Wiser - Pearls of Wisdom

Discussion in 'C-Bus Wiser 1 Controller' started by bmerrick, Dec 10, 2012.

  1. bmerrick

    bmerrick

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    Hi All,

    I have noticed that many of the c-Bus forums have 'sticky's at the top passing on some great advice pertinent to that area, but none currently exists in the Wiser group. Many of the same questions come up quite often and could be summarised into a helpful list of user contributed 'Pearls of Wisdom'.

    I propose this post as an initial 'Scratchpad' for a new sticky to be added into the C-Bus Wiser forum. If one of the moderators wouldn't mind making this post (or a copy) a Sticky at the end of the process, that would be great. Feel free to cut and paste from one of YOUR previous forum posts.

    Place your 'Pearl of Wisdom' into a post with the next sequential number at the top and your c-Bus forum userID entered like this:

    [noparse]#9999 Title of 'Pearl'
    [/noparse]
    with inputs being 1.the next number in sequence, 2.Optional title 3.your Username and optionally, 4.the info's original forum post number and 5.your content

    which on the forum will look like:
    #9999 Remote Access with Toolkit
    Use the 'Reply' to post button, not 'Quote' or it will get very long repeating earlier posts.

    If you have more than one, just use the same template several times over and add a different number to each quote line. If you think a post can be slightly enhanced, as a courtesy, rather than posting please PM the original writer who can then change/update their original post (and may also add a thank you to you for the enhancement).

    After a while (say 1-2 months) when a lot of Pearls are there, a moderator could add a poll to gauge/rank the top ten 'Pearls of Wisdom', and this would allow a re-sort in order of importance. Crowd-sourced expertise at its finest.

    Here's mine to kick it off. Thanks in advance to all who'll help by contributing their Wiser 'Pearl of Wisdom'. All the best, Brad


    #1 Enhanced Remote Access Security
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 11, 2012
    bmerrick, Dec 10, 2012
    #1
  2. bmerrick

    Roosta

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    First up apologies on the length of this one but I think a few of you out there may benefit from it..

    #2 - Remote Access using DNS {the Roosta way}

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 11, 2012
    Roosta, Dec 11, 2012
    #2
  3. bmerrick

    bmerrick

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    Nice one Roosta!!

    #3 GUI access from Smart TV or other Thin Client
     
    bmerrick, Dec 11, 2012
    #3
  4. bmerrick

    wappinghigh

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    Bridge mode

    #4 Bridge Mode setup for dummies

    Hi cbus nerds.

    Thought I'd post a bridge mode setup for dummies...

    Having just had to reset all this myself because of a lost password, I thought I'd add a few "Dummie lightbulb" notes into the Wiser manual.

    Enjoy.

    Q/ What is a WISER?

    A/ It's basically a ROUTER (made by someone else)..running some CIS tweeked firmware with a small plastic box connected (the CNI) ..which connects it to cbus via that pink cable..and an even smaller box joining the two (which has the power socket)

    Q/ Why would you want bridge mode anyway?

    A/ Well most places that would have the need for a WISER would already have a pretty decent wireless network set-up all ready. I mean who doesn't right? And that goes for pretty much every premisses now..let alone tech nerdy type houses with cbus! SO now you have your wifi and IP addresses all setup, why would you want WISER to come along and have to remove your perfectly good existing wifi router and change all those other network settings that have taken so long to set up? Get the picture! That's why you need bridge mode.

    Q/ What does bridge mode do?

    A/ It turns the WISER into a dumb networked box like every other piece of networked/interfaced gear you now have eg think smartTV, bluray player, networked music, whatever.. In other words, bridge mode switches off the WISERS router function.

    Q/ But hey. This is all preconfigured right? And the settings are in the manual.

    A/ Wrong. Well there is talk of setting up a mode "B" in the manual, but I found this confusing and lacking on detail, so here it is for dummies:

    The WISER does not come preconfigured in bridge mode. Even though this is by far the most likely mode you'll want to use (see why above). It comes configured out of the box as a Router. With the wifi turned on.

    What you have to do is take the WISER and connect it to a computer via ethernet cable. (Disconnect the computer from your main network first..including all it's wifi..) The ethernet cable plugs into the WISER via one of the LAN ports. *NOT* the port labelled "Internet" on the little box at the back that connects the CNI unit (the one next to the power socket) ..but one of the 3 ports on the actual main plastic box of the wiser ...Anyway, browse onto the WISER GUI by typing 192.168.2.1 (the settings that come out of the box) via your browser and admin admin (the default user name and password).

    Once you are in the GUI....it can take a while, you need to find the WISER config page and the first thing you need to do is turn off the wifi. So do that first.. (otherwise that little critter will start a new wifi network with settings 192.168.2.1.. which can get a bit confusing to say the least..)

    Anyway turn off the wifi and save this configuration first. It takes a while to re-boot.

    The next thing to do is go to the setup tab and enter all the bridge mode settings: And follow carefully (because it's not intuitive)

    Internet Connection type : Automatic Configuration - DHCP

    Option settings leave blank

    Network Setup: Local IP address 192.xxx.0.xx (whatever the static IP address you want the WISER interface to be)
    Subset mask: 255.255.255.0.. (or whatever you use)

    DHCP Server Settings: Disabled

    Now change your password (more of that later)

    Then reboot again.

