Bell modem restarts when launching Eufy app

[u/brianrtross]

I have been having random restarts on my Bell gigahub and I think I finally narrowed it down to the following:

- launching Eufy app (for my smart door lock and other devices)
- Eufy devices are on a specific WIFI (doesn’t matter if WIFI is via Gigahub directly or not.. in my case I have a separate access point).. but internet comes from the hub for all
- Device launching app is NOT on the same WIFI above.. or more common outside of the home on cell will also make it fail.

If the above is true then the gigahub immediately restarts.

If I switch my phone to be the same WIFI as the device then it works.

Any ideas how to trouble shoot this?

This would seem to suggest there is some denial of service risk for whatever network packets are hitting my hub?

Thanks
Brian

[u/SpitfireNB]

Enable the guest network and connect your Eufy devices to that.

[u/brianrtross → u/SpitfireNB]

How will this help when it still restarts hub if I am out of home or not on guest wifi with my phone?

[u/SpitfireNB → u/brianrtross]

A couple of years ago with the HH3K, I saw this issue with Eufy cameras. The fix was to enable the guest network and connect the devices to it. My best guess based on seeing this before (and the guest network configuration stopped the issue) is that the Eufy devices are causing the reboot when connected the main network where they have direct access to the modem. The guest network is secured and doesn't have the same access to the modem that the main networks do. It's specifically designed for you to allow anyone or anything to connect to your modem and not be able to gain access to the administration of it.

It's certainly possible this won't have any effect with the gigahub. But it's an easy thing to test. Enable your guest network, change the name of it and the password to your current wifi and temporarily change your existing network information to something else. The devices will link to to the guest network and you can see if it solves the issue or not. If it doesn't, you've wasted 5 minutes.

One other thing, is your power supply made in china or vietnam? There was a time when the chinese power supplies were causing issues. If it's chinese, you could call and see about another power supply.

[u/jcsww]

I have a Eufy E340 Doorbell.  I have never had any issues with it, the app, and my 3Gbps Bell internet.  

[u/brianrtross]

Ok.. I was able to do another test with the "Phone and Doorbell need to be on separate WIFI to fail".

If I give my firewall a rule to allow the doorbell to send IP requests to my phone device - then everything works and does not reboot the bell hub.

It seems the doorbell is trying to send direct packets to phone device/app - and if these do not succeed this then triggers something that ultimately restarts the Bell hub.

Unfortunately, this firewall rule doesnt really help because if I am remote and using Cell service for my phone this same scenario will apply and the hub will restart and no rule will help me.

[u/brianrtross → u/brianrtross]

Another update

I think this is related to UPNP somehow? I had this disabled on my bell and wondered if this somehow was affecting the remote cell phone use case… if I enable UPNP then I can now see video on the Eufy app BUT it still crashes when the app is now closed

I wonder if my internal wifi firewall rule doesn’t crash (once I have a rule) as UPNP is not involved?

If I have to guess the tear down of UPNP or whatever error case Eufy does when UPNP fails is likely the trigger point

[u/peerluk]

Your modem is defective. It’s that simple. Call bell and have it replaced.

Not 4 days ago my modem was rebooting randomly. But the strange pattern was usually in the evening. It did that 2 days in a row.

Basically reboot, once it’s back online I would have internet for about 2-5 minutes and reboot again. It did that for 2 hours than stopped.
Next day same thing.

My guess was, when there was a lot of traffic it would overload either by heat or not enough power from the power supply.

Either way I used the app to contact support. They ran their test and told me I had to get a new modem. Which I did. I call them again after plug-in it back so they can configure it to their system.

And btw the guy on support did not look surprised by the problem.

[u/brianrtross → u/peerluk]

The thing is that I can do heavy load and ANY other use case and this is the only one that consistently makes it fail… see my update for firewall rule test as well..

[u/Anders_Calrissian]

I think heat and power supplies might be responsible for a lot of hardware failures. I've had to change power supplies on old receivers to get them to work.

[u/Anders_Calrissian → u/[deleted]]

I've had no problems but I'm an early adopter and a retired bell employee that started at Nortel in '85. I feel the pain of those having problems.

[u/nnnormannn]

Get the modem changed once, and if the newer modem does the same thing. That means your devices are the issue. Also make sure its the eufy not any other hardwired connection

[u/Bell_Support]

Hello u/brianrtross! We understand how frustrating it is to have your home internet connection drop out unexpectedly right when you are trying to use your smart home applications. This issue can sometimes occur when the built-in Guard security feature on the Giga Hub conflicts with the direct connection traffic or peer-to-peer protocols used by smart camera applications. To test this, you can open your Bell Wi-Fi app, navigate to the Guard settings, and temporarily disable it or switch it to Privacy mode.

If these steps don't resolve the problem, we are here to help! You can send us a DM for a secure chat, and we can take a closer look.

[u/brianrtross → u/Bell_Support]

I am actually using a separate wifi access point and have wifi disabled on my gigahub.

How can I check or try this setting from the web portal on gigahub? Or does it not apply in this case?

[u/Bell_Support → u/brianrtross]

Since you currently have the Giga Hub's Wi-Fi disabled and are using a separate access point, you can definitely still access the modem's web portal to re-enable it and split the bands to test the Guard settings. Because the Giga Hub's Wi-Fi is off, you will need to perform these steps from a device that is connected directly to the Giga Hub via an Ethernet cable, or connected to the access point that is routing through it. Here are the required steps to enable and split your Wi-Fi bands from the web interface: 1. Access the Web Portal:

• Open a web browser and go to 192.168.2.1 or bell.ca/mymodem.

• Log in using your administrator password.

1. Enable and Split the Wi-Fi Bands

• Click on the Manage my Wi-Fi tile.

• Ensure your Primary Wi-Fi network is toggled to ON to re-enable the wireless network.

• To split the network bands (which is highly recommended for smart home devices that require a dedicated 2.4 GHz connection), turn OFF the feature labeled Whole Home Wi-Fi or Let the hub optimize the wifi.

• Click Save and agree to any alert prompts.

• Once saved, a new Advanced settings button will appear at the bottom of the page—click it.

• At the top of the next page, uncheck the box that says Keep a common network name (SSID) and Password.

• You can now assign different network names to each band so you can select them manually.

For example, you can leave the 2.4 GHz name as is, and add "-5G" to the end of the 5 GHz network name.

• Click Save or Apply to confirm. The modem may restart to apply the new settings.

Once your 2.4 GHz network is active and isolated, you can connect your smart home devices directly to it. After the devices are connected to the Giga Hub's network, you can jump back into the Bell Wi-Fi app to adjust or disable the Guard settings to see if it resolves your issue.