Two IP's?

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

My network setup Internet>Router>24 port Switch>Vera

In Vera:

Setup>Advanced>Net and WiFi

The firewall router is the gateway to the intenet, serves DHCP, and internal DNS server

If I select:

How can i connect to the internet?
Static

Firewall: No firewall

LAN: DHCP server: Off
IP:192.168.1.5

What happens is Vera starts handing out IP addresses to computers on the LAN.

The computers that received dynamic IP’s from VERA start using VERA as the gateway to the internet. So the all my DHCP computers instead of going out my firewall, they go through vera first, and then my firewall. So now all my internal network traffic slows down because VERA gets overloaded by everything going through it. Traffic starts colliding all over the LAN and my DNS server craps itself.

I had to turn DHCP on for how vera connects to the internet. That resolved my issues with traffic going through VERA.
I am also confused as to why VERA assigns itself two IP addresses? One for LAN and one for internet? I do not need the box to have two IP address’s. I will port forward traffic to the one IP address I assign static.

How should I setup VERA in my this network enironment?

#2

If you have another router on your network you have to set Vera in BRIDGE MODE. Then VERA it will act as a switch.

Set “How can I connect to the Internet?” → DHCP
Set “Firewall:” → Bridge Mode
Set “DHCP server” → Off

#3

Hi cj,

I have the settings you’ve described already in there. I can still access vera by typing 192.168.1.5 or 192.168.1.231. I am confused because I only want one IP address attached to the box fo port forwarding.

Can Vera’s network integration be thoroughly explained?

#4

I had similar problem when I let Vera configure itself it totally and completely messed up my IP addresses on my other computers.

I an running static IPs on my entire intranet. After long time trying to reset everything, I had to reset Vera to factory condition then plug it directly into separate unconnected computer to reach Vera through default address …81.1.

In Advanced>Net&Wifi:

Internet: Static and I input my regular router IP address including Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS
Firewall: Disabled
DHCP: off
IP address: new static IP .123 I assigned to Vera
Wireless: No

Then I connected Vera back to my intranet through LAN1 port.

Now I can log into Vera by static IP .123.

The problem is that when it logs in, it tells me “You don’t have internet connection…”, but when I click Advanced>Net&Wifi it tell me “Internet acces is Ok” with green checkmark. Also all the videos are playing in autoplay.

So how that could be? Do I have internet access or not? Additionally I cannot get the time and day set manually (no such option!!!) and the time and day is “Fri Dec 31 17:41:57 PST 1999” Why can’t I set any of available time servers to do it, why MCV is using their own convoluted way for setting time?

The Vera network seems to be very peculiar without letting the user opt out of it and use common settings. I agree: Can Vera’s network integration be thoroughly explained AND simplified? To make an analogy, it should be as simple as IP cameras.

#5

Hey there, For more folks they will have a similar setup to yours unless they are using Vera as the primary router in the home.

My scenario is the same as yours, I have CABLE MODEM—>LINKSYS WRT350N----> VERA
Since the WRT350N does all my IP assignments and routing, I really don’t need vera to do much except stay on a single STATIC LAN IP and do as she’s told :slight_smile:

Most folks probably have a Linksys router, and by default those routers are at 192.168.1.1 and the DHCP range on those routers is 192.168.1.100-150 in most cases. THis means that it’s safe to assign static IP’s BELOW 100 and above 150. For my Vera, I added her at 192.168.1.200 - an unused LAN IP on my network. This way, VERA can always be reached at this IP on the local network instead of using FindVera.com, although that will work too

My WRT350N from Linksys is also the Gateway and it does DNS relay, so in the screenshot below this shows my setup. I just left DHCP on inside VERA, although I don’t plan on using it. I also disabled the wireless since I don’t need another wireless signal floating around the house that I’m not using.

