ESP devices on different subnet not visible

[Lifelogger]

I noticed that after flashing my ESP devices, and set a different WiFi network, that the devices no longer show up as available in ESPHome.

My HA installation is on subnet 192.168.1.x and my ESP devices on 192.168.2.x. I can ping all devices from my HA instance. My 192.168.1.x subnet has full access to my 192.168.2.x subnet. So everything should basically be available.

However, in ESPHome in HA, I get the message that the devices are offline. Is there anything I can do about it, accept having to put them back on the same subnet as my HA installation?

[Dujith (Charles Evers)]

ESP8266 on different vlan

Think I manage to solve it. I removed my node from integrations, and did a new upload of esp firmware. Was expecting it to show up in integrations again, but not. So I added it manually by the ip and now it available again.

This might help you? sounds like the same issue

[nickrout]

They are discovered by mdns, which doesn’t cross subnets by default. Enable status_use_ping in esphome’s config.

[Lifelogger]

Tried this, but no luck. I can add it manually as device to the integrations. But I want it to show up in ESPHome for updates and firmware changes.

[Lifelogger]

Flipped the switch in ESPHome config, but the device is still marked as offline, while it’s actually online.

[nickrout]

And restarted the addon?

[Lifelogger]

Yes. Even restarted HA.

[orange-assistant (the real one)]

@Lifelogger

but the device is still marked as offline, while it’s actually online.

So you can ping the device successful from within ha (console)?

[Lifelogger]

Yes, see the opening post. I can ping all ESP32 devices in the different subnet from within HA console. I can also manually add them to HA as a device and control them. However, ESPHome does not detect it and says it’s offline.

Only when I update the firmware and set the IP to an address in the same subnet as HA, ESPHome will see it.

[Lifelogger]

Notice this in the logs when I try to checkout the logs for the device:

WARNING Can’t connect to ESPHome API for doorbell.local: Error resolving IP address: [Errno -5] No address associated with hostname

Not sure where doorbell.local hostname comes from. I don’t use “local” anywhere and only use it’s ip address.

[Lifelogger]

Found it: I guess I had to use “use_address” param in the wifi settings. I just found about it in this topic:

Renaming yaml/name

Found it! Here ya go Changing ESPHome Node Name Trying to change the name of a node or its address in the network? You can do so with the use_address option of the WiFi configuration. Change the device name or address in your YAML to the new value and additionally set use_address to point to the old address like so: # Step 1. Changing name from test8266 to kitchen esphome: name: kitchen # ... wifi: # ... use_address: test8266.local Now upload the updated confi…

Setting the ip address as value for the use_address solved the problem.

[orange-assistant (the real one)]

@Lifelogger

Not sure where doorbell.local hostname comes from. I don’t use “local” anywhere and only use it’s ip address.

.local is exclusive to mDNS but that doesn’t work across your (sub)networks

[Lifelogger]

Yeah, I understand. I wasn’t aware about the .local domain until I put them in a different subnet.

[orange-assistant (the real one)]

@Lifelogger

I wasn’t aware about the .local domain

It’s the default in esphome:

• domain (Optional, string): Set the domain of the node hostname used for uploading. For example, if it’s set to .local, all uploads will be sent to <HOSTNAME>.local. Defaults to .local.

but you a free to change it (makes sense if you rather want to work with hostnames instead of fiddling with IP’s)

WiFi Component

[Lifelogger]

Completely missed that part. Thanks.

[Phalen]

can some one please post an example of how use_address is in yaml?

[nickrout]

Really? WiFi Component — ESPHome

[Painy]

Use_adress didn’t fix it for me. I could update and see logs, but it still showed offline.
In ESPhome addon settings I enabled ping instead of mDNS to find devices