NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Wiz Smartbulb installation failing due to Broadcast (UDP) settings
Hi all,
Hopefully here my question can be answered.
As a not to experienced user iḿ trying to setup a pair (actually 12) Wiz Smart bulbs in my living.
I have been looking around and found some helpfull strings which helped me to get 4 operating.
This i have done by adding the IP adresses of the bulbs in the ORBI admin dashboard in the advanced settings - port forwarding/port triggering.
Still; the rest, no matter how many adresses I ad, they wont work..
Im aware this is due to the UDP settings being incorrect but I dont know how to change the settings other than this..
Who can help me out here?
Many thanks in advance!
17 Replies
No serious IoT does require a port forwarding, and absolutely certain not any ftp access from the wild Internet - this is what you have configured for whatever reasons.
It looks like we face yet another "brand" (even if owned by Signify, former Philipps Lighting, makers of the fameous Hue system) which have apparently no clue about networking, and much less (== my words for absolutly NO IDEA) about WiFi.
Looking into https://smarthomeways.com/wiz-light-not-connecting-to-wifi/ does show this:
===
Wiz light can only connect to the 2.4Ghz frequency band of your router. Therefore, if your router can broadcast both frequency bands, you should consider switching off the 5Ghz band. Pairing your Wiz light with the 5Ghz network will lead to a Wi-Fi connection error.
===
Complain to the makers of this Wiz Smartbulb system. We face here yet another **** App design which refuses to send out broadcast frames if it does find the wireless client, e.g. your mobile, is currently not associated with a 2.4 GHz band WiFi - what seriously no modern wireless system does. Decent wireless clients connect seamless to an SSID, a wireless name, and don't have to care about it being 60 GHz, 6 GHz, 5 GHz, or 2.4 GHz. Or do you ever had to tell your mobile to use a certain band or frequency? The anwer is: No.
Your whatever WiFi router is able to broadcast to the network, and not wireless client has to judge if it should, or not. This is the problem behind all these similar questions in many WiFi communities!
Feel free to share a link pointing to this thread here - we're happy talking to these engineers. A vwery smalll change in their App code can resolve this. Unbelieveable such systems are still out in the market in the year 2024.
If they are unable to work on such a standards compliant network, sent this garbage back, and give them 0 stars please imn case they are unable to fix their crAPP.
Thanks Shumaku for your eleborate answer.
Yes i agree this is poor design and should not be figured out by the end user but at front design end.
However that doesnt solve the issue at hand.
I have set my router to 2.4ghz but that doesnt solve the UDP setting problem.
Is there any way that could i could enable the UDP setting to establish the connection?
BCPN2310 wrote:
Yes i agree this is poor design and should not be figured out by the end user but at front design end.
So please start with complaining to the vendor of this wodners of LED technology please.
BCPN2310 wrote:
I have set my router to 2.4ghz but that doesnt solve the UDP setting problem.
Is there any way that could i could enable the UDP setting to establish the connection?
Which router please? Based on what I'm aware the Orbi WiFi 5 (AC) systems and routers don't offer the ability to configure a deidcated SSID bridged to the LAN the 2.4 GHz band.
BCPN2310 wrote:
Is there any way that could i could enable the UDP setting to establish the connection?
What UDP setting are you behind please? All the Orbi 5 (AC) systems, and the newer Orbi 6 (AC), as well was the recent Orbi 7 (BE) don't prohibit, block, or filter this magic UDP traffic from the WiFi to the LAN. Very likely, this applies to most other brand WIFi routers, too. The only element to be fixed in this "solution* is the dumb App, refusing to discover these WiFi bulbs. Hard to believe, these WiFi routers allow transparent traffic, not just some magic UDP frames broadcasting, these also allow using L2 protocols way off from UDP or TCP, to discover and even administer devices and appliances. The ,most prominent species are the Netgear Plus Switches, or virually any Netgear Switch, discoverable by the Netgear Switch Discovery Tool.
And you have seriously not talked to vendor to maker of this junk? Look, I'm just yet another community member, not representing Netgear here. So please do your homework first. We're happy to help. But we can't make wonders.
PS. Don't know how many times I have replied to similar post on the last decade. It's my own time and fun here, I'm not supported or funded by Netgear or any other vendor.
Try this. Turn OFF all RBS. Then turn the power output of the 5Ghz radio to 25% on the RBR. Be sure that 20/40 MHz Coexistence enabled. Under Advanced Tab/Advanced Settings/Wireless Settings. Then connect your mobile device at a distance from the RBR to ensure the mobile phone keeps connected to the 2.4Ghz radio. After you get the IoT device connected, re-configure the system back to where it was.
BCPN2310 wrote:
I'm aware this is due to the UDP settings being incorrect but I don't know how to change the settings other than this..
In researching complaints about installing Internet of Things (IoT) devices, I have installed at least a dozen brands of smart switches, smart bulbs, etc. As schumaku pointed out absolutely none of these devices require that ports be forwarded through the router. Messing around with port forwarding will never help connect IoT devices.
He is also correct that some smart phone apps are poorly written and cause problems for no reason. The insistence in the WIZ documentation about the phone being connected at 2.4G is a strong indication that their programmers made a poor decision that other brands avoided.
What would help is to know the specific model of WiFi router that is installed. Some models provide features which help address this situation and other models do not have those features.
CrimpOn wrote:
What would help is to know the specific model of WiFi router that is installed. Some models provide features which help address this situation and other models do not have those features.
Hope you dont have an Netgear Orbi in mind. The OP talked of an Orbi router, and provided a screenshot of the admin dashboard 😎
BCPN2310 wrote:
This i have done by adding the IP adresses of the bulbs in the ORBI admin dashboard in the advanced settings - port forwarding/port triggering.
A 7, 8 or 9 series Orbi model systems would address the OP issues since they now have a separate IoT wifi network that users can configure to only use 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz or both at the same time.
Again, many thanks for your replies with enlightening insights. Fully agree, this should be fixed by the producer iso a dozen of forum users so all help is VERY MUCH APPRECIATED! (maybe there is a link between WIZ, disgned by Signify and the previous owner of Signify; Philips who also have proven no to design everything with the most succes.....)\
Than to the modem: I am using a ZYXEL T50 modem (switch off both 2.4 & 5GHZ) which is connected to my Orbi RBS350 (of which i use 3 combined with the RBR350)
Lets hope this will help..
Too bad that NG didn't include the separate IoT network for the 350 series system.
Try the power adjustment process and see.
