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Forum Discussion
Adding 2.4 ghz devices to Orbi
I have the Orbi RBR20 which is not listed in the model drop down. I also have an Android phone runing Oreo. I have bought two wi-fi plugs to connect to Alexa and a La Crosse weather station that us...
Does this device have it's own set up web page by chance? I know that some devices do and allows for a wired or wireless PC to connect directly to the device for setup along with having mobile app services as well.
No one has ever mentioned devices like this having ethernet jacks. Since the majority of them are intended to connect to WiFi, it appears that they tend to use WiFi for setup. I should have thought of trying to connect with a web browser before using their dedicated app. Won't know until someone tries it, but would be interesting to know if they do anything to "secure" the WiFi connection (like a password). They seem to hide the details within their app. For example, does the app acquire a temporary IP address from the smart plug and then connect to a web server at some sepecific IP address? I'll see if I can reset my TP-Link smart plug to factgory and see what happens.
Ya, though not necessarty to have a LAN jack, some devices might have onboard web page setup programs like routers do. Would be nice if you could get this and set it up there. Worth a try. :smileywink:
Well, I tried. No Joy. I reset my TP-Link Mini Smart Plug HS105 to factory settings by holding the button for 12 seconds (light flashes quickly). My laptop sees the TP-Link WiFi host and "connects". My laptop gets an IP of 192.168.0.100 and the plug is 192.168.0.1. Did a basic IP scan and those are the only two devices (the plug and my laptop). If I open a web browser to 192.169.0.1, I get no response (times out). My guess is the TP-Link smartphone app "talks WiFi" with the adapter but is not doing http. Tried Telnet, and that got no response, either. (I have no idea how many IP or UDP protocols there are, but for sure there are many. UDP protocols are probably easier to implement.) Would have been fun if it was a web host.
I don't even know what kind of WiFi sniffer it would take to capture WiFi traffic between the smart device and smartphone. It's for certain nothing I have access to. My usual trick of mirroring an Orbi port or a port on a switch that I hang off the Orbi won't work because my laptop is wirelessly connected directly to the plug and only to the plug.
I keep coming back to the problem being some combination of the smartphone and the vendor app. We seem to have evidence that Samsung S9 Oreo failed, Samsung S8 Oreo worked, and Moto e4 Nougat (my $130 phone) worked.
p.s. My results do not mean that NO smart device sets up a web host for configuration, only that my TP-Link HS105 apprears not to.