Treat Vera like any other device such as an IP camera, or othe remote access device avail on your network. Always set a Static LAN IP on these devices for reliable remote access and perform manual port forward to that static LAN IP you set. With the FindVera service, all of this is not needed though, but I prefer to use my static LAN IP from home when Im there and when Im on the road I can use the FindVera Service or the TZO Domain Name for my home and get in that way directly.

#6

Hello myhomeserver,

thank you for your reply (MCV Tech support did not reply to my yesterday’s yet :frowning: )

I had similar thing set before, nevertheless, I did EXACTLY same thing as you have shown, but still no success, no internet, although it says Internet access is OK.

Can’t set time - no day/time available, no automation.

Can’t enable Tech support

Can’t Reboot Router with button in Advanced>Tech Support section - get error ‘HTTP 404 not found’

BUT

Can see videos AND was able to update to the latest FW .602

Just to double check, currently my LAN cable from Linksys router is plugged into WAN port on Vera.

Also, since I am running my PCs with Static IP addresses, I have set Linksys’s DHCP server DISABLED. Is that correct? In fact I tried ENABLED with no effect.

Please help, without TIME the Vera is useless.

#7

I hope this will help.
From my knowledge Your internet modem or the router needs to have DHCP enabled.
Otherwise you need to hardcode your routing. If you get it wrong you will have problems.

You can have static IP and still have DHCP enabled. One thing to remember is that you need to set your Static IP’s outside the “Pool of IP’s in DHCP”

I would think you have a issue with your routing and maybe a NAT or firewall issue.

If Vera is not getting NTP time updates this tells me that some ports are being blocked.

Try the DHCP and unlock the Firewall rules for a test!
When you lock down a network this stuff happens sometimes.

#8

Hello,

as I wrote, I tried both DHCP Enabled also disabled - no difference.

Yes, Vera is set to IP …200, well outside the DHCP range.

I disabled the firewall, no change.

Any other suggestion?

#9

Update.

Believe it or not I got it working! The trick was to set Vera’s ‘How do I connect to Internet’ to DHCP! Then re-started. Interestingly enough it kept my original Static IP address .123, the DNS line has added both DNSs and added my Linksys router gateway.

Here is my current setup:
(FW .602)

“How do I connect to Internet”
DHCP

IP Address: (all greyed out) 192.168.1.123
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2 192.168.1.1 Vera removed the two IPs (5/2/2009)

Firewall: No Firewall (bridge WAN and LAN ports like a normal switch)

LAN:
DHCP server off

IP Address: 192.168.1.123
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Wireless:
Wifi on: no

Just Save and reload, I reset my Linksys router back to DHCP disabled and it still works. Go figure

5/1/2009 UPDATE:

Lost my Vera connection overnight, so I had to switch my primary Linksys Router back to DHCP ON. In other words, Vera does not allow you to use it with external router with DHCP off… ???.

One thing I do not understand: why MCV team misleads with these weird settings. If I am using my primary Linksys router with static IP, I would not expect that I have to set Vera to DHCP! That does not make any sense.

So far so good it is working now, will keep fingers crossed so the Vera’s IP does not change itself.

Thank you all for help!

#10

I 'm glad you got it to work

Yea. You need to have connect via DHCP checked unless Vera is connected to the modem directly without a router. That will cause it not to work.
I guess I did not need to write the following:

If your network goes like this:
1-modem- 2- linksys router- vera

  1. have your linksys router DHCP enabled( make sure there no Firewall in the modem . Double NAT will cause a problem too.
  2. Have the firewall turned off at the modem and the Linksys router ( just for the test
  3. Have vera "How can I connect to the Internet? DHCP turmed on
  4. Vera " No firewall"

Make sure that Vera’s IP is proper for the Linksys router. the same subnet.
if linksys is 192.168.1.x then Vera’s IP need to have the same subnet not like 192.168.0.x or 192.168.5.x

Make sure the DNS is from the Linksys and not from your ISP. such as 192.198.1.1
If you can get Vera to work with a basic configuration and not a custom one then you can proceed to lock thinks down.

