Wifi 6 E System - no Homekit?

[Pony_Dus]

Hi

I have the newest Orbi setup at home: wifi 6e with two satellites and a router.

I cannot access my Homekit appliances from outside of my house.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

[CrimpOn]

Was the new Orbi system set up with exactly the same WiFi name (SSID) and password as the one it replaced?

(That HomeKit was working correctly with before the change?)

[Pony_Dus]

Yes and yes

[CrimpOn]

This article seems to focus on the HomeKit Hub:

https://www.imore.com/no-response-homekit-error#:~:text=Reboot%20all%20the%20things,an%20unresponsiv... 

Although the HomeKit Hub has probably already been restarted (?)  reset(?)

[Pony_Dus]

Yes of course. And homekit works as long as I am within wifi range.

[CrimpOn]

The reasoning is pretty straightforward:

• Remote access works.
• Change router.
• Remote access no longer works.
• ERGO: it must be something about the router.
• Thus the task is to find this mysterious difference.

On the other hand:

• Orbi routers know absolutely nothing about Apple HomeKit.
• They see devices that are connected and route traffic between them and to/from the Internet.
• Apple HomeKit very likely provides remote access by opening a connection to the Apple "cloud" so that the smartphone app can relay information to/from the Hub.
• Either this connection is no longer being made or the smartphone app no longer finds the correct link in the Apple cloud.

There are people on the forum who have both the Orbi 960 and HomeKit. Maybe one of them will have insights into the problem.

Short of that, the only recourse seems to be:

• Searching the internet for how to fix issues with remote access to HomeKit.
• Changing random settings in the router, such as: Change IPv6 (if it's on, turn it off.  if it's off, turn it on.)

Sorry to be so inept.

[Pony_Dus]

Thanks. It seems one if the older Orbi systems had a similar problem which was then solved via a FW upgrade of the orbi system.

Anyone else having this issue with an Orbi 960?

[Pony_Dus]

Hi

I am having the exact same problem. Updated from an Asus mesh setup, where there were no such issues. Ever.

[RafS]

I just installed a RBKE963 Orbi system in my home yesterday, coming from a RBK852 and all my Homekit appliances are working just like they did prior to the switch.  I even did some switching around and moving my old network name to the IOT network name on the RBKE963 since the majority of the devices are IOT devices and I didn't want to mess around with inputting new network passwords into everything. Everything is connected and working great.  Maybe a reboot might set things back to normal for you. 

[Pony_Dus]

Good news for you then! I have tred several reboots, sadly to no avail.

However I have not set up the IOT network

[KevinLiT]

Hellol Pony_Dus, 

I understand that you are having issues accessing your HomeKit outside of your home network. 

Please disable "Private IP address" on your iOS device then access your HomeKit as usual.

To turn off the Private IP address please follow the directions listed below:

Open "Settings"
"Wi-Fi"
Select the "i" icon next to your connected network
Toggle off "Private Wi-Fi Address"

Best,
Kevin
Community Team

[Pony_Dus]

Hi Kevin

Many thanks for your suggestion, however changing that setting didn‘t help.

The problem is accessing Homekit at home from outside of my home wifi.

Any further help is appreciated.

Thank you.