Topic: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?

[Jack Bowman]

May be... "Massacre at Acu-link Gulch"   

[ke9lz]

I was able to get one of my hubs back working with a meteobridge.  What worked for me was download XAMPP https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html on one of my computers that has a static address of 192.168.1.20, downloaded billfors acurite=bridge https://github.com/billfor/acurite-bridge and installed it in the htdocs directory of XAMPP, in my router that has the ddwrt firmware I added the entry address=/hubapi.myacurite.com/192.168.1.20 into the Additional DNSMasq Options box and the hub started working again.  Kind of a stupid workaround to get it back working but so far it seems to be.  Hopefully someone can find an easier way.

Steve

I was able to get my second meteobridge and hub back up and running using the same as above.  This was done on using Windows 10 and routers that had the capability of entering the forwarding address so it's doable without having to use Linux.

[Jim_S]

I just checked my Smart Hub which has been unplugged for a month or so and it's showing:
Application Version   224
Boot Firmware Version   104

Not sure that helps anyone but I thought I'd pas it along.

[saratogaWX]

I concur on the time. No evidence, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

More likely it's something like a DNS change. 

If I remember the name right, hubapi.myacurite.com now resolves to 127.0.0.1.  That loops back to the SmartHUB.

That would do it.

Nincehelser is correct on both counts.  The DNS for hub.myacurite.com is now set to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) and has effectively black-holed the former ingress servers.  It's gone, and likely for good based on this support posting.  Brutal, but effective as it turns off all existing connection attempts.  They've likely spun-down the AWS servers that were formerly receiving that data.

04/05/19 12:32:45 dig myacurite.com @ 208.67.222.222
Dig myacurite.com@ns-55.awsdns-06.com (205.251.192.55) ...
Authoritative Answer
 Query for myacurite.com type=255 class=1
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.98
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.211
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.251
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.199
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1205.awsdns-22.org
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-55.awsdns-06.com
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-894.awsdns-47.net
  myacurite.com SOA (Zone of Authority)
        Primary NS: ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
        Responsible person: awsdns-hostmaster@amazon.com
        serial:1
        refresh:7200s (2 hours)
        retry:900s (15 minutes)
        expire:1209600s (14 days)
        minimum-ttl:86400s (24 hours)
  myacurite.com MX (Mail Exchanger) Priority: 10 inbound-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
Dig myacurite.com@ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk (205.251.199.132) ...
Authoritative Answer
 Query for myacurite.com type=255 class=1
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.251
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.211
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.98
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.199
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1205.awsdns-22.org
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-55.awsdns-06.com
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-894.awsdns-47.net
  myacurite.com SOA (Zone of Authority)
        Primary NS: ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
        Responsible person: awsdns-hostmaster@amazon.com
        serial:1
        refresh:7200s (2 hours)
        retry:900s (15 minutes)
        expire:1209600s (14 days)
        minimum-ttl:86400s (24 hours)
  myacurite.com MX (Mail Exchanger) Priority: 10 inbound-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
Dig myacurite.com@ns-1205.awsdns-22.org (205.251.196.181) ...
Authoritative Answer
 Query for myacurite.com type=255 class=1
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.211
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.98
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.199
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.251
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1205.awsdns-22.org
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-55.awsdns-06.com
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-894.awsdns-47.net
  myacurite.com SOA (Zone of Authority)
        Primary NS: ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
        Responsible person: awsdns-hostmaster@amazon.com
        serial:1
        refresh:7200s (2 hours)
        retry:900s (15 minutes)
        expire:1209600s (14 days)
        minimum-ttl:86400s (24 hours)
  myacurite.com MX (Mail Exchanger) Priority: 10 inbound-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
Dig myacurite.com@ns-894.awsdns-47.net (205.251.195.126) ...
Authoritative Answer
 Query for myacurite.com type=255 class=1
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.199
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.211
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.251
  myacurite.com A (Address) 52.84.244.98
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1205.awsdns-22.org
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-55.awsdns-06.com
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-894.awsdns-47.net
  myacurite.com SOA (Zone of Authority)
        Primary NS: ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
        Responsible person: awsdns-hostmaster@amazon.com
        serial:1
        refresh:7200s (2 hours)
        retry:900s (15 minutes)
        expire:1209600s (14 days)
        minimum-ttl:86400s (24 hours)
  myacurite.com MX (Mail Exchanger) Priority: 10 inbound-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
Dig myacurite.com@208.67.222.222 ...
Non-authoritative answer
Recursive queries supported by this server
 Query for myacurite.com type=255 class=1
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-894.awsdns-47.net
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1205.awsdns-22.org
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
  myacurite.com NS (Nameserver) ns-55.awsdns-06.com
  myacurite.com SOA (Zone of Authority)
        Primary NS: ns-1924.awsdns-48.co.uk
        Responsible person: awsdns-hostmaster@amazon.com
        serial:1
        refresh:7200s (2 hours)
        retry:900s (15 minutes)
        expire:1209600s (14 days)
        minimum-ttl:86400s (24 hours)

