First step

[isy.taman]

I'm totally new to Skype connector. I've installed it and read the short documentation but some basic questions are not clear to me.
As a test I've set up a simple manual event to send a skype message to myself.
I can see from the log that the message is being sent but I'm not receiving anything on Skype which is probably not strange since I have not included Homeseer on my contact list.
Do I need to make changes to my Skype settings in order to receive calls from Homeseer. If so could you tell me what I need to do.
Also I can see from the log the following message every 60 seconds or so "Connecting to Skype client". Is this normal ?
Thank you

[stipus]

Also I can see from the log the following message every 60 seconds or so "Connecting to Skype client". Is this normal ?

No this is not normal at all. This means there is no communication between the plugin and the Skype Client. This might be because of authorisation issues.

1) First step is to run the Skype Client in the same windows session as the HomeSeer application. It's better to logon to Skype with a Skype account dedicated to HomeSeer.

2) Using the same or another Skype client, add the HomeSeer account as a contact. You should be able to communicate between your own Skype account and the HomeSeer Skype account.

3) Start HomeSeer, and when the plugin initializes, watch the Skype Client for authorisation. There should be a message such as "The HomeSeer.exe program wants to use Skype, do you agree ?"

4) If you missed the message, you might go to Skype menu: Tools/Options/Advanced, and at the bottom of the page there is an option to manage external program access to Skype. Then restart HomeSeer.

5) If you still get the "Connecting to Skype Client" message every 60 seconds, try to restart HomeSeer again. Then it should be ok.

[isy.taman]

I've followed your instructions but I'm not sure what to expect. This is what I've done

1) I have added Homeseer to my contact list by entering Homeseer in the search box for contacts in Skype. I now have an entry for Homeseer in my contacts list. I entered an introductory message but so far after 15 minutes there has been no response to say that it has been accepted. So far the icon to the left of Homeseer on my contact list has a cross rather than a tick. I'm not sure whether it needs a tick in order to complete the process.

2) I have altered the settings in Skype in order to accept communication from Homeseer
it was not allowed to start with but I have changed the settings so that it now says that Homeseer.exe is allowed to use Skype.

I have closed and restarted both Skype and Homeseer but i get an alert message in Skype saying "Another application (Homeseer.exe) is attempting to access Skype but we are unable to respond. Please try to restart the application"
I assume it means to restart Homeseer but after restarting, the alert message is still the same and I can see from the log that Homeseer is still trying to make contact every 60 seconds.

I'm not sure whether it's significant that the icon to the left of Homeseer in my Skype contacts list still has a cross rather than a tick. Is it just a question of waiting until Homeseer responsds to my introductory message or is there something else I need to do ?

[isy.taman]

In addition to my previous reply to your suggestions I have an additional point that I'd like to clarify. I'm not sure what you mean by

"It's better to logon to Skype with a Skype account dedicated to HomeSeer."

Do you mean that I should set up a separate Skype account with only Homeseer as a contact in my contacts list i.e separate from my regular Skype account which contains all of my other contacts

At the moment it's set up so that Homeseer is just another contact amongst others in my regular Skype account.

Thank you

[stipus]

Yes it's better to create a separate Skype ID for HomeSeer.
If your SkypeId is "taman", you can create a homeseer.taman dedicated skype id.

Then log as taman, and add homeseer.taman as a contact.
Then log as homeseer.taman and accept the contact.

[stipus]

I don't understand why Skype cannot respond to the HomeSeer application.
What is the version of your Skype Client ?

[isy.taman]

Skype version is 4.2.0.169.
In the meantime I'll try create a separate Skype account dedicated to Homeseer and I'll let you know if that makes a difference.

Thanks

[isy.taman]

In order to follow your instructions to create a separate Skype ID, do I have to go through the process of downloading the software again and registering under another name or is it poss to create a different user ID within my current installation of Skype?

[isy.taman]

Since my last message I think I've made some progress. If I now run Skype as administrator, Homeseer does finally connect with Skype. (I think I should have said that I'm running on Windows 7, 64bit). I now no longer see the log entry every 60 seconds that it is trying to connect. Instead, I see that it sent the following message to my Skype account.

" Please type command S, A or O[ S ] - show all lights[ A ] - stop appliance 1 and 2[ O ] - others"

What is the significance of this message?

Secondly, when I open Skype as an adminstrator i get an alert from Skype asking me to Confrm Silent Mode. It says that while Homeseer is running I won't see any notifications of calls, IMs or other Skype events.
My choices are either to press OK or CANCEl. I pressed OK. Could you please confirm that this is the right action.

Now that Skype and Homeseer seem to be communicating, I can see that Homeseer is sending the messages but I'm obviously not seeing them in Skype because I've not set anything up on my contacts list. What I would have expected to happen was a notification from Skype that there is a message for me along with a request for me to include the sender in my contacts list but I am receiving no such notification. Despite your earler explanation, although I understand your instructions perfectly, I'm still unsure as to how this process is going to work so I would like to do a test run.
I have not set up a separate account yet pending a reply to my question about whether i need to download the Skype software again and re-register with a different user name.

From what you said earlier it seems that setting up a separate account is preferable but not essential. If that's the case I would like to do a trial run on my current Skype account just to understand how it works.

Could you describe the process by which I could see the messages that are being sent by Homeseer in my current Skype account.

I know that's a lot of questions and I apologise for that but I can't find any other source of reference to answer these issues.

Thank you

[isy.taman]

In the absence of any replies, I have persevered with the simple first step of having Homeseer send a message to my Skype account. Although i have made progress since my last post the attempts have so far not been successful, probably because I am missing an important step.

