reason for it is that when Legacy Support is enabled, it slows down throughput.
Thanks again.
post by thescszabos on May 7, 2021
Same issue as everyone here. Gen 2 was working now not.
Model 8ZULW-B
getting a flashing 3rd light.
Tried to reset. On 2nd flashing light says connection to my wifi successful
then updating firmware for like a 20 sec
then adding rachio to wifi for like 60 sec
third light starts flashing on my rachio
then oops we couldnt connect try to do it all again
tried to use my Win pc with the .bat file
connect to rachio wifi
enter all my creds
it tells me it cant connect to https://192.168.0.1/config port 443
when I check my IP after connects to the rachio its on the 192.168.10.x subnet?
DM me some help Rachio!!
post by Gene on May 7, 2021
Try changing the address in your command from 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.10.1 to match the subnet you are getting.
post by Stewart on May 7, 2021
I disagree with @gene on this one. Gen 2 uses an elliptic curve algorithm for provisioning, so the .bat file is useless. However, the fact that your controller advanced to the flashing 3rd light indicates that provisioning was successful so the .bat file should not be needed.
When stuck with the 3rd light flashing, the controller has connected to the target network but is unable to obtain an IP address, can’t get the time, or can’t connect to the cloud server. You can confirm this hypothesis by setting up another phone as a temporary mobile hotspot (test it with your phone to confirm it’s working), then setting up the controller on the hotspot network. If successful, that will also allow you to set up some fixed schedules and get the water flowing, in case it will take a long time to fix the problem. If connecting to the hotspot also fails, provide details and we can investigate the provisioning process further.
Though I have no experience with the latest Ubiquiti APs, with default settings the older ones are pretty transparent and IMO are unlikely to be causing your trouble. Does your router have a built-in Wi-Fi that the Rachio can ‘see’? If so, you could try connecting to that, to rule out the Unifi.
If you still have trouble, please report: ISP? Modem make/model? In bridge mode? Separate router/firewall make/model (if any)? Separate access points? Connected wired or wirelessly?
post by thescszabos on May 7, 2021
tried it, but it still couldnt get to the page
post by Stewart on May 7, 2021
The 3rd light flashing indicates that the app did its job setting up Wi-Fi, but the controller is having trouble on your Wi-Fi.