A smart plug to monitor your router and automatically reset power if WiFi fails

https://plus.google.com/communities/115308608951565782559

by lukashed • 10 years ago

68 101 10 years ago

plus.google.com

dkopi• 10 years ago

This is one of those ingenious inventions that make you ask: "Where have you been all of my life". Perfect for coffee shops, or when the router's in a room that you can't access without waking anyone up.

Of course in an ideal world, wireless routers would be smart enough to reset themselves, without having to add another $60 to their price. But we are only in 2016.

RGamma• 10 years ago

No, in an ideal world companies would stop making cheap, untested consumer shit that degrades after a few weeks uptime (looking at you, TP-Link). Luckily products unlike these exist, but not many might know about them, so this is a completely unnecessary product (hilariously overpriced as well) profitting from the ignorance of end users...

_0w8t2• 10 years ago

I second both the observation about TP-Link and the existence of products that have no market in an ideal world. And TP-link really cannot have excuse as OpenWRT on their hardware is more stable, so by producing custom software they wasting money.

collyw3• 10 years ago

Even decent brands need a reset every so often.

chris_wot3• 10 years ago

Isn't this just an example of the halting problem? As in, you can't prove that a program won't ever halt.

jkot• 10 years ago

Simpler version is mechanical timer with reset every N hours.

_0w8t2• 10 years ago

In case of TP-Link routers in crowded WiFi space that would be 15 mintes.

damian20003• 10 years ago

I've never had a problem with TP-Link over about the last ten years and 3 modem/routers. I have heard lots of other people complaining about them though.

rythie• 10 years ago

I'd prefer a router with a AA battery slot, so it doesn't go down in the first place.

ethbro• 10 years ago

Different problem.

To summarize: many consumer level routers tend to lock up due to firmware bugs, hardware defects, or overheating. Because they're closed devices, the solution is usually power off/power on & let the restart clear up any issues and restore proper wifi functionality. This device ingeniously automates that step.

bhouston• 10 years ago

D-Link routers are the worst for this. About every 2 weeks it would require a set. I found ASUS to be way more reliable.

benmorris2• 10 years ago

A neat idea but why not take that $60 and buy a router that didn't require resetting. They do exist. My Asus router just never needs reset. I have it on an ups unit and the only time it is reset is to do firmware upgrades.

Filligree• 10 years ago

How are you supposed to find out which ones don't?

Normal_gaussian• 10 years ago

Basically good brand and not cheap as chips? Won't need resets.

Also many come with decent warranties

benmorris2• 10 years ago

Newegg/Amazon product reviews are a good starting point. Avoid new models until they are well tested and bugs patched.

tarikjn• 10 years ago

Look at the brands that focus on quality/software vs. releasing new models every 3 months.

In my experience Pepwave/Unifi/Microtik are good prosumer brands.

For more consumer-y stuff, it might be worth it to have a look at the Apple/OnHub routers too.

You can also pick up enterprise gear on eBay at pretty good prices, brands such as Cisco/HP/Aerohive/Ruckus etc., but configuring/updating might be a pain.

qb458• 10 years ago

I just look for models known to work well with OpenWRT. This way I don't have to deal with random bugs or limitations of stock firmwares.

auxym• 10 years ago

Similar success with my TP-Link TL-WDR3600. Had a 20$ netgear before that needed resetting several times a week.

qb458• 10 years ago

Same device here, works perfectly with OpenWRT.

