iRobot Roomba S9+ "Cloud cannot connect to [my Roomba's name]" message
I have troubleshot the crap out of this on my own and have gotten nowhere. When Firewalla Gold is not in place, the Roomba connects just fine to my existing network (Orbi Mesh); when I add FWG and turn my Orbi router into an access point, the Roomba throws the error message in the title. What's odd is I see zero traffic from the device in question. What's ALSO odd is I have an older Roomba that has zero issues. I assume that means the newer devices use a different way to communicate to the cloud services, but again, I'm seeing zero traffic from the Roomba S9+ itself.
Following iRobot's recommendations for punching a hole through the firewall does not resolve the issue: https://homesupport.irobot.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9025 (I also created an Allow rule to allow all internal traffic)
Turning on Emergency Access does not resolve the issue.
Has anyone else successfully configured their FWG to get communication working with a Roomba S9+?
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I know I'm a little late to the party but I'm having the same issues. I'm not however using Firewalla. Maybe my setup can give you more information. Keep in mind I'm not a networking savvy person so anything that gets real technical will be over my head.
My setup - Xfinity internet/tv service modem/router combo gateway (Xfinity equipment). Ethernet connection (through Ubiquiti point to point) to a Netgear Nighthawk X6S-AC4000 router. The router is setup in access point mode. When I initially set the Irobot up everything worked fine. I noticed the Xfinity gateway lost it's wifi capabilities a couple days ago so I upgraded the gateway to the XB7 gateway from the XB6. After the upgrade is when I noticed the connectivity issues with the Irobot.
What I've noticed - I have found that if I change the Netgear router from AP mode to Router mode it works fine. I only have an issue on my Android phone. When I open the Irobot app on the Android it appears that it connects to the robot and says it's ready, displays the robots name, and battery status but the map icon is greyed out. After about 30 seconds the screen says it's disconnected but the name and battery status still show. If I'm away from home and using 4G cell signal it works (I don't use schedules so not sure about that function). I'm leaning towards it being an issue with the Android phone because I have an Ipad connected to the same network and it works fine.
I did contact Irobot technical support but after all the resetting and reconnecting it still didn't work properly. They have sent it up the chain and I'm waiting to hear back from them.
Hopefully this information can open a few more doors to explore.
Thanks and looking forward to your feedback.
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@Mark, thank you! I remember seen of this in the forums as well. Where roomba label them as router compatibility issues. But in your case (may be with firewalla as well), it may be "router in bridge mode" compatibility ... which is odd
I can understand their wifi chip doesn't work with some routers (barely understand this ...), but having that chip work with router mode and not bridge mode ... is definitely not a hardware issue.
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@Firewalla, the general consensus seems to be Roomba is either not receiving or mishandling the results of the ARP query.
An ARP query seems so straightforward. What could the Firewalla possibly be sending back that is different from every other router but works for every other device?
While it seems like iRobot is the issue, how can the i7 and i9 work on almost every other router if it mishandles ARP queries? Is there any way to add a "Compatibility Mode" to the FWG that somehow reformats the ARP response in another manner?
In other words, if we see the request and response of a generic router, is it the EXACT same ARP response? -
The issue is very likely at the Wi-Fi layer. So far, to our knowledge, the Roomba is the only device we know of that has a page on wifi compatibility with certain routers. Assuming ethernet is pretty standard, the only theory is when AP changes from router mode to AP/Bridge mode, triggered the Roomba wifi to be not compatible.
https://homesupport.irobot.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10657
Wondering if you all can try some of the workaround in above, likely related to WEP
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Greetings all,
Update:
I was able to get my Roomba app working again. I'm not sure what was going on. Maybe an incompatibility with two Xfinity gateways.
When I originally set up my Roomba my Xfinity gateway was right next to another one. Both XB-6 models and everything worked fine. I developed a wifi issue on my gateway where the wifi was not broadcasting the wifi SSID. Swapped out the XB-6 gateway with an XB-7 gateway and the wifi issue was resolved. This is when my issue with the Roomba app began. I found out yesterday that the other gateway started having connectivity issues right after I switched to the XB-7. Had an Xfinity tech come out today. Long story short, switched the other XB-6 gateway to an XB-7 gateway and all of the issues have been resolved.
Like I said earlier, I'm not real tech savvy so I don't understand the ins and outs of what was happening but having both gateways the same solved my issue.
Thanks for all the input
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