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    Z-Net and Server Wireless Reliability?

    I have my Homeseer dedicated Server(win 10) AND my z-net BOTH running on WiFi ONLY. When both were connected to a LAN the system was pretty solid. Now, having moved both to wireless for a few months, the Homeseer system fails to connect to the Z-net several times per day, AND usually tries many times over many minutes to reconnect before the communications is re-established; meanwhile the Z wave subsytem is non-functional.

    My wireless LAN has very good signal quality as the router is in next room, so I don't think it's a wireless issue and if it was it certainly would not last for minutes.

    Questions:
    1) Is anyone running HS Server and Z-net in wireless only mode? Reliability?

    2) Does anyone have an idea on how to attack this problem?
    (the initial log entry when failure starts is:
    "Nov-16 9:49:59 PM Z-Wave Error rgsV1Z-net: Exception transmitting to IP 192.168.1.104: Unable to write data to the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host."
    This outage lasted 19 minutes before it successfully reconnected.)

    I would really appreciate some help,
    BobSpen

    #2
    Bob - Why did you switch from Ethernet to WiFi? Do you HAVE to use WiFi? I always consider that a 'last resort' option. In my house, I have a WiFi touchscreen in the kitchen that's about 20 feet from my router (dual band Linksys ACS model). However, the connection to it drops when I use the microwave oven in the kitchen. I also tried some LIFX bulbs last year and couldn't get them to behave reliably.

    If you can switch back to a wired connection, that would be best. Honestly, we generally don't recommend WiFi unless you have no other choice.
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      #3
      Z-Net and Server Wireless Reliability?

      So wireless is considered stateless compared to a LAN connections which is stateful. Stateless means that the expectation is that the connection isn't perfect and many packets will need to be retransmitted. So, with TCP connections the three-way handshake will allow the source to determine which packets need to be retransmitted. UDP connections have no such handshake. Lost packets are lost and never retransmitted. So, when retransmits are required in TCP connections latency occurs. When packets are never received in UDP connections can drop (depending on programming), data is incomplete, etc

      Here, I have just about every room wired with gigabit POE capable LAN. my HTPCs(except 1 that doesn't have a LAN NIC), smart TV, HTPC server HS3 server, wifi controller, network monitor, NAS, game consoles, desktops, and multifunction printer are LAN connected. Only my smart phones, tablets, 1 media streamer (no LAN NIC), and laptops are wifi connected.

      My advice to people is wifi is for devices that:
      1. do not serve a resource to your network
      2. Are mobile
      3. Do not require stateful connections.
      4. network client type devices.

      If you are stuck running server types of devices on wifi, wifi best practices are key.

      1. Do a wifi frequency assessment.
      A. make sure that you are using a non-overlapping relatively unused broadcast channel.
      B. Make sure you have low SNR and good reception in the areas in question.

      2. Good quality wifi network equipment is key.
      A. Limit broadcast and multicast traffic on your wifi network. This can consume your wifi network's available bandwidth.
      B. Steer clear from internal WNICs on RPIs.
      C. Be wary of software controlled WNICs.
      D. Disable power saving features on your wifi connected servers.
      E. Consider other features like MU-MIMO and beamforming.

      Once that is done, make sure that your servers are getting the same IP Every time it connects. check your IP connection settings. Is it possible to DHCP reserve an ip on your network for a wifi connected device? If so, you should do so. Static ip address assignment is iffy on wifi.

      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
      Last edited by Kerat; November 18, 2017, 12:13 AM.

      Comment


        #4
        Wireless is not going to be as clean as a wired connection. I connect wirelessly to a Raspberry Pi for days at a time and the ssh connection never drops - but I do occasionally see delays in the keyboard response which I attribute to wireless network imperfections.

        Can you temporarily revert to a wired connection on one of the two parties at a time in order to isolate if one or both sides are contributing to the problem?

        If the network imperfections are greater that the tolerance built into the Zwave plugin, the plugin will drop the connection and attempt to reconnect. Unfortunately there's a problem... which was identified, investigated and eventually solved over the course of this thread. By revision 1.0.22 the problem was repaired, but the fix was dropped without explanation in revision 1.0.23.

        This post details how the fixes can be manually applied.

        Comment


          #5
          Here have kept the ZNet like device in the attic POE connected now for over a year and running great. The Homeseer 3 boxes are in the basement connected to the managed Gb switches. No issues to post.
          - Pete

          Auto mator
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            #6
            Kerat,
            Thanks for the ideas. I will pursue.

            MacroMark and others,
            I am not doing wireless by chose. Just move to an older home that doesn't have Cat5 wiring and wanted to get up and running quickly. Hope to get wired in near future but in the meantime...........

            I understand that a wireless connection may have a momentary glitch, BUT I don't understand why HS is not able to reconnect to Z-net quickly?????

            Is any one running either the server and/or the z-net wireless and seeing results different from mine?????

            BobSpen

            Comment


              #7
              I've got my ZNET on wireless, and have had it that way for as long as I've had it (at least a year). I do occasionally have dropouts, but it usually only requires me to bounce the connection on the controller page. While it would be nice if the connection we're a little more persistent, I do understand that WiFi is not the best connection method.

              Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by epimetheus View Post
                I've got my ZNET on wireless, and have had it that way for as long as I've had it (at least a year). I do occasionally have dropouts, but it usually only requires me to bounce the connection on the controller page. While it would be nice if the connection we're a little more persistent, I do understand that WiFi is not the best connection method.

                Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
                epimetheus,
                Dropouts have what kind of log entries? How often? When it drops out, does it not automatically reconnect? Mine does but it takes a long time, sometimes.

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