Wifi thermostat unit will not connect to internet over wifi

[daz1972]

Does anyone have any experience of connecting a Bosch EasyControl thermostat control unit to their home wifi? 

https://www.bosch-easycontrol.com/gb/en/easycontrol/overview

I have consistently failed to get the unit to communicate with the Bosch severs over my home wifi network.  I can however connect without any problem via a hotspot set up on my android mobile. 

My wifi network can be selected on the EasyControl unit but when I enter the wifi password, the unit indicates it has failed to connect to wifi.  Despite this, it shows up as a ‘connected device’ on my Hub 3.0 web interface.  Restarting the EasyControl causes it to display a ‘connected to wifi’ symbol on start up.  But also another symbol which indicates it cannot communicate with the Bosch servers over the internet.  

There has been much to-ing and fro-ing with the Bosch technical support team over the past month or so.  I have provided them with screen shots of my wireless settings and they have confirmed everything is set up correctly and as they would recommend (see below for key points).  But I still can’t get the thing to communicate over my home wifi.   

• 2.4 GHz and 5GHz networks should be separated as unit can only use 2.4GHz wifi.  This is the default on the Hub 3.0.  But just to be sure, I’ve also disabled the 5.0GHz broadcast.
• The Bosch EasyControl supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n.  This is default on my Hub 3.0
• Wifi should be broadcast on a static channel (13 recommended). I’ve disabled Smart Channel Optimisation to be able to select channel 13.

Because the unit will behave as intended when connected to a hotspot, technical support are of the opinion that there must be something in the wifi settings that is blocking the EasyControl’s connection to the internet. 

While I can kind of understand their logic here, I have numerous wifi devices which are all able to access the internet via my home wifi network. Laptops, tablet, mobiles, printer, kindles, photo frames, games console, etc.  which would seem to undermine that argument.  I’ve never before encountered any problems connecting a device to the home wifi. 

Bosch technical support have suggested that even though I have selected a static channel, there is a background channel optimisation feature which Virgin keeps running, to optimise their wifi service.  I would need to contact Virgin to have them turn this off for me.  This all sounds a little spurious and I get the sense that they have no more idea than me as to what the problem might be.  🤔

Is anyone able to confirm that 1) channel optimisation will continue to run, even though I have turned it off?  and 2) Virgin can switch this off to fix this issue?  I’m not entirely convinced

Thanks for reading my lengthy post.  I thought I would post this on the off chance somebody may have experience of this, before going through the ordeal of attempting to explain this over the phone to Virgin Customer Services, get passed to another department, and repeat.  😭

[daz1972 · Accepted solution]

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@lauraba9 wrote:

Did you ever get this resolved? I am having exactly the same issue!

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Apologies  - I really should have updated this, but I was so happy once I got it resolved, I kinda forgot about this thread.

Have you been in touch with Bosch technical support?  Below is an extract from my final email to them.

I have now liaised with my ISP (Virgin Media) who have been able to successfully resolve the wifi connectivity issue discussed in the email trail attached here.

In your numerous emails between 4th-25th May, I was consistently instructed that the router frequency bands must be separated to make them separate WIFI networks. I was advised that the EasyControl would not be able to connect to a network broadcasting both the 2.4G and 5G frequencies under a single SSID.

It appears however that this is the single factor that prevented the EasyControl unit from connecting to my home wifi network.  

I was advised by the Virgin Media support team to reconfigure my wifi so that my 2.4G and 5G networks were combined and broadcast under the same name.

After making this change I was immediately able to connect the EasyControl to my home wifi network.  It has now remained connected and maintained a stable connection for the past 12 hours.

Please update your manuals/helpsheets accordingly.  I would not want anyone else to needlessly endure the inconvenience and frustrations that I have over the last month or so. 

I received no apology, reply or even acknowledgement from Bosch, so I've no idea whether they've taken this feedback on board.

Hopefully this helps you.  I came very close to binning the the EasyControl and replacing it with something completely different!

[lauraba9]

Sadly this hasn't worked for me - were there any other settings you changed? 

Thanks

[daz1972]

No, sorry. 

I simply renamed both bands, giving them an identical name and was immediately able to connect the EasyControl to my network.

I can check later and post my settings once I'm home if that might help.  

What kind of failure/error are you getting?

[lauraba9]

Yes that would be perfect if you don't mind - I'm worried I've changed something in my frustration at trying to connect!

On the easy control it simply is just not connecting to the WiFi- just comes up with the WiFi symbol and a cross through it - strangely though on my hub settings it seems to say I am connected to it - so infuriating! 

[lauraba9]

I managed to resolve this - I restored rhe factory settings and then simply changed the channel on 2.4ghz to channel 11 rather than auto - its not connected fine!

Thanks for your help

[Kath_F]

Hi lauraba9, 

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forums. It's great having you on board with us in the Community. 

We're sorry to hear you were having an issue with getting your thermostat to connect to your network. 

We're glad that since initially posting, things are resolved for you now but if you have any further issues, please pop back and let us know so we can help further. 

It's worth noting that now the WiFi channel is on a set channel, you may need to change this should it get congested. 

Many thanks, 

[Aj1980]

Hi, how do you combine the 2 networks?

[lauraba9]

They should come combined as default - if not you just need to go onto the hub settings - click wireless and then click security - you just need to make sure the SSID are exactly the same on this screen and that should combine them.

Sadly I have been having a number of issues with my WiFi whereby my ring doorbell keeps disconnecting for no reason and so do my other devices - I suspect this is because I changed the channel of auto - having now down a hard reset of the hub I am back to square one with my bosch thermostat and it will no longer connect again! Any help virgin would be greatly appreciated, this is immensely frustrating!!!

[Matthew_ML]

Hey lauraba9, thank you for reaching out and a warm welcome to the community and I am sorry to hear you are having some connection issues.

I have taken a look at our side everything is look fine and your levels are very good.

Have you tried logging in via the admin settings at the bottom of the hub and manually putting this device on 2.4Ghz.

I do know from personal experience that these cameras work better on that frequency. Thanks