Level 1

21 points

HomeKit Not Working with Linksys Velop Wifi

Hi there,

This is an interesting one and it is driving me mad.

I have a mixture of Philips Hue and Lightwave smart home devices on my Apple

Homekit setup.

I have had, for some time Apple Airport Wireless. Sadly Apple don't do it anymore and due to having more and more devices, the Airports

could not cope.

I splashed out and upgraded to two Linksys Velop MX4200 APs - they were not cheap but offered a home mesh setup.

They work like a dream and use an Ethernet backhaul to talk

to one another – one upstairs and one downstairs.

However, ever since I have switched to these, Homekit immediately stopped

working.

After spending some time diagnosing, it is very obvious to me that the problem

is that Homekit will just not work with these Velop APs. Linksys don’t seem to

know what the reason is but here is how I have come to that conclusion:

Factory reset the Linksys system - no change.
Tried a different Wireless SSID - no change.
Identified that this issue occurs on any Apple device with Homekit. I have tested with several iPhones, iPads, two Macbook Pros and a MacMini. All devices were fully up to date with respective iOS or MacOS software versions.
Ensured any local firewalls are disabled.
Ensured the Linksys APs were fully up to date with firmware.
Opened the Linksys iOS app and enabled "Apple Home Integration" - no difference.
Identified that I have three "Homekit Hubs"; an iPad and two Apple TVs in different rooms.
Introduced one of the old Apple Airports to the network with a different wireless SSID. If I connect my Homekit Hub iPad to this SSID and not the Linksys SSID, Homekit works faultlessly, however, occasionally, Homekit Hub status moves from the iPad to one of the Apple TVs. Because these are on the Linksys Wireless, the Homekit stops working again.

The conclusion here is that so long as the Homekit Hub device is NOT connected to the new Linksys WiFi, Homekit will work, even if the iOS or MacOS devices you use to control Homekit are on the Linksys WiFi, but the Homekit Hub will not work with Linksys.

It is impractical for me to be adding all three possible Homekit devices to the Apple Airport AP as the whole point of replacing the Airports was to have an improved wireless signal but it seems at the cost of being able to use Apple Homekit. I have a large number of devices and need this to work.

Please see below images of the exact issue:

Upon opening HomeKit app, this is the view I get if the HomeHub is running on the new Linksys wireless:

If I navigate to My Home within HomeKit App, this is what I see:

Selecting "Home Hubs & Bridges" gives me this:

Note my iPad and two Apple TVs are listed. In this example, the smart devices are showing "No response" because Bedroom Apple TV is currently the "Connected" Home Hub, but this Apple TV uses the Linksys wireless. Only RMT-Mini (iPad) uses the old Apple Airport with a different SSID just to help with this issue.

If I try to control an accessory, this is the error I get:

These are the settings I see on any of my two Apple TVs:

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. As you can see, this is not a basic issue, there is a more complex problem here and Apple and Linksys need to collaborate to get a resolution. I have spent a lot of money with Apple purchasing Apple Homekit enabled smart devices and I need this to be working without using old Apple Airport technology.

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 9:39 AM

Top-ranking reply

talksrm Author

Level 1

21 points

Posted on Jan 24, 2022 6:04 AM

Just a further update...

After a lengthy time dealing with some very helpful people at Linksys (John & Edward), there has been some progress.

It seems that the APs will only work on un-managed switches. Due to the layout of my house, the two Velop Nodes were connected via ethernet cables and between those ethernet cables was a managed switch.

It appears that the way in which these APs work means that some (in my case two different) managed switches cause issues with the communications between these APs.

The switches I had did not have any Vlans set up on them, however, once these were replaced with cheap, un-managed switches, the Homekit component started to work.

This has been a very frustrating and long resolution but this does go back to what several people mentioned either on here on Reddit which is that these APs are very basic in terms of what you can do with them when setting them up. The features they offer are very limited. If you have issues such as mine, the only option is to replace your expensive switches with cheap ones.

For the record, I have:

HPE Office Connect 1810 J9902a
NetGear GS110TP

Whilst both APs are now working (with the double NAT) and Homekit is working, I have been unable to join both APs with the ethernet backhaul as both refuse to connect and the child inevitably goes to red which means to connection.

There are still issues with this, but I am so grateful to finally, after over half a year, be able to use Apple Homekit again.

I will provide further updates if anything changes.

Thanks to everyone who helped with this and also to the two guys at Linksys who knew their stuff. Unfortunately, you have to go through a lot of not so experienced, script readers with Linksys support before you get to deal with the guys who really know their stuff and these guys did.

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23 replies

talksrm Author

Level 1

21 points

Jan 6, 2022 2:03 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you for your reply. That is really useful, I had done quite a few searches online but never found these pages. So useful.

I am going to attempt this in the coming few days.

I did try last night, just logging in to the web interface and disabling the Velop DHCP just to see what that would do as I know that switching to Bridge Mode causes all kinds of issues. The DHCP disablement, caused a brief drop in WiFi connectivity as the AP rebooted, devices then joined but kept falling off of the WiFi, I am assuming it was due to the 24hr DHCP lease, but their IPs were still on the Velop range. Eventually, they would stay connected but it did not help with the Homekit issue, so I have re-enabled the DHCP on the Velop. When I have more time, I will factory wipe both APs, but only set up the one, and leave the other off. I will follow through those instructions on the two sites you found and use the web interface. I will configure to Bridge Mode and see what happens. If it works, I will configure the second one.

I am amazed, much like Mr Dong that you can't save or restore configuration changes as it would save so much time. If the above still doesn't work, I am going to send them back as I have wasted so much time on this now!