In accordance with your suggestion I have created a separate Skype account to be devoted to Homeseer and I have included that account in my main Skype account as a contact. Where the main account is called "Myuserid" the new account is called "Myuserid.hs".

In the Homeseer interface settings I have added both as users and given them both Admin status

I have created a simple manual trigger event in Homeseer to send a message to MyUserID.

While logged in to my Skype "MyUserid.hs" account I have manually triggered that event expecting it to reach my other account but when i log on to my other account the message has not been received.

When I look at the Homeseer log i see the error message
#23 error 507 CHAT: CREATE: invalid/missing user handle as argument.

Could you please advise me as to what to do next because I feel that I've either missed an important step or I've misunderstood what this function is supposed to do.

My ultimate aim is to receive alerts from Homeseer in Skype when x10 events are triggered in Homeseer but I'd like to complete this first step so that I can better understand the process.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[stipus]

I'm sorry I didn't see your last answer.

I just tested on my setup:

- Skype Client running on the HomeSeer computer, and logued as stipus18
- HomeSeer plugin connected to the Skype Client
- Skype client running on my iphone, and logued as stipus2


- Created a new HomeSeer event Test Skype Msg
- In the Action tab, I chose "Send Skype Message"
- In the Skype ID field, I typed stipus2
- In the Message field, I typed test

Ran the event, and I successfully received the "test" message from stipus18 on my iphone.

If this doesn't work for you please go to the Skype plugin configuration - in the Settings tab, check both Debug and Debug Skype Answer checkboxes.

Trigger the event again, and copy/paste the debug log here.

[isy.taman]

Hooray, I've finally managed to get this simple first step to work.

For the benefit of other newcomers wanting to achieve the same objective it may be helpful to bear the following points in mind.

Installing the add-on to Homeseer was fairly easy as was the Skype connector configuration but in order for this concept to work you must create a new Skype account. In order to do that you simply sign out of your ordinary Skype account (But make sure you know your password to get back in again). You will then have the option to create a new account.
Go ahead and create a new Skype account using a different ID and preferably make it recognizable as the Homeseer account.

Now sign out of that account and sign in to your ordinary account. Add the Homeseer account that you've just created to your list of contacts. This will send an invitation to your other account. Sign out of your main Skype account, sign in to your Skype Homeseer account and accept the invitation.

Once this is done you should have 2 Skype accounts, Your main one should now list your Homeseer account amongst others in the contacts list and your Homeseer account should just have one contact in the contact list and that's your original main Skype account.

It ought to be borne in mind that the only purpose for this new account is for it to be used as a vehicle for Homeseer to communicate with your original main Skype account and other Skype accounts.
This may seem obvious when you know it but it took me ages to realise it. At first I thought that Homeseer would somehow communicate directly with my original Skype asccount and I couldn't understand why it was failing to do so.

Now the next thing to understand is that whenever you invoke Homeseer you must also invoke this new Skype account along with it otherwise Homeseer has no mechanism to communicate with other Skype clients. I'm pretty sure that's the case but please somebody correct me if that's not true.

I was using Windows 7 and I found that in order for Homeseer to communicate with Skype I had to run both Skype and Homeseer as an Administrator.
To run Skype as an Administrator you can right click on the Skype icon, go to Properties and then Compatibility. From there you can tick the option to "Run as an admistrator".
To run Homeseer as an administrator you can right click on the Homeseer icon and choose "Run as administrator"

There is one further adjustment I had to make to the Skype settings. When both the new Skype account and Homeseer are running then go to Skype and choose Tools-Options-Advanced. There you will see an option at the bottom that says "Manage other programs' access to Skype". Click on that and you will see an entry for Homeseer that says that access is not allowed. Click on "Change" and tick the option to allow Homeseer to have access. Save the changes. This procedure describes the adjustments i made on my Windows 7 system but i cannot be sure that it's exactly the same on other Skype versions or other operating systems.

Now, with Homeseer and the new Skype account running you can set up a simple test in Homeseer by creating a manually triggered event that sends a simple message to your main Skype account (or any other account). I tested it by logging into my main Skype account on my laptop. Whilst it was on, I ran the manual trigger on the computer running Homeseer and I could see that the message was received on my laptop.

The above is the procedure that I followed in order to get it to work but bearing in mind that I am a newcomer, if there are any factual errors then please post a reply to correct any mistakes or misunderstandings on my part.
This was an important first step because it now opens the way to understanding and getting the full potential from the software.

It's regrettable that there's so little in-depth documentation. Most of what I've seen on other posts assumes that the user already knows the basic first steps.

There are still lots of issues that i need to learn about and I will be asking more questions on other posts but for the time being MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

[isy.taman]

Apologies to Stipus. Whilst I was composing and submitting my last post, he had already posted a reply.
In any case I hope that the information may prove helpful to other "unsophisticated" newcomers like myself.
I still have many other questions which I will leave for other posts.

[stipus]

Can I copy/paste your instructions to the first post of the Skype Connector plugin and documentation ?

I'm sorry this was not very clear, but when I initialy created the Skype Connector, this was running on my HomeSeer server with a dedicated homeseer skype-id, and I was connecting from other laptops / smartphones with my standard skype account. I never use the Skype Client running on the HomeSeer server myself.

Then came new OS like Vista / Seven ... with many new security options such as UAC control, run-as administrator ... etc... and the plugin documentation has not been updated for those OS.

[isy.taman]

Yes that would be fine.