New & Struggling to make things work, Need Advice

Installation
1

Hi all,
very new to Home assistant and all things home automation but really keen to learn.
I have installed HAOS on an old windows laptop via Virtual box and am trying to get a few things integrated but I’m struggling to get a lot of it to work properly.

I’m about to delete my instance and start over and hoping for some advice on the best way to go about with considering what I’m hoping to integrate.

I’m wondering if I should should attempt running a docker container system, could that help with some of my issues below?

is it more an issue with the devices I’m using? being cloud based devices by big brands…
(I’m hoping to set up a local system if I can prove that I am able to work with HA)

Current Issues.

I want a device tracker that would work with my home WIFI (BT Smarthub 2) that can tell me when devices connect and disconnect to run notification automations.
i tried;
device_tracker:
- platform: bt_smarthub
host: 192.168.1.254
and also installed UPNP/IGD integration that popped up. I have a populated Known_Devices.yaml folder but I cant seem to see any activity generated by the connection/disconnection of the devices nor do any of the automations that have these entities as triggers ever trigger… if that makes sense…

Ive tried to set up remote access via CloudFlare, i have attempted to follow several different methods but am currently using; [How tos · brenner-tobias/addon-cloudflared Wiki · GitHub](github .com/brenner-tobias/addon-cloudflared/wiki/How-tos#how-to-configure-remote-tunnels)
but i constantly get the following error on the log;

Failed to serve quic connection error=“timeout: no recent network activity” connIndex=3 event=0 ip=198.41.200.33

ive tried to set up my Google Nest Thermostat following

but that doesn’t work
i get the same problem detailed;
github .com/home-assistant/core/issues/130286?notification_referrer_id=NT_kwDOBbeu17QxMzI4OTU0MzY0MTo5NTkyMzkyNw

My Ring Door bell seems to disconnect constantly
[ERROR] plugin/errors: 2 api.ring.com. A: dial tcp 1.0.0.1:853: i/o timeout

Eufy Door Lock also Disconnects regularly
2024-11-11 09:20:50.678 ERROR eufy-security-ws:eufy-security-client [mqtt] MQTT Error {
error: {
cause: undefined,
message: ‘Error: Keepalive timeout’,
context: undefined,
stacktrace: ‘Error: Keepalive timeout\n’ +
’ at MqttClient.onKeepaliveTimeout (/usr/src/app/node_modules/mqtt/build/lib/client.js:1049:28)\n’ +
’ at Timeout._onTimeout (/usr/src/app/node_modules/mqtt/build/lib/KeepaliveManager.js:67:29)\n’ +
’ at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:573:17)\n’ +
’ at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:514:7)’
}

BLINK camera’s
Motion Detection is several minutes delayed on HA Logbook
Also they seem to ‘ARM’ & ‘DISARM’ randomly, several times a day.

2

I’m fairly new to HA myself, so I can’t provide any input to your current issues. But what I can provide input on is this: when I first setup HA, I used the Docker package. I soon found that there were limitations in the ability to add/extend the system for some devices I had (Hubspace being one of those), so I ended up tearing that instance down, and just using the official HAOS virtual image. I think that is the recommended OS, and does use containers in a Debian OS. It seems to be the easiest and best way to get HA up and running quickly.

3

I know little about Cloudflare so can’t really help there. But by far the best advice I can give you is read the docs and understand them before trying to follow guides put up on the internet by users. By all means look at those guides as chances are they will help, but be aware they can quickly become out of date. The docs are maintained and generally the latest way of doing something.

4

For each of the individual issues you are having, you may have better luck creating a topic for each, so you can get focused help on each. I don’t use any of those cloud devices so can’t offer much help. But certainly local devices won’t have those issues.

Regarding your installation method, HAOS is definitely recommended, especially for beginners. Changing to docker will not help with the issues you are having. Docker is nice if you are already fluent in how to use it (including docker networking and passing usb devices into containers), you don’t need the ability to run add-ons, and you want to avoid the overhead of the supervisor.

For your router, did you first try to add the BT Smart Hub integration through the UI first, instead of editing configuration files? Similar to HAOS vs Docker, start with the easy methods first and only switch to the more complicated method if there is a real need.

5

Welcome.

Anything cloud based or WiFi will lag to a degree.

Google nest is a bit of a mission but once you crack it it’s pretty solid, keep in mind it won’t do any nest protects, you’ll need another integration for that.

Can’t advise on most other issues you have but imo I’d keep your setup super simple and consider scrapping windows and running proxmox for your vme with your haos on its own VM within, but that’s just personal preference.

Also would be helpful if you can assign static / reserved ip’s to the devices you want to include as if they’re not that could possibly have some bearing on why you’re getting disconnects depending on the lease times issued by your router.