Lost internet for the weekened, Lessons Learned

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So, I was out of town this weekend and the day I left my cable TV cable was cut, leaving my wife at home with no internet or TV. I discovered a few things I had not realized and although this is the only time in 5 years I’ve had power for an extended period of time, but not internet.

Good things - HA still worked, lights came on at night, turned on with motion, doors locked at night, , etc. I was not here to check on all things, overall things ran that were scheduled as expected.

Neutral - All lights have physical switches, so wife was able to control all the lights. I have a couple of hue dimmers for some lightstrips that probably got used for the first time in months, haha.

Bad - Even though HA is not in the cloud, I realize that many of the crucial parts of my HA are. I use Alexa for most of my lights, goodnight routines, etc. Of course no alexa, with no internet, so took a bit to remember how to go simple things. I am using a life360 component for presence detection, Of course cannot get a status of that sensor without internet, I actually have 4 ways to detect presense, and I think only ONE is totally local (ASUS WRT). Since my sensors are tied to a Bayesian sensor, That one sensor was not enough to trigger to On, so a lot of my stuff was out of sync this weekend. I need to double check, on the HA iOS app. Although I get that it could not provide updates while away from home, would it provide a HOME or AWAY status?? I think it did not, but again, have not checked.

EDIT: forgot to add, I also have been using push bullet for most of my notifciations since it can send picutres, and I get a nice history of my notifications, but it also requires internet, so notifications were also a no go. No notifications while I’m away, is ok, i get that, but… While I’m home not so good. Stuff like water alerts, or smoke alerts, etc.

Bottom line: I need to make sure that the foundation of my system, is also not tied to the cloud. I never felt the need for more device trackers, but maybe do need a second local one, just in case. Also, need to have the wife get at least generally familair with the HA front end.

Just sharing my experience to hopefully help others in the future

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Check your ASUS router. Just about all of them now will tether a cell phone to the USB port. Great way to keep things working if primary service is down.

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You know, I think mine does have that, never looked into it. Is it that simple? Just plug my phone (with hotspot enabled) into the usb port? Nice, and great option!

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I would be interested to know how that works as well.

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I just did a bit of reading, and it looks like it only works with Android. :frowning:
but if you do have androit, it looks very simple. Plenty of simple guides online.

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I hqve a 3g modem connected as backup. Its a usb stick and the router use it when normal line is down. If you have 4g it is even better

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Is this an Asus router? I’m wondering if my netgear supports this.

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No itsan avm router but most modern routers do I think. Its like having a router with two wan ports.

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Check the docs for my 8300, no mention of this feature ;(

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You will have to check the USB port settings on your router. A firmware update may be needed.

I’ve done this with an iPhone and a MiFi hotspot.

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that’s pretty cool!

I never knew you could do that. Thanks!

One more thing I need to add to my “to do” list.

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I have a netgear modem running ASUSWRT merlin firmware as this firmware has dual WAN (failover/failback). I use a netgear LB2120 4G LTE modem as backup for my fibre. It was relly handy when my previous ISP went bad (they stopped buying enough backhaul).

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