HA control with no Internet. Tplink and Insteon devices

Installation
1

Hello world.

Been using HA for about 6 months. Love it. I have around 80 insteon devices and 20-30 Tplink devices. Using Node red lightly but learning. Running a Pie for host.

Question, As I grow, (Just received Sky Connect) I have a question.

Internet…. If my internet goes down which is often, I cannot control connect to HA locally and control tplink devices locally via lan and HA Interface. Automations do not run either. Read a ton on this issue and thinking it’s a config issue…If Wan is down, use Lan…

Insteon use to work vis isy99 but recent Insteon hostage situation and now isy99 going away. I want to use zigbee, Tplink devices and divorce myself away from Insteon.

Today, I unplugged Internet modem, Attached to HA via IP address to no avail.

Any ideas how to maintain control of HA and devices without Internet?
BTW, old guy here. I owned one of the first Mastervoice butler in a box…Haaaaa

My thanks,

Wes

2

For what it is worth, I use the Insteon Hub without a subscription locally without issue.

3

Mine has red light and I did not reset.

Wes

4

Man that sucks. I k ow they offer a repair service as well.

5

Using HA for 6 months … with unreliable internet … and not yet worked out that you want local control instead of “cloud”.

Manufacturers advertising shows you their device, their phone app, and Alexa or Google Home. They never mention that the phone app doesn’t talk to the device directly - Devices, phone apps and voice assistants all talk to a server somewhere in “the cloud”, which coordinates everything. No internet connection - and the phone app can’t talk to the device you are right next to. And we have had manufacturers go broke, or decide to turn off or charge for the cloud service.

No amount of configuration is going to be able to contact the “cloud” servers on the internet when your internet connection is down. When the wire is disconnected it doesn’t work. You need either (a) your devices to talk directly to your HA, or (b) a backup internet connection (which will probably cost a small fortune).

I have a few of the TP-Link KASA power plugs using HA’s TP-Link KASA integration. After a little research I discovered that the devices can be configured (with the phone app) for local control - look for threads here, and there was a FAQ on the TP-Link website. Unfortunately I can’t find KASA devices any more - they have been replaced with TAPO models.

I don’t have any Insteon devices, so can’t comment on them.

Zigbee is a communication standard, like Wi-Fi. The hardware is wi-fi, zigbee, or Z-wave - so you wont be able to upgrade your existing devices. Zigbee and Z-wave do have advantages, so I recommend doing some research for future purchases.

6

Thanks Don,
I’ll check tplink config for the settings. Not using HA phone app in the event of Internet down, Using Laptop on Lan.

7

Let me understand better the issue when your Internet is out… Can you still access Home Assistant (using LAN) but cannot control your devices or you cannot even access your Home Assistant?

8

tested a aqara device via Skyconnect today. Works and integrates fast with HA. I have boxes of new Insteon devices that I will dump on Ebay or FB.

1 Like
9

Edward. cannot connect to HA via Lan at all. Direct to IP address if Internet is down.

10

Has to be a setting that says: If wan is down, use Lan for control and automations.

11

Issue, If Internet down, Cannot connect via Local wifi to R-pie to see HA using Firefox and R-pie Ip address. If I could connect then maybe the tplink devices would respond.

Thanks for all the input…
Wes

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Or HA Ip address that is

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And how you connect when the Internet is working? HA local IP address, DuckDNS, NabuCasa or any other solution?

14

Casa on iphone. locallaly, laptop on wifi in same home via HA local IP address.

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  1. What is the error message/code you have in your browser when you try to access it locally with the Internet down? Could you please share a screenshot?

  2. Do you have an http session on your configuration.yaml? Could you please share that (please remove any sensitive data when sharing)?
    It looks like this (please don’t copy mine - share yours and we will try to help with that):

http:
  #ssl_certificate: /ssl/fullchain.pem
  #ssl_key: /ssl/privkey.pem
  ip_ban_enabled: true
  login_attempts_threshold: 5
  use_x_forwarded_for: true
  trusted_proxies:
    - !secret trusted_proxy_1
    - !secret trusted_proxy_2
  1. Also, do you have a file named ip_bans.yaml? Any entries on that file?
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Error msg just states no connectivity.

No Http: entry on config yaml

no ip_Bans.yaml file

17

So, let’s try your phone for now…

In the app, go to Companion App settings and open the server settings.
Please let me know if you have both an internal and an external addresses set, like this:

image
image1920×1321 73.1 KB

If you click to the internal address, can you see your wifi SSID listed there?

image
image2732×1883 192 KB

18

No server setup. Setting up now…

1 Like
19

Is your Home Assistant using a fix IP address in your local network? Is it connected by Ethernet (cabled) or wifi to your router?

20

speaking on behalf of Wes, he responded on the forms too many times in a row, and it blocked him for 24 hours. He has an internal url setup as http://homeassistant.local:8123 and external url setup as “home assistant cloud”. no static IP, it’s connected to the router via Ethernet. he did not have an SSID setup, and is setting that up now.

UPDATE Note on the above config file question. He did not have http: in the config file, I have added it. no IP_bans.yaml file.