Echo wifi issue

[jmlohrenz]

About ready to come unglued.  I have two dots in my house and one echo.  We recently updated our wifi to these unifi AP points and a unifi USG router.  My Dots have connected just fine and work great.  My echo however does not.  I've been with customer service 3 times now and am on my 3rd refurbished echo that they have sent me.  Same problem as before...issues registering device.  Why the heck can my DOT's connect fine but not my echo?  I've tried everything.  Resetting, doing setup via phone, then trying by PC.  I've changed my network from WEP, WPA, WPA2, TKIP, AES, etc...nothing seems to work with these damn echos!  Yet the dots connect fine every time I make a change.

This is so frustrating.  Any suggestions would be great.  My echo will connect to my wifi long enough to get an IP address and register with amazon and will then disconnect and not be able to reconnect.

Thanks in advance.

[mike27oct]

You are really flailing around, aren't you?  That is what can happen when people who do not fully understand wireless settings start messing with the settings.

First of all, all security settings should be set to WPA2/AES for all devices for the 2.4G and 5G signals.  AND LEAVE THEM ALONE no matter what some uninformed person may tell you.  It is only quite old equipment (12 yrs old and older)  that may need a different setting and the manual for that device will tell you this.

Also, I never heard of the unifi brand.  I just use the name brand wireless devices.  And, why set up two APs?  You probably should have set up range extenders, and they are NOT the same thing. My range extenders can be set to be APs, and set up that way they are separate networks.

You need wireless help -- locally, not through a forum like this.  Get the Best Buy Geek Squad to help you.

[jmlohrenz]

Flailing around yes...lack of understanding no.  I'm an IT Director, have been in the industry for over 20 years so I know what I'm doing...just very frustrated with this Echo.  The changes in the security settings were requested by Amazon via technical support.  They throw their hands up and send me another echo to try.  Same issue.  I would not touch Geek Squad with a 10 foot pole.  I've helped many friends get things straightened out after they have had geek squad come and set things up for them.  What can you expect from a minimum wage person?

Unifi networks are more of a business grade but are also for larger residential use.  You have a centralized 'controller' and then several AP's that allow you to roam throughout your home on a single network (SSID), or farm in my case.  Has worked beautifully for years and gives me WiFi for my 8 acre property

https://www.ubnt.com/
https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifi
https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-routing/usg/
https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/

The frustrating part is that my Amazon Dot's connect perfectly fine.  One would think that they use the same networking hardware between the Dot's and the Echo's but apparently not.

What I was hoping for was someone here may have experienced something similar with their echo.  I've searched the web and only found someone on an echo forum in Germany with a similar issue.

Long story short here is the sequence:

-Use Alexa App to setup Echo
-App connects to Echo and shows available wireless networks
-Setup wifi with password
-Can see on my router that it has connected and received an IP address
-Echo shows up in my amazon account as a device
-Alexa app hangs and eventually throws an error that is either had issues with setup, issues with registration, or an odd error of 13:1:9:22:4

[mike27oct]

Please excuse me for not noticing your IT Director badge on your lapel when you posted your second post at this forum.  Most people who come here with wireless questions are often novices who bought an Alexa device and are often uninformed about how wi-fi works at elementary levels, etc.

I have this to say about Echo support line:  If you have a simple question that the first tier support can answer and say, "turn it off and turn it back on," fine, otherwise, they should have shifted you to the 2nd tier of support, and if second didn't have a clue, they should have shifted you higher.  If they didn't, you should have requested you be transferred to the next tier.  To tell you to mess with the security settings is ridiculous.  Unless your unifi system is quite different than most home systems, the settings I mentioned are what they should be set to.

If your Dots and Echo worked with your previous wi-fi fine, my background as an electronic tech suggests to me that the Echo was fine, but its interaction with the new system is not.  So, to keep swapping out Echos (even the first one) was kind of a clueless move on Amazon's part.  Obviously, the Echo was a victim of the problem, not the cause of it.

UNIFI appears to be an "industrial strength" wireless system for motels, hotels and even farms, etc.  If that was my home system, I would be talking this over with Unifi tech support, not Amazon's.

[asianrocker]

I was not gonna touch this one coz if the customer support can't help you, well. But the fact that you are an IT expert? Double wow. And me, being a self imposed IT guru. I take it as a challenge and hopefully you will get me hired or something. 

Just goes to show these gadgets have mind of their own. Like I already know. When I get frustrated like this. I turn off my device and let it rest for a day. Which some people said solve their problem when I google the error code.

It is always the SIMPLEST thing of just turning off your device for a day that solves it. I mean machines need rest too, ya know.

For an IT expert I can't believe you don't know the universal solution of rebooting. Or when in desperation unplug. Well that at least always work for me especially with this device.

[AlanH]

Hey Mike, some basic tips on Netiquette you might find useful.
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule10.html

[renegade600]

if the dots are okay and the echo is not, is the echo further from the router than the dots?   try temporarily move the echo close to the router and see if it help with the setup. 

[mike27oct]

@AlanH

Thanks, and BTW, I do not hassle you, so next time, MYOB.

[jmlohrenz]

Thanks for several suggestions.  Have dropped down to one AP as well... no dice.  Tried my very old D-Link router, and wala! It works.  So I'm off to the unifi support team to try and figure it out.  Looks like there is something different between the wifi setup on the echos and shows compared to the dots...thus my problem.  Will let you know what I find out if anyone else runs into this issue.

Thanks again.

[mike27oct]

Will be interested to know the outcome.  BTW, Amazon suggests all wireless devices (routers, etc) have security set to WPA2/AES (the most highest security levels)  I suggest you use 2.4G band on Alexa devices for longest range, unless a device is a Show where video is involved;.although 5G range is much shorter.

[jmlohrenz]

Just to close the loop on this one:

Work has been busy so I just left my Echo plugged in flashing purple (issue connecting to wifi).  Then a couple days later it magically connected.  I wish I could provide a known solution but I am rather surprised.  It has been working beautifully since then and we've even had a few power outages and it connects right back up.
We were ready to sell it and just get a couple more DOT's but now we are set.  If I ever figure out what caused it to not be able to connect, and then randomly repair itself and get connected I will report back.

[mike27oct]

The power outages rebooted your home wi-fi system; modem/router, and all Alexa devices.  A rather simple reason why things are working now.  Sometimes to fix things all you need to do is "turn it off and turn it on".

[jmlohrenz]

It started working before the outages so no changes to the network. So either it was my ISP, Amazon, or something with my registration on the Amazon servers that needed several days to straighten out.
Believe me, rebooting everything was one of the first things I did.