Very unstable & fickle wireless. Needs frequent reboots to resolve.

[bigtony]

I have been trying everything possible to resolve the wireless issue - sometimes after a day or two, or even in just an hour or so the wireless fails to accept a new connection. It's still broadcasting an SSID, but active wireless connections become flakey and new connections or reconnecting becomes impossible.

I have monitored the wireless activity in the area and eliminated all potentially problematic interference and network overlap. The Almond + isn't sitting on a microwave. there aren't twenty wireless networks all running on channel 6 or 153, and the clients aren't 300 feet away behind a cinderblock wall - it will do it to my laptop, on my desk, with a 15 foot line of sight between the computer and the Almond +. And the software is updated as well. and this issues happens with MacBooks, windows, and mobile devices.

I have tried every combination of environmental tuning and configuration settings I can think of to no avail.

Yep I'm very frustrated and I don't want this thing any more - and I'm a long time network and security engineer who's worked with all manner of hardware/software (Nokia, Cisco, Check Points, Juniper, Aeronets, Crossbeams, servers, workstations, on dozens of operating systems.) 

I'm not one to give up easily, but I cannot see any way that this thing could possibly ever work. A couple hundred dollars in exchange for way too many hours of my time - wasn't a very good deal when a dead end and a doorstop with a wall wart is all I have to show for it.

Will someone from Securfi please tell me that (truthfully) that I am:

1) An idiot who has no business buying network/security/wireless hardware unless from the Comcast Rep and his installer.
2) One of the very few with issues and it's probably a hardware failure of some sort.
3) One of the many experiencing this very common issue based on pervasive hardware or software problems and you have something that will resolve the issues.



I'd like a real answer, but I will heed the request given here constantly and I will contact support...

[brantflick]

You should probably reach out to Securifi support directly.  I'm not affiliated with the company, but it sucks you're having such issues!  My router doesn't really have any issues with wireless so I expect yours is a legit software config issue or hardware problem and support should be able to determine that and get you all fixed up.

[grouter]

Sounds like we've had similar experiences, except I've already opened a support case. Have tried a few firmwares, but no luck. I'm about ready to send this thing back.

[bigtony]

Sounds like we've had similar experiences, except I've already opened a support case. Have tried a few firmwares, but no luck. I'm about ready to send this thing back.

Support called me yesterday & asked if they could set up an hour today to work the issue. I said "ok, how about 2:30pm CST" - support paused and asked if I could do it very early in the morning or later in the evening.

I said "no thank you, actually I'm good, the Almond+ is powered down and back in it's box - don't need to spend more time on it".

He said "hold on...the said, ok we will call you at 2pm cst tomorrow"

I said "ok" and then I went to Best Buy and bought an Airport Extreme. I put it in the same spot the Almond previously sat, powered it up, configured it, connected to it in the matter of a few minutes. WiFi Explorer reported a remarkable increase in signal strength on both 2.4 and 5.8 bands, with both broadcasting a single SSID. Upstairs, and in the driveway, the network is very usable where before there was no wifi available.

So, if I factor in the amount of time I spend setting it up vs. troubleshooting the Almond, the Airport was essentially free.

I am well aware that I'm missing some pretty cool features - but if they don't work anyway am I really missing them? I mean, I'd rather have a car with cloth seats, manual windows, no sunroof, and an am radio - that always starts and does 0-60 in 4 seconds vs a fully equipped luxury sedan with leather seats, sunroof, power windows, heated cup holders, and a 18 speaker surround sound system - that starts and stops randomly and has a top speed of 30 mph.  Seriously - when you have to get to work, you need something that does the job of getting you to work first - if it can't get you to work, all the secondary bells & whistles don't matter. And by the looks of it here on this forum, even the bells & whistles are problematic.

So, maybe as a Kickstarter Backer I got an early production unit, maybe the QA process wasn't fully implemented, maybe the first units had a bad radio or dsp... who knows, but when I test a unit running factory defaults & updated to the latest firmware using a by the book wifi configuration and the signal strength, performance, and reliability are so poor the unit is unusable, I figure there's a decent chance that I'm not the problem and spending hours with me trouble shooting isn't a good use of my time.