Mindless2112• 10 years ago

I have that model -- install OpenWrt, and you have an very stable router: http://imgur.com/cMhIwmp

I'm quite irritated that TP-Link is locking out OpenWrt now. For the last 7 years, TP-Link is all I've purchased or recommended. Not now though.

collyw3• 10 years ago

Its not always the router though. I remember living in a shared flat a while back, and whenever one girl connected her laptop to the network, it would mess up wireless for everyone. I seem to remember the fix needing applied to her computer, as I have never done anything to the software on a router.

wongarsu• 10 years ago

If it can be fixed by restarting the router, the router could have fixed it automatically during operation if it had decent software.

creshal• 10 years ago

Even if it did, hardware watchdogs are like 5 cents and should be a standard feature of all devices.

anotheryou4• 10 years ago

some ISPs in some countries won't let you switch from their crappy routers

NDizzle• 10 years ago

You can add ANY wifi router to ANY ethernet network. You absolutely are not required to use a wifi device that your ISP gives you. The WAN side is under their control, but you can do anything you want on your side.

dschulz• 10 years ago

Exactly. There are a few MikroTik routers for less than $60. They are all rock solid and full of functionality, including watchdog timer.

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:System/Watchdog

http://www.amazon.com/Mikrotik-hAP-AC-Lite-RB952Ui-5ac2nD/dp...

http://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-RB951Ui-2HnD-5-Port-Wireless-...

http://www.amazon.com/Mikrotik-RB941-2nD-TC-Lite-2-4Ghz-802-...

http://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-RouterBOARD-2-4GHz-Access-Poi...

http://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-RouterBOARD-2-4GHz-Ceiling-Ac...

colanderman• 10 years ago

I love my MikroTiks. Even the $22 "hAP lite" is a fantastic home WiFi router option, and comes with all the functionality a hacker could want.

My MikroTik's fantastic reliability (48d uptime, and that was b/c I accidentally pulled the power cord), combined with a queue policy to throttle bandwidth to avoid my ISP's humongous queues, makes me feel sorry for others whenever I hear them complain about their router always crashing, or Netflix causing Minecraft to lag.

dublinben• 10 years ago

Does MikroTik have something against gigabit Ethernet? Even the $20-30 routers from other companies include it these days.

electrum• 10 years ago

The Apple AirPort is one such router. It's expensive but high quality. I get great reception through walls, outside, etc.

damian20003• 10 years ago

For half the price you could buy a Raspberry Pi that just runs a simple watchdog program doing the internet connectivity check. Upon a problem, it could connect to your modem's web admin page and launch a restart from there.

whoiskevin• 10 years ago

And if the modem is not available?

yoda_sl3• 10 years ago

See my other post where I am using my Pi and reset my Wemo... Initially I was going the route to reboot the modem through the web interface until I noticed my stupid modem doesn't offer such option in the web interface! Since I had a spare Wemo Plug I was not using for a while I used that instead.

swiley2• 10 years ago

Connect a transistor to a gpio pin to drive a relay and power the modem through that.

nolite• 10 years ago

Where's the EU version?

yoda_sl3• 10 years ago

Interesting to see that. It turns out that around a month ago after seeing the Raspberry Pi project that send a tweet to Comcast when internet connection is slow, it gave me the motivation to use my Raspberry Pi 2 to do the following:

A- every 15 minutes check my internet connection: connectivity (reaching Goodle DNS host),

B- if connectivity fail, execute D-2 below, if not see next step below

C- then use SpeedTest download / upload; if download/upload speed are too slow then attempt a second test 30 seconds later

D- if the second attempt fail again then:

1- send an SMS with Twilio to my cell phone to let me know the modem will reboot, and wait 10 seconds

2- issue a "off" command to my Belkin Wemo (cable modem plugged into it), then wait another 30 seconds and issue a "on" command

On top of that I have installed InfluxDB + Grafana on my Pi so I can log the connection latency to Google DNS, and the download/upload speed. Example:

https://imgur.com/gallery/dgeFR

The Belkin Wemo command do use only my local Wifi, so even if the modem is down since my Pi is on the same LAN it can control the Wemo without problem.

It was a fun little project for my Pi. All written in Python. If anyone interested I can probably post the code somewhere.

[updated for formatting]

jarmitage• 10 years ago

please do!

cmdrfred• 10 years ago

How do you get to twilio when the internet is down?

draw_down• 10 years ago

Is it normal for routers to need to be reset periodically? Seems like a pain.

witty_username• 10 years ago

Yeah, rarely ever have I needed to restart my modem, if at all, I just reboot it from the web interface to save the 10 secs of walking.

anotheryou4• 10 years ago

I have one that looses the internetz when a newer macbook or an iphone cause noticeable traffic. After a reboot it's fine for a while.

