Very new to the smart home world. Difficult time understanding networking so I just switched over from a netgear c7000 Modem router to a new xfinity gateway. All of my home assistant is completely unavailable and unable to use at the moment after plugging the ethernet cord into the new router. Backed everything up but wondering what are the next steps I need to do to re-intergrate everything and how can i take steps in the future to avoid this issue?
I might mention that personally being a newbie, there’s a lot of info out there but its hard to sort through on what is the best steps to take in regards to setting up router, do’s and don’ts of home assistant in regards to network and connectivity. Any links would be nice as I want to continue to learn this whole new world.
Relax. Easily fixable.
Unless you changed it, your netgear router used an ip range of 192.168. 0.1/24, your new router likely uses 10.0.0.1/24.
All you have to do is change this in the new router.
Save the settings and everything should connect again.
I did as you suggested but to no avail. Very clear direct6ions. Any other tips or tricks to try ?
Do you still have the old router?
Can you hook it up and check what the IP range it used for the local network was?
I still have the old router but not too sure on how to access it again
You connect power to it and log in as you used to.
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Yeah, I’m still able to find it on the network but I can’t access any admin tools.
By chance is there a good helpline or something for this? Very involved process this seems and I just want to restore everything back to normal as soon as possibile
When you plug in old router, what is the IP address you use to access it? Or what is the URL you access? If it is url (hostname), what IP does it resolve to?
Alternatively look in HA under settings - system - network. Under “Configure network interfaces” expand ipv4 and tell us if you use dhcp or static. then at the bottom under “Network Adapter” post screenshot what’s there.
Then plug in new router and connect your phone or PC on wifi and show us ip details (wifi config details) while connected.
This would help determine old and new IP config on both routers and options you have to access it.
So update: I can’t connect to old router apparently. All smart devices are still not connected and I had to change my IP configuration back to it’s defaults because the old router was on the same IP address and it was causing the internet to connect on all devices but not actually work as if there was too much traffic on that IP address. So Internet is up and running now. What are the next steps I can take to ensure I won’t have this headache again and can set myself up for long term success and not have to do this process over and over again (by the way moving in the next 6 months out of this apartment probably)?
It is easy. Changing router should not be a problem if a) you keep the same SSID and password, b) keep the same IP addressing
If you can’t - you may need to repair all wifi connected devices (connect to new wifi) and if there was any static reference to IP, change that too (in HA).
Of course, it is easier to change ssid and IP subnet, but it is difficult if you don’t know what it used to be, and if you do not have admin access to router.
Update: Done a good bit of reading and researching. Learning now that I need to buy a new wifi router and not rely on the ISP modem i was given. The upgrade to the unlimited plan and modem was useful for me in the end as I’m also an editor for film and media but I need a wifi router for better control and so that I can take from place to place over the next few years. Also found that my knowledge of home networking is very lacking and something that I not only a lot a lot of newbies I see understand that they should have a decent foundation before beginning a DIY like HA.
So, any recommendations on good wifi routers and home networking 101 videos in relation to HA to check out?
If you connect an ethernet cable directly from your old router to a laptop/desktop you should be able to get to the sign-on page and log in to check the old IP settings, assuming you know the old routers username and password. If you don’t know the IP address of the old router to connect to, find the IP address of your laptop/desktop after plugging in the ethernet cable, and determine the ip address to connect to from that. For example, if your laptop has an IP of 192.168.0.132, connect to 192.168.0.1 in your browser. I would make sure that only one router is powered on at a time, since if they are using the same IP ranges they will conflict with each other.
I recently switched from using various consumer routers (Netgear, Asus, TP Link) to a Ubiquity Unifi Dream Machine, and the difference is amazing. The interface shows you details about your network that you’d never get from those other routers, and the level of control is many times better. I was previously using multiple routers connected together with cable to create WiFi access points for expanding WiFI range, but have now switched to using only Unifi AP’s, and the coverage and network speeds are much better than with the other brands. Granted, there is a learning curve with the Ubiquity ecosystem, and it can get pricey, but well worth it in my opinion.
My main suggestion for not running into issues like this again is to create a spreadsheet and and keep track of every networked device in your home, including the router. You should also document the username and password for the router. I include the name of the device, its IP address, and MAC address. Most every router allows you to assign a static IP address to each device, and while that’s a good idea to keep track of everything, it’s actually easier to switch routers if you don’t assign static IP’s to your devices. As long as the SSID and password remains the same, all of your old devices will connect to the new router and get a new IP address.
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