Then, when I replace the unit with another brand/model and within minutes I have a long range, multi-channel, secure, high-performance wireless network running. Then I start to think about the lost time and money and figure I won't be taking that call at 2pm after all.   

[dontazz2003]

Try looking that up is it a router for Apple.?

[bigtony]

Try looking that up is it a router for Apple.?

Yes, it's Apple's latest wireless access point.

However, it's important to note that Apple, and pretty much every other "traditional" access point available, will not act as a home automation hub (don't support ZigBee, Z-Wave, etc) which was pretty much the whole point to my backing the almond project and getting an Almond+.

Still, the Almond+, in addition to supporting home automation devices, has to be a wireless access point as well or it's just another proprietary "smart hub". If it can't do that, then my thinking is why bother. So I returned to the Access Point plus "smart hub" combo where both things work well and are easy to run and manage.

I'm not really too upset about it, more upset that I put the time into it really - I expect more effort on the front end of "great ideas becoming reality for the first time" and the Almond+ is a great idea.

I'd love my money back, or a unit that actually works as advertised, but I simply can't spend any more time or money on the whole thing.... even an RMA will likely result in being another expense for me and use more of my time - so that's why I'm done with my Almond+

[AndCycle]

I have similar experience,
regrets about sold my old steady traditional WiFi router,

until now the basic function about WiFi is far from stable,

although most mobile phone works well,
but none of my laptop works without problem with Almond+,
any cheap $50 WiFi can do better than Almond+,
that reminds me reliability is much more important.

[ChrisizzleM]

I've been experiencing almost identical symptoms off and on, and today it finally has gotten so bad that even a restart doesn't recover it. I can't connect at all, even with the SSID broadcasting.

This is really frustrating. I've reached out to support. We'll see what they can do.

The lack of reliability combined with the extremely slow development is disappointing. I've already purchased the SmartThings controller because they are moving so much faster. Would be nice if Securifi would spend some of that money on building a bigger dev team.

[Amritendu]

Well, not trying to defend anything here and agreed no one, let it be a backer or a retail consumer deserves to experience any of these! But if we take a percentage of all the users of Almond+, KS backers and consumers combined, its a minuscule amount of users (on the forum/ off the forum) experiencing such horrible performance, specially after the recent releases which has updated and upgraded wireless drivers. Also going by this discussion thread its 4 guys who are getting very bad performance and lets include brantflick  who doesn't have any issues at all. This indicates there might be some specific issues with your individual units, it might  be something to do with the software, hardware or both! That's, where support comes into picture who are there to diagnose, assist and provide a solution/replacement if required. But please understand it might not be an outright solution.
Having said so, please be assured that Securifi has its right amount of resources allocated to do the job, but yes, we might not be as big as a Netgear or Asus, so things do take time. We are confident that each of your individual issues can be addressed and since most of you have contacted support, rest be assured things would be taken care of.

[grouter]

Make that 3 guys. My issues appear to all have been caused by interference from another wireless device and not A+ hardware or software.

Related thread here: http://forum.securifi.com/index.php/topic,2786.msg13128.html#msg13128

Since I've repositioned the wireless audio I haven't had a single issue.

[outbackrob]

Make that 3 guys. ....

I was almost the next #4.  Kept losing internet connectivity almost once an hour that would require a reboot to recover.  I reset to factory.  Nothing.  Finally put in a ticket and was told to change the display timeout to 999999.  Have not had a glitch since.

I was worried that I had spent $200 for Time & Temp box for the hall wall.   Now that it is not dropping the internet, this thing is FAST.  Much faster than my ASUS RT-AC66U.  MUCH.   Even old G WiFi display smoother.   This thing can handle a lot.   I was worried, but now I am impressed.  Other Kickstarter and Indegogo projects I have participated in have not gone this well.