Vera Lite Interfering with A/V Equipment

Community Playground Getting Started & Initial Setup
1

I have a VeraLite on my home network with a static IP. I also have an Onkyo receiver, TX-NR609, with a static IP address assigned to it. After cruising the forums, it appears that the UPnP signals given off by the VeraLite unit are somehow interfering with the Onkyo receiver.

If my Vera is unplugged, and the Onkyo receiver is powered up, all of the ethernet controls for the receiver work, and I can control it with a couple of different interface programs on different Android and iOS devices (oRemote is incredible for controlling Onkyo receivers on your iPad).

When the VeraLite unit is plugged into the home network, it boots, and everything seems to work well. In fact, I installed the Onkyo Media Plugin luup code into Vera, and modified it a bit to create controls to change the input mode of the Onkyo receiver. The ideas and code are listed here, and I would like to thank guessed for doing this: code.mios.com/trac/mios_onkyo-media-control

But it only works for a limited time, and when I wake up in the morning, the receiver does not take commands. I have to unplug the VeraLite from the network, cold start the reciever, then put Vera back on the network.

Some discussion has been seen in the forums that the UPnP system is to blame, and Vera is “clogging up” the “crappy” UPnP system that the Onkyo receiver uses. Some have stated that putting the Vera on a different sub-network would clear this up as this prevents “crosstalk” of the uPnP systems.
I know when to say when, so I am soliciting for opinions on how to stabilize this system so that the following systems all work:

[ol][li]Vera can be controlled by HomeBuddy on android, and can be controlled by a web browser on my home network[/li]
[li]Vera can be controlled by HomeBuddy on android when I am on the 3G network, and not on WiFi on my Android device at home[/li]
[li]The Onkyo receiver can be controlled by my iPad and Android device connected to my home WiFi network[/li]
[li]The Onkyo receiver can be controlled by Vera using luup code like the Media plugin[/li]
[li]I don’t have to restart the freakin’ receiver and Vera every morning[/li][/ol]

Can any of you Vera pros and home networking pros give me a little advice here? I am stumped as to where to go from here to get these systems to work together, which they actually do FOR A VERY LIMITED TIME. I never intended to make the system so complicated, but the more you learn about how the Vera Lite works, the more you want to do with it.

Thanks, and I have learned a lot from these forums.

-FauxGo

2

I have struggled with this for a year!

The only solution I have found is a subnet as in your post. Now it works flawless. Additionally, it stabilized and sped up my Vera 3 and Vera 2 which are connected by uPnP (ethernet).

3

Since you already have static IP address have you done the following:

Setup → Net & WiFI
Auto Detect on my home network Not Selected!
Manually Configure
(Static IP or DHCP if your router has this IP reserved for Vera)
Firewall Diabled
DHCP Server OFF
WIFI NO

4

[quote=“RichardTSchaefer, post:3, topic:173188”]Since you already have static IP address have you done the following:

Setup → Net & WiFI
Auto Detect on my home network Not Selected!
Manually Configure
(Static IP or DHCP if your router has this IP reserved for Vera)
Firewall Diabled
DHCP Server OFF
WIFI NO[/quote]

I have that same configuration on my Vera3, which is connected to my LAN via its WAN port, and the Vera3 seems to be interferring with other network devices.

Static IP address, firewall disabled, DHCP server off, WiFi disabled. And, still, after reboot, the Vera3 attempts to run its DHCP server OUT THE WAN PORT. I assume this is what happening, because my PC (which is a DHCP client) is getting its DNS server address changed to the IP address of the Vera3, which screws up my networking.

I submitted a bug report on this.

Chris Shaker

5

I had the same problems. We found two solutions:

  1. create your network with the Onkyo and all other components, but NOT the Vera. Add another router to create a subnet with a firewall. Add Vera to 2nd router. Set router to forward port 80 from wan port to Vera’s IP address to get access to Vera.

  2. create a subnet on your main network for your Vera. You will need to dedicate one port on your router for this. Use this for Vera. Open routing to and from sub-net.

The UPNP mess does not flow across subnets, so you will have harmony between your Onkyo and Vera.

Both methods have been working flawlessly. My onkyo finally works as designed.