Do one thing at a time once you get it working. This is the only way to know what caused the problem.

Guys chime in if I am explaining this wrong!
Good luck

#11

I have only had my Vera a couple days now. I have FIOS–>Wireless Router–>Vera (all ethernet) and it worked “right out of the box”. It even seemed to bridge properly to another device on Vera’s Lan side.

But today something odd happened. I finally managed to get a scene/event set up so that good codes send a text to my phone. (Bad codes should too but for some reason that isn’t working right?). This evening no text when I got home. I went to the local vera address (by name, I named it in my router) and it came up but some graphics were missing. It had some kind of z-link error but I lost it as I was fiddling. Then it dropped off the LAN completely.

I went to my router and saw that the name was gone (did my router lose it?) but a device was at the same IP as Vera and could ping. I also saw another device at 192.168.1.81 (Vera’s default, right?). They both pinged. I went into Vera’s advanced setup and changed the bridging mode. Vera worked fine now and the .81 address was gone but I lost contact to my device on the LAN side. I changed the mode back to bridge mode and all was good now.

Even the z-link error was gone and Vera could see my lock and camera again. I checked vindvera.com for the events and saw:

02:09:33 event #8: Sending Soft Reset
Device Description ZWave
Room
Device Status
Device State 0
Sensor Disarmed no

what is that?

Also, why was Vera on two addresses on my LAN?

Anyone else using Vera to get text alerts from thier Schalge lock?

#12

[quote=“g7t, post:9, topic:164459”]Update.

Believe it or not I got it working! The trick was to set Vera’s ‘How do I connect to Internet’ to DHCP! Then re-started. Interestingly enough it kept my original Static IP address .123, the DNS line has added both DNSs and added my Linksys router gateway.

Here is my current setup:
(FW .602)

“How do I connect to Internet”
DHCP

IP Address: (all greyed out) 192.168.1.123
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2 192.168.1.1

Firewall: No Firewall (bridge WAN and LAN ports like a normal switch)

LAN:
DHCP server off

IP Address: 192.168.1.123
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Wireless:
Wifi on: no

Just Save and reload, I reset my Linksys router back to DHCP disabled and it still works. Go figure

5/1/2009 UPDATE:

Lost my Vera connection overnight, so I had to switch my primary Linksys Router back to DHCP ON. In other words, Vera does not allow you to use it with external router with DHCP off… ???.

One thing I do not understand: why MCV team misleads with these weird settings. If I am using my primary Linksys router with static IP, I would not expect that I have to set Vera to DHCP! That does not make any sense.

So far so good it is working now, will keep fingers crossed so the Vera’s IP does not change itself.

Thank you all for help![/quote]

I was able to get my vera to do the same thing.
It took out two other Subnets on my network.
I have the DSL modem/router - 24 port switch>- Vonage
> - Subnet router > - pc’s
> - Vera - nothing
> - Web cams
> Lan devices
It " Vera" tried to re -configure everything. knocked out vonage , changed my pc
I powercycled Vera a couple of times.
I went into the UPNP settings of my router and turned it off. Reboted Vera. I actually set a static ip and DNS and it came back up.
I don’t see how Vera can screw with other devices on the lan. Even screw with other subnets.
CJ please look into this!!!

#13

Agree wholeheartedly with Zmistro. Vera should act as a passive network member (like IP cams) instead of messing other member’s settings.

MCV guys pleased fix that, otherwise you will have tons of unhappy customers.

#14

Very few customers have networks set up with static IP’s. Vera is designed to work with a DHCP setup and manage everything it needs to do automatically. I have 3 vera’s on a network with about 30 IP devices including some static IP devices. I have had no problems with any of them getting an address in the last 5 months. They have all been able to access the local devices and FindVera.com. If you have a complex network with segmented subnets you 1) must know what you are doing, 2) should be able to configure a linux based network device, 3) should be able to research on the web setting options. Mi Casa Verde has done a good job with something that Linksys, D-Link, Hawking, 4HomeMedia have not come close to- a self configuring IP device. But they made some fair assumptions about your network: DHCP, normal IP ranges and setup, etc.