    Of course this will swap the IP address to 192.xxx.0.xx (that you chose before) so you will need to wait a while to log back in on that address..

    If it doesn't work the first time have a cup of tea, reboot the wiser (by pulling the power plug) and/or reboot your existing router.

    Now the next thing to do is log back into the new Ip address and back up the configuration (It's a button under the Administration tab). This will produce a little file called config.bin which saves all these settings.

    That way if months/years down the track you forget all this along with your password.. (or can't find this post)... you can restore everything by doing a cold boot to original firmware ( what came out of the box).. and reload these new bridge mode settings (along with the password you just forgot). You'd then set a different new password (that you can now remember) and you are all sweet..

    Q/ Why would you need to do that?

    A/ Well remember the original firmware sets up everything as a router.. So without this, you'd be back at the beginning!

    Q/ Isn't there a simpler way to reset your password?

    A/ Well short answer ... NO. Remember the WISER was all originally set up and designed as a router.. Password reset like this is common for a lot of these types of network gear.. I'd forgotten that..,

    If you stuff up at any stage along the way, remember you can reset back to factory by powering the Wiser on whilst holding in the reset button (via a paper clip)

    Any mistakes in this blog please contribute. But this worked for me

    Cheers And enjoy!

    Footnote: The all important Wiser bridge mode settings should look something like this: (with your different local static IP address of course)
     

    Attached Files:

    wappinghigh, Mar 2, 2013
    #4
  5. bmerrick

    ashleigh Moderator

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    #5 - time

    #5 - a little bit about C-Bus Time and the Wiser

    When a wiser is installed and set to use NTP, it is the highest priority time master.

    Note that NTP does not give you summer / winter / local time.

    NTP gives you GMT (also known as UCT), which is the world time reference. EVerything from there is a local offset. When you set a time zone on a computer you are setting the offset from GMT.

    The change from summer to winter time (and vice versa) is normally done by leaving the time zone alone, and setting a schedule to say when summer and winter time start (or to be pedantic, where summer time starts and ends). This then adds a further hour (or not) to the time zone offset from GMT. In the case of C-Bus everything is transmitted around the bus in LOCAL TIME with an indication to tell if the daylight saving time offset has been applied or not. The wiser does the translation from GMT (UCT) to local time via the time zone, and via some additional rules about when daylight saving (summer) time starts and ends.

    If you find that the time is wrong on your C-Bus devices, check the setup of the wiser in PICED (not the wiser web interface). The start / ends in there are probably wrong.


    Changing the time on devices won't fix the issue! Because Wiser is the highest priority time master, it will take over and re-assert its view of the time. This might take an hour or two. This then leads to grumpy customers.

    ---

    Now before you say: "but this is crazy why can't you idiots sort this out", the fundamental issue with summer time / daylight saving time is that it is a creation of government. And governments pass legislation in different parts of the world to change the start and end times. Sometimes for no reason, sometimes because it seemed a good idea, sometimes because they move a start or end time by a week to fit around a national holiday, etc etc.

    There's no universal worldwide maintained up-to-date database of daylight saving time start and end. And bear in mind, some parts of the world have 3 timezone steps: crazy things like normal time, summer time and winter time (sigh). And the offsets are normally 1 hour but can be 2 hours in some places, and 1/2 hour in others. [Not to mention time zone offsets from GMT are normally in 1 hour increments, apart from the places that are 1/2 hour, and last I checked there is somewhere with a 15 minute increment of offset from GMT.]

    So making a piece of s/w to "just get it right" requires reading the minds of your local politicians. If yours are anything like mine, a human can't read their minds (not much to read, being mainly concrete). But if a human can't do it, a piece of s/w will never be able to.
     
    ashleigh, Mar 19, 2013
    #5
  6. bmerrick

    Rayson Wiggill

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    Reboot button in the interface?

    Has any one done this or know how to create a reboot wiser button in app that allows the user to restart the wiser with out being on site or having access to the systems page?

    This would help a lot when the wiser "freezes"
     
    Rayson Wiggill, Jul 25, 2013
    #6
  7. bmerrick

    Boz

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    Is there a post about configuring wiser WAN for dummies here?

    I have my LAN set up and have no probs controlling everything from my Android smart phone, but I haven't configured WAN so I can use the app when I'm away from the house,

    I have a Telstra cable Modem connected to the wiser router (I have the gateway status page open that shows me all the info on it)
    I also have the WAN settings page open on the Wiser router and not sure how to configure, should I do DHCP or Static?

    For DHCP I get a mac address option and gives me a mac address when I click Fill my mac, I haven't clicked apply yet because I'm not sure I should, You know what they say ''If it's not broke it don't need fixing'' I'm worried I might screw the settings up

    On my phone I've set:
    Wiser address; the mac address of the Wiser router
    HTTP Port; 80
    Wiser XML Port; 8888

    Should I click apply?
     
    Boz, Jul 14, 2014
    #7
  8. bmerrick

    [email protected]

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    Excellent, thank you for that, great advice
     
    [email protected], Jun 16, 2016
    #8
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