6

I thought about doing that. You seem to be verifying that the Vera box is doing DHCP out its WAN Port, too?
Software bug on the Vera. It should only be doing it out its LAN ports.

Chris Shaker

7

As was stated above by knutfinn, all it required was putting the Vera behind a subnet, and things become rock stable. Thanks for all of your help.

Now comes the next problem: getting the Vera to turn on/off the Onkyo receiver without using the UPnP protocol. That looks somewhat daunting.

Thanks, everybody!

8

There is a simple app availabe here which allows you to turn your Onkyo ON/OFF and change volume. I use this app, but as a secondary to IRule (it rocks!) to control the volume, not ON/OFF.

An alternative is to plug the Onkyo in to a Zwave power outlet. I have all TVs and the Onkyo wired like this so that I can “unplug” these devices in bad weather via Vera. When power is turned back on, the Onkyo comes back in the last state (on). Crude, but functional.

My primary A/V and Vera remote control app is the IRule system. It controls all my A/V and Vera via IP. It works really well and is fast.

9

I would hope everyone with this problem would put in several support tickets… I had MCV ask to remote in to “look” at the problem… but I suspect they did jack-squat. Then they asked to do it again and I told them no… they need to pony up the ‘massive’ $200 and buy an Onkyo to test and fix this problem.

MCV is as incompetent as usual so I gave up and created a separate LAN segment with my router to isolate the Vera.

I I love the user community here but hate MCV. I hope the Almond+ quickly becomes a rockstar device and gets a community as good as the Vera has… thus making MCV & the Vera obsolete. MCV has done nothing to deserve any loyalty and things like this problem continue to prove why they don’t… the only reason we use it is because at the price point there is nothing better – yet.

10

Thank you for posting this solution. I have been dealing with this same issue for a couple of months. I finally just unplugged my veralite. Now I am going to attempt to set up the subnet infrastructure. I have never messed with my network this much so I hope I can figure it out.

11

I set up a static IP address for my VeraLite and my Onkyo receiver, but I have no idea how I set up the subnet. I have gone to a few different places to try and figure it out, but I have been unable. Any advice? Is there a reference place for me to read and figure out how to set it up with my router? I have a Netgear router.

12

Most likely your router hasn’t got a subnet capability. High-end office routers usually do, and flash-your-own firmwares like OpenWrt do, but it isn’t a consumer router feature.

Edit: grammar.

13

Easy to use second simple router in your local net and configure it to another adress class.

14

Finally got this to work. Here is what I did.

Got a new router and plugged a cable from the LAN port on my main router to the 2nd routers WAN port. I then plugged the vera into the 2nd router.
So now I couldn’t access the Vera from my iphone without connecting through MiOS. I wanted to connect directly instead of through the micasaverde site.
I had to go into the main router and add a static route. This tells the first router that any traffic sent to a different subnet were to go.
1st router has 192.168.1.x the second router has 192.168.2.x You need to add a static route to the 1st router so when you try an access the vera it knows where to send traffic.
It is important that the primary router (the one connected directly to the internet that Vera won’t be connected to) will be able to configure a static route. I use a NetGear WNR3500
Here are my settings and what they mean:

Destination LAN: 192.168.2.0 -This is the IP Range of the new router where Vera is connected…please note the IP address scheme must be different than the other router.
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 -Most of the time this is for any IP range.
Gateway: 192.168.1.8 -This is the IP that the 1st router gave to the new router.

After you add a static route then you go into the 2nd router and forward port 80 from the IP of the Vera for the web interface. I also forwarded port 3480 for automator.app iphone app.

I was still having issues so I blocked UPNP services on the firewall of the primary router for all IP’s. Block UDP port 1900 and TCP 5000. Now everything works like a charm.
I am able to access my Vera using any device on my LAN and the Onkyo’s network functions work flawlessly.

I am wondering if just blocking UDP 1900 and TCP 5000 would work. My netgear router has a “Block Services” function under “Content Filtering” If someone has this feature you should try it…actually its pretty unsecure anyway so blocking it would probably be better. You only use the network discovery device function on your LAN…which most people don’t use anyway.

