I am hoping to build a solution that will automatically reboot my network router when loss of connectivity occurs (or shortly there after). It is not a chronic issue but happens occasionally, seemingly when I am not at home. Any thoughts on the best approach?
My current thinking is somewhat of a ‘dead man’s switch’ approach:
-Use an Ikea zigbee outlet which runs locally on Smarthings and controls router power.
-Use Smart Lighting automation (which runs locally) to turn off the outlet every 15 mins (on the 15 min mark) and then back on again but only if a virtual switch is in the off position. The virtual switch will be controlled by webcore and will be turned on just prior to the 15 minute mark, then back off. –
-Basically the virtual switch will act as a signal confirming loss of internet connectivity. If the internet goes out, the smartthings hub will not receive the signal that webcore has turned the virtual switch on per schedule, and therefore Smart Lighting will carry out the power cycle at the 15 min mark.
If there is a better way to do this, I would love to hear about it. Also the challenge is that above approach would result in my having to create a seperate Smart Lighting automation for each 15 min increment of the day = 120 automations and there appears to be no way to duplicate smart lighting automations, unlike Webcore.
This use case gets brought up every couple of months, and the shortest answer is that there are devices designed to do exactly this, they work well, and you won’t have to worry about smartthings involvement at all.
Essentially they are Wi-Fi pocket sockets that ping (either a company selected website or one of your choice, depending on the brand) and if that ping doesn’t succeed, the pocketsocket reboots itself.
Like I said, these are simple, they work well, lots of community members have used them.
There are several different brands. Some only allow for one device to be plugged into them, some allow for two or three, costs vary.
See the following post from last year for specifics:
Thanks. It looks like the lowest cost option would be $39.99USD for the REsetplug. The Ikea outlet is $9.99 CAD and I already have one, which is why I was hoping it would work. Actually it seems as though it will, but it will require many Smart Lighting automations to be created depending on how frequently I want it to ‘check’ for connectivity.
oh and also resetplug store appears to be non-existent and it is not available on amazon
You’ve already mentioned the amount of work it would take to set this up, so That’s obviously a personal choice as to whether it’s worth it to you.
With regard to operational considerations:
your virtual switch also has to operate locally or your smartlighting automation won’t run locally
if the smartthings cloud becomes unavailable, this method will reboot your router every 15 minutes even if the rest of your Internet is fine. That could be pretty annoying.
If the smartthings hub is unavailable, which has happened historically at least once a month for firmware updates, you will miss that opportunity to reboot your router. And if it stays unavailable, again you will not have the opportunity to reboot your router.
Good points. Especially # 2 I can foresee that being problematic… hmm. Back to the drawing board as I don’t see anything below the $69USD price point, which I don’t think I can’t justify. Thanks.
You should be able to make a DIY version for under five dollars That only operates if the ping is lost. So you lose the fancy features of being able to force the reboot remotely, but it might be an option for you. Again, it doesn’t have any connection to smartthings.
And the Ankuoo has a new box but is still available for under $20 when they’re running one of their coupon specials:
