Apex IP not showing up on router and restart issue

[Newms118]

So i have two issues:

Within the last 3 days, I've had issue connecting to my apex wirelessly. At first i thought it was my router(Netgear) because when I would go to the attached devices section of the router's webpage, the IP address that I assigned to the apex unit (static, DHCP is disabled) wasn't showing up on the list. I found that If I went to the apex manual controller and reset the unit, sometimes I would be able to access the unit on the internet. However, when the unit would be accessible, the IP address would still not show up on the attached devices list, and sometime the next day, I wouldn't be able to access the unit and would need to reset.

Unfortunately, now I think it might be the apex unit. When I couldn't control the apex over the web, I tried manually turning my lights on and off, and for some reason, the apex would not turn the lights off or on when set. I would have to reset the apex, and once it restarted it would turn the lights on or off, depending on what I had set the outlet too previously. So my questions are:

1) Why isn't the apex IP address showing up on the router, and requiring a daily reset to connect
2) Why when I manually set the outlet using the apex controller, the outlet doesn't change state until the unit is restarted.

Aquacontroller version: 4.20_1B13

[aleithol]

I'm not a networking guru, but for someone that is, they'll probably like to know how you have your APEX connected to your Router wirelessly... There is some other device (XBOX, Game Adapter, etc) between the APEX and the Router, and THAT could also be part of your problem. I'll try to offer a couple things I'd try though if in your position:

I know you say you have DHCP disabled on the APEX, but with the address disappearing on a regular basis, it sounds to me like one of the devices (Router or your box connected to the APEX) is messing around with addresses some how or other -- that has happened to me with DCHP Leases not being renewed properly on an old router in the past. I'll defer to a networking person...

To ensure the lights turning on/off issue is not related to this network problem, have you tried changing them from the APEX Display? My thought being, if it works from the display, there is no network involved, so your APEX may not be the culprit in at least this part of the challenge -- or if it fails via the Display, well, the APEX does become much more suspect.

...also, when you get things going again, the current APEX Firmware is clear up at 4.31_1E14 so you may want to consider an update so your Fusion-ready when that becomes available. Good luck!

[Newms118]

I'm not a networking guru, but for someone that is, they'll probably like to know how you have your APEX connected to your Router wirelessly... There is some other device (XBOX, Game Adapter, etc) between the APEX and the Router, and THAT could also be part of your problem. I'll try to offer a couple things I'd try though if in your position:

I know you say you have DHCP disabled on the APEX, but with the address disappearing on a regular basis, it sounds to me like one of the devices (Router or your box connected to the APEX) is messing around with addresses some how or other -- that has happened to me with DCHP Leases not being renewed properly on an old router in the past. I'll defer to a networking person...

To ensure the lights turning on/off issue is not related to this network problem, have you tried changing them from the APEX Display? My thought being, if it works from the display, there is no network involved, so your APEX may not be the culprit in at least this part of the challenge -- or if it fails via the Display, well, the APEX does become much more suspect.

...also, when you get things going again, the current APEX Firmware is clear up at 4.31_1E14 so you may want to consider an update so your Fusion-ready when that becomes available. Good luck!

Ok let me provide some more details. I have the apex connected wirelessly to my netgear router using a game adapter (NETGEAR Universal N300 Wi-Fi to Ethernet Adapter (WNCE2001)) thats been working fine so far. Ive tried restarting the game adapter when i have my apex connection issues and that didn't appear to correct anything. Only when i would restart the apex would the connection work again, sometimes.

And yes I've tried turning the lights on and off form the apex display, i was calling it the apex unit, i guess wrong terminology. So i would pick up the apex display, go to manual control, and set that specific outlet from OFF to ON or vice versa, and no change would occur until i went to the network section and restart the apex.

I can try updating the firmware, but it seems odd that these issues would occur out of the blue really.

Any help/comments are appreciated.

[aleithol]

With the APEX not making the change from it's own display, that sure seems like you've got a programming issue and/or a problem with the APEX.

I'm not familiar with the Game Adapter, so can't provide much more help there other than to say, I assume you didn't change anything on the router, game adapter, or APEX prior to your problems starting 3 days ago ... including that your router and/or game adapter did not do some sort of automatic firmware update if they are capable of that. Did you add any other device to one of them that may have changed something with addresses or introduced a conflict of some sort? In other words, did anything whatsoever change in your networking environment prior to this problem? I suspect not, but had to ask...

Only other thing I can suggest besides calling Neptune Support on Monday is to check out the couple of stickies regarding wireless setup and networking setup on the Neptune Community Forum (http://forum.neptunesystems.com/forumdisplay.php?26-Email-Networking-and-Internet-Access) (stickies are towards the top of the forum that link will take you to). While there are some good people here, IMHO there are a lot more people there since it's APEX-Centric and a couple of the moderators seem to be watching threads at all hours of the day and while not Neptune employees, appear to have good "in's" with the Neptune Support organization so can sometimes offer advice/suggestions others may not be able to. It's at least worth a shot doing some research there over the weekend perhaps.

Good luck. Sorry I couldn't help more, but didn't want to leave you wondering why I had not responded after your latest reply.