#15

1audio.
This happens with DHCP and not a static IP .
Try this yourself.
Go into the Net/wifi settings of vera
Click- reset to defaullt network settings.
put your router in UPNP on ( I am not sure this is needed)
See what happens,
Vera takes over and routes everthing through vera.
It will hose your network.
If you have a manged switch it will take over.
Trust us.
It was a pain in the neck to get it to reset back to the way I was using VERA for since October!

#16

I am confirming, it happened with DHCP “on” settings. It took me three days to figure out what is going on and fixing it. Finally I got it working again the way I need it, now I keep my fingers crossed so it stays that way.

#17

I have 3 vera’s in their default network settings, getting IP addresses from a router. I have had no problems getting IP addresses. Before we go further which version of the firmware are you using? What is the internal (lan side) IP range you are using? If the IP range for the lan system isn’t in the range Vera expects for an internal network it will shift to offering a dhcp service.

You should also be sure that the source of the IP addresses is connected to the “WAN” port or it will get very confused. The shift from one mode to another is a clever trick but it can be fooled.

I’ll reset one of the Vera’s and try the same trick in the next few days.

#18

The fact of the matter is this. Most people using Vera are going to be somewhat competent and geeky before implementing Vera into their home.If someone does go down to their local “Big Box” store and purchase Vera, they are most likely going to have their “friend” who “knows computers” be there with them during setup. The other customers, techies and geeks , already have network gateway routers in place and will not have VERA take over their current firewall and gateway router. The VERA team is very mysterious about releasing the ports being used. While Vera stays mysterious about their network settings, system integrators like myself hold off on recommending the product to enthusiasts. The lack of information is a system integrators nightmare. I’ve been grabbing straws getting the vera router to work reliably since implementing into my current home network. It wasn’t until a few days after I plugged Vera into the network, I started getting complaints from my wife and tenants that their internet was slow and they couldn’t access webpages reliably. I discovered (using wireshark) that VERA had started routing all the network traffic through it. I have a 24 port business grade switch in my network for a reason. VERA simply can’t handle my network traffic and it choked everything up. It was taking 5 to 10 seconds for lites to turn on because of all the lag. Does VERA think that a ‘casual’ user would be able to figure out the DHCP, NAT, and DNS issues the Vera router introduced? I think the casual user would observe vera slowing down the network and it’s slow response time and simply toss it to the garbage man.

I currently have a gateway router in place with VERA connected as a normal switch.

If you have an existing router in your network controlling traffic here is what I’ve found:

1)Vera does not use the standard NTP port to update the routers time.
2)Vera picks a random port to make an SSL connection
3)If you do not set Vera’s internet connection type as DHCP, Vera will start routing your current network traffic through it. This causes your current network to come to a crawl and affects the performance of VERA and your computers trying to access the internet.
4)If you use VERA to try and handle all of your network internet and local traffic, performance suffers.

So right now, this is the current status of my VERA.
1)I can watch the annoying Youtube videos for the 500th time now because I have allows my firewall port 80 traffic outgoing.
2)the findvera.com service does not work because I refuse (security risk) to open up ‘random’ ports for VERA.
3) I was able to correctly update VERA’s time and date by momentarily opening up all the ports on my network. (Security risk)

It’s nice that Vera works for a person that knows nothing about networking and just wants to plug and play.
But for us guys that know how to port forward and have a much more intensive network setup, we’re left struggling in the dark.

I have been more than pleased with VERA, really good team of people and the leaps and bounds they’ve made has been astounding since last year.

Please Micasaverde, can you provide better information regarding network settings, and reconsider how VERA integrates into an existing network environment.

Keep up the good work :slight_smile:

#19

Could it be possible for vera to route back to some vera server and be sniffing your packets?

#20

What are you referring to zmistro?