15

I have an onkyo receiver and always had issues until this last week. I took the advice of rubdom and blocked port 1900 and 5000 on my Vera lite firewall. Vera and onkyo are on the same subnet. My receiver works perfect. Now I only need to be able to change inputs on my onkyo receiver from the Vera lite.

Foxgo can you post your code for the onkyo media plugin for changing inputs?

-jullio

16

I have a Vera Lite and an Onkyo TX-8050 network stereo receiver. I’ve been having problems for a year now.

I turned off UPnP and verified both 1900 and 5000 were blocked. I’m still having problems.

If Vera Lite is plugged into the network and I turn on my Onkyo, it won’t complete the initializing processes. If I unplug the Vera Lite and turn on my Onkyo it works fine.

Any thoughts?

17

Have a look at this post:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,12773.msg109334.html#msg109334

18

[quote=“rubdom, post:14, topic:173188”]Finally got this to work. Here is what I did.

Got a new router and plugged a cable from the LAN port on my main router to the 2nd routers WAN port. I then plugged the vera into the 2nd router.
So now I couldn’t access the Vera from my iphone without connecting through MiOS. I wanted to connect directly instead of through the micasaverde site.
I had to go into the main router and add a static route. This tells the first router that any traffic sent to a different subnet were to go.
1st router has 192.168.1.x the second router has 192.168.2.x You need to add a static route to the 1st router so when you try an access the vera it knows where to send traffic.
It is important that the primary router (the one connected directly to the internet that Vera won’t be connected to) will be able to configure a static route. I use a NetGear WNR3500
Here are my settings and what they mean:

Destination LAN: 192.168.2.0 -This is the IP Range of the new router where Vera is connected…please note the IP address scheme must be different than the other router.
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 -Most of the time this is for any IP range.
Gateway: 192.168.1.8 -This is the IP that the 1st router gave to the new router.

After you add a static route then you go into the 2nd router and forward port 80 from the IP of the Vera for the web interface. I also forwarded port 3480 for automator.app iphone app.

I was still having issues so I blocked UPNP services on the firewall of the primary router for all IP’s. Block UDP port 1900 and TCP 5000. Now everything works like a charm.
I am able to access my Vera using any device on my LAN and the Onkyo’s network functions work flawlessly.

I am wondering if just blocking UDP 1900 and TCP 5000 would work. My netgear router has a “Block Services” function under “Content Filtering” If someone has this feature you should try it…actually its pretty unsecure anyway so blocking it would probably be better. You only use the network discovery device function on your LAN…which most people don’t use anyway.[/quote]

I’ve put my Vera lite on a sublan as described. Fixed the issues with my Onkyo TX-NR509. Trouble is though that I don’t seem to be able to set my static route successfully. My setup:

Primary Modem/Router:
Billion 7401VGP
LAN = 192.168.1.254
Static route set, Dest LAN 192.168.2.0/Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0/GW 192.168.1.253. LAN interface selected.

connects to -

Secondary Router (configured only as a switch):
DLink DIR-655
LAN 192.168.1.250

connects to -

Tertiary Router (for Sublan):
WD MyNet 600
WAN 192.168.1.253 (port 8080 set for remote management)
LAN 192.168.2.1
Port 80 (internal and external) forwarded to 192.168.2.2
Port 3480 (internal and external) forwarded to 192.168.2.2

connects to -

Vera lite:
LAN 192.168.2.2

I don’t know what I’ve done wrong, it all seems pretty straight forward to me but when I do a trace route it gets no further than my primary router. Driving me nuts!!

19

You can expect successful traceroutes from Vera (192.168.2.0) to the primary LAN (192.168.1.0) as consumer router firewalls allow all outbound and reply traffic by default. But traceroutes in the opposite direction will fail.

Traceroute is sending ICMP echo requests. Traceroute attempts from 192.168.1.0 to 192.168.2.0 will be blocked by the Tertiary Router (for Sublan) firewall and NAT. Since you have TCP port 80 and 3480 port forwarded, the better test would be to use telnet 192.168.2.2 80 and see if you get a connection.

Just so you know, posts on this forum indicate that Onkyo has released a firmware update that resolves the issue you are trying so hard to avoid. You should look into it, all this cascading router business may be unnecessary.

20

Have you set a static route from the Tertiary router back to the primary router. Need static or dynamic routes going both ways.