Thanks so much for your help with this 😉

talksrm Author

Level 1

21 points

Jan 6, 2022 10:40 AM in response to LaPastenague

Hi, another update from me, yet again, set it to Bridge Mode, this time using a web browser on a computer following the guide on the second link you gave me, light is purple showing ready to set up, totally unable to connect. It is giving no IP addresses at all when set to Bridge Mode and when I connect to the set up wifi SSID.

I have tried disconnecting and re-connecting, it is making no difference. Totally unable to proceed. I have tried to contact LinkSys support, I have been in a queue of 10 people now for over 30 minutes. It should not be this difficult.

talksrm Author

Level 1

21 points

Jan 7, 2022 3:01 AM in response to talksrm

Also, I forgot to put this last part to my last message...

If I give up with that and just turn off the DHCP server on the velop, when the lease time expires, my devices can’t pick up an IP address, so they are not able to communicate with my EE router which has DHCP enabled.

Jan 24, 2022 12:46 PM in response to talksrm

Thanks for the update.

Great to hear you got it working.

It is helpful to know how a product works when it is sold by Apple for Apple networks.

That a managed switch (without vlans set) should cause failure of the whole Homekit environment is scary considering they worked fine with the Apple Airport routers. I always prefer to use managed switches. Plus the failure of the Velop to use Ethernet backhaul is a good argument to stay away.

I am still looking for the ideal home AP / Mesh setup.

Just installed a TP-Link Omada setup for a friend who runs a business from home and wanted better grade equipment than average domestic. These are very similar to Ubiquiti UAP although cheaper and easier to setup and manage IMHO.

Not a cure all though and the AP units are less flexible than I would like.

I am playing around with a setup of Xiaomi AX1800 and AX3600 routers configured for AP mode. They are dirt cheap, perform very well and offer reasonable setup for home use. They are somewhat limited by firmware which I would rate as poor.

International version with English firmware is more limited than Chinese version.. in that Mesh only works when one of the nodes is working as router. In Chinese firmware this worked fine in AP mode.. but security?? (keep in touch with CCP to report your activities so is less appealing from let's say a political standpoint.) Security is less of a problem with English firmware.. in AP mode at least. They can be blocked from direct internet access. Hopefully OpenWRT will be able to finally get it working on 3rd party firmware.

Feb 8, 2022 1:41 PM in response to ImCanadianEh

a product that no human should have to deal with

Thanks for sharing your experience.

My first response to this thread I stated my grievances with Linksys (at least since Belkin)

Sorry I don't have and never will buy mesh from Linksys as I rate them as Cisco rejects bought by Belkin. One of the worst suppliers of home networking.

Back in the day.. (long long ago .. before the empire) WRT54G.. was amazing router that spawned almost single handed the whole 3rd party router firmware interest. OpenWRT, DD-WRT for example and even some used in other brands AsusWRT.

All carry the Linksys W=Wireless RT=Router badge with honour.

Belkin tie up with Apple has been ongoing over long period. Just makes you want to shake your head and start screaming.. Apple .. Find another partner company.. do it now.. today!!

Feb 8, 2022 3:09 PM in response to LaPastenague

A little update... Yesterday, on the phone with Apple Support, I already strongly suggested they should not be endorsing these devices in any way by selling them through the Apple Store... just a FWIW, I'm going to keep telling them!

Yes to the WRT54G... it wasn't even a question that it was *the* router back then!

And, the important update - I changed a couple of settings on my AirPort Extreme, requiring a reboot... can anyone guess which were the ONLY devices (we have about 50 HK devices) that required a power pull to have them come back online / be responsive to HomeKit... yup, it was all three of the remaining Wemo plugs (the new ones, smaller ones with up to date firmware). Everything else, including the plugs I'd recently replaced with different vendor's units that were trouble with the MX4200's came back right away. Expletive, expletive... Linksys / Belkin!!!

talksrm Author

Level 1

21 points

Jan 2, 2022 1:09 PM in response to Lordrothers

Thank you, tagged you in my other reply. Unfortunately, this did not work for me.

Dec 29, 2021 1:59 PM in response to talksrm

Interesting problem. Sorry I don't have and never will buy mesh from Linksys as I rate them as Cisco rejects bought by Belkin. One of the worst suppliers of home networking.

Anyway.. you will need to dig around in forums.. others must have run into the same issue. This takes time but often the big suppliers are unable (unwilling) to help. Here is this choice little snippet. https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeKit/comments/o4k8xr/linksys_velop_triband_ax4200_wifi_6_gets_homekit/

Finally, check Linksys’ requirements to run HomeKit Secure Router here. It’s important to follow them because for example if you use WPA3, you will routinely experience disconnections on Wi-Fi. HKSR is only fully compatible with WPA2.

Your devices all want you to use WPA3 but HKSR is only compatible with WPA2..

There is a lot of feedback so do read through the discussion..

You may find running ethernet between nodes is essential. And perhaps to use the old airports for now.. plugged into the Linksys routers as a way of working around the issue. Only use the 2.4ghz .. you should be able to turn off 5ghz in later Airport Utility.. almost all IoT uses 2.4ghz only.

I would test just using the main router unit.. turn off the node for now and make sure you set to wpa2. Use short name, no spaces and pure alphanumerics. Same rules for passwords but longer. See if you can get it working.

Also give 2.4ghz a different SSID to 5ghz if this is possible. Many IoT products cannot find the SSID when it uses auto band selection.

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HomeKit Not Working with Linksys Velop Wifi