ISPs in Germany can force you to use their router. I have a proper one which remains unused :/

vetinari• 10 years ago

Just connect your own router to ISPs one, set it to the bridge mode and disable wifi on the ISP router. Done.

recursive3• 10 years ago

It's certainly not unusual. It is a pain.

pix64• 10 years ago

ISPs give out the cheapest possible routers.

mavhc• 10 years ago

I assume they take into account the cost of support calls, replacement hardware, and loss of future business because people think they're crap

LukeB_UK• 10 years ago

This is just the American version of the Kankun wireless plug with a script on it. The Kankun plug is like 1/4 of the price: http://m.aliexpress.com/item/32613551938.html

There's a whole community about hacking these plugs: https://plus.google.com/communities/115308608951565782559

chris_wot3• 10 years ago

Someone needs to oppose the pending patent then.

mdip2• 10 years ago

I can't imagine what they have a patent pending on. They could claim nobody has put all of these features into a single device, but I'd challenge even that. WiFi switches have been around for a long time and there's a myriad of open projects for a variety of "development platforms" (RPi, Arduino, etc) that do things like this or similar to this. As far as detecting and cycling a device based on network activity, I've personally built something that performs this exact function ten years ago using an old laptop with an X10 serial device and a router/modem plugged into an X10 device. There's got to be a ton of prior art out there.

chx• 10 years ago

Thanks! My work requires using a certain device which I figured how to use remotely but occasionally it needs a reboot and the devices I found were very expensive.

dang• 10 years ago

Thanks! We changed the URL to that second link, which seems like it might be the most substantive. The originally posted URL was http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BU2ALGO/.

qb458• 10 years ago

Would be nice if this information was more visible.

I was quite surprised that the link leads to some random G+ page about "smartplug" hacking while people here are talking as if it was a commercial product.

mjlee• 10 years ago

Here's a non-mobile version of that same link:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-New-Smart-Wifi-plug-sock...

lordnacho• 10 years ago

The WiFi may work without the internet working. Is there a plug that checks that? I get a lot of outages on the internet link side of things, not so many on the local wireless.

chris_wot3• 10 years ago

Oh great, there's a patent pending.

swiley2• 10 years ago

SBCs are so cheap at this point just grab one of those and put hostapd and iptables on it.

recursive3• 10 years ago

In order to do that, I'd first have to learn what any of those things are, and why I'd want to do that.

lucio• 10 years ago

It's like a physical IISreset. A recognition and acceptance of failure and/or generalized bad quality.

mdip2• 10 years ago

I'm a little skeptical about this product having had experience with some of these WiFi plug devices and as echoed by others, the price of this device is much higher than it should be.

I've been using Ankuoo and Maginon devices quite a bit at home -- they run around $25, are easy to setup, conveniently communicate information to Chinese owned domains (ok, that bit bugs me, but I've blocked the communication) and they are a script away from this product.

If this is based on the Marvell Chipset that so many of these devices are based on, I wonder how frequently it'll reset the router not because WiFi went out but because the device dropped off the network due its own problems. I've had some very spotty results with a device that I had plugged into the same power strip as my router and a large number of other devices. Despite being 4 feet from the router, it continually dropped off the network until I moved it to a wall outlet far away from the power strip (I'm guessing interference from the myriad of moderately high wattage equipment I had plugged in but I'm no EE).

Something like this could be made on-the-cheap with a CHIP and a relay ($10 for the CHIP $5-10 for the relay, $~1-5 for USB power) and a little bit of scripting. Personally, I've wanted a feature like this since my router and cable modem are not easy to get to when I (rarely) need to cycle them. I purchased a 4-port relay and plan to pair it with a Banana Pro, wire it to Ethernet, set it up on WiFi and coupled with software running on my OpenWRT router, have it decide which to cycle in the event of an outage. Even with that complex of a build, I'm looking at $55.00 including power (which doesn't count much for me since I've got a USB block with an available port that I plan to use).

acd• 10 years ago

You can also add a watch scripts that pings a known address and if does not work it reboots the router. Zero hardware required which is better than throwing electronic waste in the environment.

