Alexa not working, again...

Discussions about Z-Way software and Z-Wave technology in general
kWave
Posts: 34
Joined: 11 Dec 2016 00:02

Alexa not working, again...

Post by kWave »

Hi,

Alexa integration stopped working for me since yesterday.
This is, unfortunately, not the first time it happened for me.

Anyway, Alexa only responds with "Device does not respond" when I ask her to turn devices on/off.
I had this in the past and it was either that find.z-wave.me was down or that I had to go into my Alexa App, deactive the skill, reactivate it, re-login with my z-way credentials (12345/username and password) to pair my account and it would usually work again.

Not this time though.
When I re-login to pair the skill, the external website window within the app is closed immediately.
I further investigated by using the browser to reactivate the skill, the login form is on "alexa.zwave.eu" and an error is shown after I submit the form.
The error page is not displayed correctly in my browser, because it has TWO <!doctype ...> tags.
The source code says, however, that the pairing was successful.

Still, Alexa does not find devices and old devices do not respond.

I feel like a) Z-Wave.me is testing around on their production servers, and b) the Skill is still highly unreliable.
Please, please get this fixed asap!
micky1500
Posts: 298
Joined: 07 Feb 2016 16:29
Location: England

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by micky1500 »

It's been broken all weekend for me too.
I have tried the same fixes.
Now I cant enable the skill at Amazon, bad password error.

Nothing was posted in Official announcements !
Raspi 4 - (Buster - 32 Bit) Zwave Version 4.1.1, Raz 7 Pro, Serial API Version: 07.38
bazyl
Posts: 2
Joined: 06 Mar 2020 14:25

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by bazyl »

Same here. According to https://support.zwave.eu/status/ Germany server is not available, but my z-way had an active session with its IP 78.46.43.211. I've forced a change to another server, but Alexa still saying that device is not responding.
micky1500
Posts: 298
Joined: 07 Feb 2016 16:29
Location: England

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by micky1500 »

I have tried all their servers.
78.46.43.211 is normally the best for me in UK.
Poltos says that status website is not theirs and unofficial. there are more servers now that don't show on that site.
Other Amazon features are still working.

Does anyone know why its failing ?
Raspi 4 - (Buster - 32 Bit) Zwave Version 4.1.1, Raz 7 Pro, Serial API Version: 07.38
jarek
Posts: 29
Joined: 09 Oct 2017 11:18

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by jarek »

thats frustrating again and again.
kWave
Posts: 34
Joined: 11 Dec 2016 00:02

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by kWave »

Good to know that I'm not the only one to experience this outage.
How can I change the server?

And why do they have multiple servers in the first place when there is no kind of fail-over?
micky1500
Posts: 298
Joined: 07 Feb 2016 16:29
Location: England

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by micky1500 »

Their Load balancer will connect you to the best server.
In the last month they added another server, making it 5+ servers for us to connect to.
So Multiple servers are to share the load of users worldwide.

zwave.me remote access is still working, so the servers are up.
But the Alexa service on the whole platform seems to be down. (maybe work in progress, but not announced)

You cant really change the server you connect to. (but reconnecting might be the answer)

That's determined when you connect via port 22 at zwave.me
Try this command. ping -a zwave.me
This command from your raspberry (telnet/ssh). netstat -nap look for the port 22 connection.

Configuration tab - Management - Remote Access. Turn off remote access and save it.
Then turn it on again, and save it. the load balancer will connect you to the best server.
Raspi 4 - (Buster - 32 Bit) Zwave Version 4.1.1, Raz 7 Pro, Serial API Version: 07.38
bazyl
Posts: 2
Joined: 06 Mar 2020 14:25

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by bazyl »

You can drop their IP addresses on firewall. I did that one by one, until all four of them was blocked. Finally there were no other established connection from z-way to server. Although I saw it tries also other address which doesn't reply.
RolfKunkel
Posts: 58
Joined: 03 Jan 2017 18:35

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by RolfKunkel »

Same status for me. None of the workarounds fixed the issue. Neither Zway restart nor skill deactivating/ activating nor remote access deactivating / activating. It is really frustrating that no official statement is given that something is not working or under construction.
kWave
Posts: 34
Joined: 11 Dec 2016 00:02

Re: Alexa not working, again...

Post by kWave »

So a lot of people are affected by this outage, and probably even everyone?

I'm with you Rolf, Z-Wave.me should definitively give out a statement and tell us if they are working on the problem.
We paid license fees for Z-Way, we should be entitled to be informed about outages.

There was so much trouble with the Alexa bridge in the past, maybe they should go another way if they can't handle the service.
It bothers me anyways that I have to rely on their "cloud" service to use Alexa.

Why don't they provide a local interface for Alexa?
I know that Sonoff/Tasmota devices can emulate Belkin Wemo or Hue Bridge protocols to communicate with Alexa locally.
This would make much more sense to me. (Aside from the legal hurdles)
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