Using Echo & Alexa when internet is down

[allenm]

My setup consists of 3 Echo's and 9 lights. All works fine. I can control any light from any Echo. But a recent 2 day power outage brought something to my attention.

I had been under the impression my Echo's would work as long as the Local LAN Wi-Fi was operational, even if the internet was down. I'm only talking about controlling lights, not playing music or anything that would need the internet. But I found this is only partly true.

It turns out only the Echo a device is connected to can control it if the internet is down. I discovered this the hard way when I had to feel my way from the bedroom down a dark hallway to the living room to turn off the bedroom light. The Echo in the bedroom wouldn't recognize the light on the same nightstand.

So, is there a way to interconnect multiple Echo's to control a light without the internet? Or if that isn't possible, what is the process for reconnecting a light to a different Echo?

[Joachim47]

I assume you are already using the Group feature to assign devices. So you should just reassign respective light to different group controlled by the desired echo.

[allenm]

I assume you are already using the Group feature to assign devices. So you should just reassign respective light to different group controlled by the desired echo.

Yes, I have a group called Bedroom that has the Nightstand and Hall lights in it. That does work fine as long as the internet is up. However, it doesn't work if the internet is down.

[jwlv]

An Echo device will not work at all when your connection to the internet is down. What you describe might be a partially down connection, where you may have packet loss and high ping times, but not 100% disconnected.

If the connection is 100% down, Alexa will not even understand the simplest commands. E.g. Alexa what time is it? Or Alexa turn on the light. It won't even respond if you said Alexa hi there. Nothing that Echo devices do is done locally. It all has to go through the internet to Amazon's servers and then back to you at your location. If there's no connection to Amazon's servers, Alexa is completely useless.

[renegade600]

To put it simply, without the cloud, there is no alexa.     The same is true with google nest, if you are thinking about changing.   That said...

When the internet is down, you can access the bulbs using the bulb's manufacturer's app, if there is one, you can use the old fashion dumb switches just have to remember to reset them when the internet is back, or you can link smart bulbs to smart buttons and use those with the local network.   Just no voice control during that time.