MrQuincle• 10 years ago

"Identification of a modem: automatically reset modem when anomalous behavior is detected."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dobots/crownstone

Prior art. So you can just get our open source power outlets without patent-pending stuff.

lttlrck• 10 years ago

A super cheap way to do this is proactively reset your router every night at 3am by power cycling it with a $12 plug-in timer. Of course it doesn't fit every use case and it doesn't solve every problem , but it will alleviate problems related to long running that all to many routers seem to suffer.

roylez• 10 years ago

Interestingly, this thing, made in China, has almost zero sales in China. Its price is a bit high, if compared to TL WR703n, which can do a lot more things. http://world.taobao.com/search/search.htm?_ksTS=145780791366...

jarnix• 10 years ago

Where/when do you live guys ? Who buys a router that needs to be restarted (and even fails) ? :) I have a Netgear something that acts as a wifi router and I do not have to restart it, I don't understand :)

justin_vanw• 10 years ago

Just buy a new router if you have a buggy one that needs restarted all the time.

This is silly and illogical, if you have a reliability problem fix it, adding more parts is not likely to help. What happens when this smart plug malfunctions and restarts your router every 5 minutes?

RKearney• 10 years ago

Agreed. Without naming the brand of router I have in an effort to not start a brand debate, I must say when you actually end up spending more than $40 on a wireless router, the quality greatly improves. When I lived with my family, I thought resetting wireless routers was the norm (all my friends agreed it was a normal thing). Then I moved out and bought my own equipment. 5 years and counting and the only time this thing has been power cycled is when my home lost power in a storm.

You'd be far better off putting the money you'd spend on this gadget towards a better wireless router and call it a day.

qb458• 10 years ago

I thought resetting wireless routers was the norm (all my friends agreed it was a normal thing).

Trust me, hanging or rebooting is the best of the bad things your router can do to you.

I had one which would pass LAN->WAN packets without NAT translation if the endian-swapped destination address matched the LAN address block. Want to access X.1.168.192 on default settings? Sorry, not today.

And, of course, I didn't use 192.168.1.0/24 but 10.0.0.0/8. It took me weeks to figure out that the thing those few websites which suddenly stopped working had in common was IPs ending with .10 .

This was few years ago and since then I haven't bought a single router which wouldn't run OpenWRT or at least DD-WRT.

qb458• 10 years ago

What happens when this smart plug malfunctions and restarts your router every 5 minutes?

It's obvious, you get another gadget which bypasses the plug when it switches off despite network being up. Capacitors in the router will keep it running for the few milliseconds it takes to enable bypass.

Zash• 10 years ago

What happens when this smart plug malfunctions and restarts your router every 5 minutes?

Obviously you buy a smart plug that monitors the first smart plug and restarts it if it cuts power to the router while the wifi is working :)

Now, if that one starts malfunctioning ...

Spare_account• 10 years ago

Smart plugs all the way down.

Chris2048• 10 years ago

Sometimes the ISP mandates the modem/router, it has to be the one they give you. And in my case, trying to change it is more trouble than it's worth. Before you ask, there isn't such a great choice in ISPs here either...

DiabloD3• 10 years ago

I have a Netgear WNDR4300.

I reboot it about once a year, as in, it has been rebooted three times that didn't involve firmware updates in its entire life, or about five times total.

If your router is that flakey, just replace the router.

SideburnsOfDoom• 10 years ago

The @internetofshit Twitter account is already on this one:

https://twitter.com/internetofshit/status/708565761330176000

"On one level: this is a great idea On another level: WiFi routers shouldn't be so shit that this exists"

"So many people saying they actually want this thing?! It's apparently real"

A smart plug to monitor your router and automatically reset power if WiFi fails

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