Vera Plus causes cable modem to lose internet connectivity

Vera Controllers, Services & Devices Vera Controllers & Cameras
1

I received my Vera Plus a couple weeks ago and so far it has been nothing but a paperweight. The problem is that the Plus causes my cable modem to lose connectivity to the internet. When this happens, my computer cannot open web pages, the Dropbox icon on my computer greys out and the Vera Light complains that it cannot connect to the internet. The cable modem status indicators all appear normal, the modem status page continues to update, but I don’t have the user name or password and can’t see any other modem web pages. The only way to recover connectivity is to unplug the modem, wait 60 seconds and plug it back in. Then everything is normal until the next time I connect the Plus. I have a complex home network and it continues to work while the modem is down. The NAS works normally and screen sharing with another computer is normal. The modem is a Cisco DPC3216 and Charter is my ISP.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with Vera tech support and the only thing we accomplished is to update the Plus to the latest software configuration by downloading the software from a Vera server, then using my computer to update the Plus. Now the Bluetooth indicator on the Plus is illuminated, but it did not fix my loss of connectivity issue. The last contact I had with tech support was on Saturday and they told me not to connect the Plus to my network and that their IT people are working on it.

Has anyone else seen this problem and if so, is there a fix for it?

2

Sounds like a network problem. Check the IP that’s being assigned to the Vera unit and make sure you don’t have any conflicts. I’d give the Vera a static address so you can be sure what IP it is, then reboot your modem, router, and Vera unit. Followup by check that it was assigned the address you gave it.

3

I agree with @jlind here… seems odd that this would be a Vera firmware problem.

That said, I would be surprised that tech support did not already offer this solution.

4

I checked the attached devices list in the router and the address assigned to the Vera Plus does not conflict with any other device. I can’t assign a fixed IP to the Plus because it does not complete the startup process since internet connectivity is lost part way though startup. All I get is a list of options on the left side, none of which work, and a spinning gear on the right. That eventually stops and the message “Luup engine is taking longer to reload” is displayed along with ways to get help.

I would also like to point out that I have never been able to perform the initial setup on the Plus.

5

I believe your cable modem being a Cisco one may have something to do with this. I know from experience Cisco cable boxes (both FIOS and cable) have issues with Vera to the extent that they spontaneously reboot if connected to the same network as a Vera unit… I believe it has something to do with the uPnP requests Vera sends out but am not 100% sure.

No problems with my Motorola cable modem luckily. Does the modem belong to Charter? If so, would they be able to supply you with another brand to see if that resolves the issue?

6

I would suspect that the luup engine should reload without internet connectivity. Maybe try disconnecting it from the network all together, let it boot completely, then try logging in directly using wifi. It does seems to be acting odd, so I’m a little stumped.

If BOFH is right, maybe try taking it to a different house with a different modem to test?

7

Vera tech support called back today and after more testing, they decided that the Plus is defective. I’m going to RMA this one and hope that the replacement works better.

I own a Motorola modem and will follow BOFH’s suggestion if the replacement Vera does not work.

8

Have you tried disabling wifi and dhcp on the vera plus. This helped me when i was setting up my vera plus.

9

I was never able to get that far with the Vera. It never seemed to finish starting up.

10

I’m quiet confused how you can never get vera to startup. Even without internet or plugged into a cable modem vera works and starts up.

11

I received the replacement Vera Plus and it caused the same loss of internet connectivity as the first one. So I tried BOFH’s suggestion to try a Motorola modem, and that fixed the problem.

For the record, the Cisco DCP3216 cable modem does not work with my Vera Plus, but a Motorola Surfboard SB6120 does. The Vera is running firmware version 1.7.1754.

Interestingly, the replacement Vera has a low serial number and has the note “For sample use only” on the ID tag. Does this mean I received an engineering sample?

I would like to thank everyone for their assistance in solving this problem.

12

Glad to see you got it fixed but sad to see I was right about the Cisco modem.