System not communicating

Hi folks,

I came home tonight and walked in without issue. I thought the system disarmed via bluetooth like it always does because it was disarmed when I walked in. But once I got in and settled I noticed that I only got one notification from my doorbell camera and not one for the system being disarmed. So I checked the app and that showed that the system was still armed, even though I was inside and didn’t set it off. The panel showed it as being disarmed. The history shows it being armed at 8:30 am, but nothing about it being disarmed. I tried disarming it from the app and it eventually sent me a notification that it wasn’t communicating.

Any ideas how to solve this problem?

Looking at the account, there is no actual loss of signaling reported on Alarm.com’s end (which means if there was signal loss it was temporary), the disarm command you sent through was acknowledged, they just couldn’t be performed if it was already disarmed.

A brief loss of cell signaling is possible in this case. Signals are going through to the system without issue at the moment and your signal strength is consistent going back as far as I can see. You are right I do not see any indication of the disarm occurring, so it looks like the panel did not successfully send that to ADC at the time.

The best way to resolve one-off signaling issues like that is to set up broadband backup for concurrent signaling. It looks like you have a wifi network saved, but your panel is not able to connect via wifi at the moment, so broadband backup is down. I would recommend reconnecting your panel to your local network to ensure backup communication is available. If you have changed your network/router/ssid/password be sure to resolve this in the panel network settings.

I’m at work right now so will look into that when I get home. The network info is the same as it’s always been. The only reason I can imagine that it would’ve ever disconnected is that AT&T internet was down for several days over Christmas. (City-wide) Is that something that would disconnect the panel form the wifi and not reconnect it when the internet came back on?

The broadband failure does indeed have a start time on 12/25/2020, so it is related to that event, but no typically that wouldn’t happen, the panel should automatically reconnect unless settings were changed. Try reconfiguring the wifi settings and test.

Let us know and we can verify functionality.

Hey, so I came home just now and checked and it says that the panel is connected to Wifi. I disconnected the panel from the Wifi and reconnected it. Can you check again and see if it’s connected now?

Again, it showed on the panel that I was already connected to Wifi, so I’m not sure why you weren’t seeing a connection on your end. But hopefully it shows one now.

The system is still not responding to broadband pings and it still shows a broadband network failure.

While it can connect to wifi it doesn’t appear to be able to receive IP commands. I am sending a quick reboot command before other tests. Once the panel reboots we’ll check again.

After some more tests, your panel is not responding to signals sent to it via broadband, however it will communicate out via broadband.

This usually means that your router is not routing inbound commands properly or is blocking them.

Try a reboot of the home router/access point that the panel connects to. Let me know when it is finished rebooting

I’m at work right now but I am trying the “restart network” through the app on my phone. Hopefully that works to do what you’re asking.

It’s rebooting now. After a few minutes let me know if you see any changes on your end.

I really appreciate all of your help.

Your panel is still reacting the same way. Your panel is communicating out via broadband, but for some reason inbound commands are not being acknowledged.

Looks like you are a few firmware versions behind. It would be good to update to the latest version via the instructions here.

After the update we can try checking again.

Okay. It has been updated. Let’s hope that solves the issue.

Just circling back. Have you guys been able to run another test since I updated the firmware?

I’ve sent some commands but I am still seeing the same activity.

What model of router do you have the panel connected to?
Do your 2.4 and 5ghz networks use the same SSID/password?

Well that’s a damn shame.

It’s the AT&T gateway that comes with their fiber service. An Arris BGW210-700. I’ve been wanting to get another router but have shelved the idea because financial priorities didn’t make a lot of sense to get one right now.

The networks are indeed using the same information. I thought about making the 2.4 a different PW when I was setting up this system, at the recommendations I saw on here, but decided against since I don’t know what I’m doing and it sounded like more trouble than I wanted to get into.

This is frustrating because nothing has changed on my end as far as login info, devices, etc., and things were working fine until (apparently) the internet got knocked out on Christmas.

I can’t say with certainty the cause, but it is possible that firmware updates on the router have affected the panel, something blocking the port being used.

I’m not sure if the restart network option you referenced actually reboots the router or just restarts specific software processes. When you are on site, I would try a full physical power down of the router, wait a minute, then power back up.

Would it be ok for me to send some commands to the panel now? I would like to reconfigure all the dual path settings and reboot the panel again.