and now

04/05/19 09:00:44 dig hubapi.myacurite.com @ 208.67.222.222
Dig hubapi.myacurite.com@208.67.222.222 ...
Non-authoritative answer
Recursive queries supported by this server
 Query for hubapi.myacurite.com type=255 class=1
  hubapi.myacurite.com A (Address) 127.0.0.1

No firmware update was required.. they just black-holed (changed to localhost) the DNS for the ingress server(s).

[DoctorKnow]

I was able to get one of my hubs back working with a meteobridge.  What worked for me was download XAMPP https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html on one of my computers that has a static address of 192.168.1.20, downloaded billfors acurite=bridge https://github.com/billfor/acurite-bridgeand installed it in the htdocs directory of XAMPP, in my router that has the ddwrt firmware I added the entry address=/hubapi.myacurite.com/192.168.1.20 into the Additional DNSMasq Options box and the hub started working again.  Kind of a stupid workaround to get it back working but so far it seems to be.  Hopefully someone can find an easier way.

Steve

 Did you install the ddwrt on your main house router, or the meteobridge router? I also have an old Netgear router around I think if that would work? I have no clue about ddwrt. I might could do the rest OK.

[ke9lz]

Did you install the ddwrt on your main house router, or the meteobridge router? I also have an old Netgear router around I think if that would work? I have no clue about ddwrt. I might could do the rest OK.

I had ddwrt installed on my main router that is connected to the internet her at my cabin.  With ddwrt it's real simple to add the redirect using DNSMasq but guess it could be done with other routers.  Google (your router) redirect url and see if there is any help out there.  My system at home uses Asuswrt-Merlin and I found thishttps://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Custom-domains-with-dnsmasq which is a bit more complex but doable.  I will find out how that works out when I get back on Sunday.

Steve

[Jack Bowman]

The hosts at the specified IP addresses are not responding. They have shut down all the acu-link domain hosts as well.

[nasadave]

I can confirm, loading acuparse and doing the DNS trickery gets you back online. 

[coherent]

I can confirm, loading acuparse and doing the DNS trickery gets you back online. 

Any chance someone could provide some specific instructions on how to get these useless smarthubs working again to at least get weather to WU? (for us not so computer literate folks?) Or, if it's been plugged  in and connected and no longer working, is it bricked?
Thanks in advance for any help.

[Rzn8]

I can confirm, loading acuparse and doing the DNS trickery gets you back online. 

Any chance someone could provide some specific instructions on how to get these useless smarthubs working again to at least get weather to WU? (for us not so computer literate folks?) Or, if it's been plugged  in and connected and no longer working, is it bricked?
Thanks in advance for any help.

I second this... Lol

[DoctorKnow]

I don't think anyone has come up with a half way easy solution... A youtube video would be the best way for me to be able to understand. I don't understand all the lingo about how to run code.

[nincehelser]

The big problem is when people ask for changes to account for their current understanding.  It really throws any tutorial, recipe, or instructions of the rails.

For example, many want a “Windows” solution.  As this has absolutely nothing to do with Windows at all, adding Windows increases complexity significantly.  It’s just the wrong tool for the job.

That said, Kevin Keys as gone through the heavy lifting already.  You might as well leverage that.  However, from what I have seen is that the DNS re-direct isn’t working as expected.  Conceptually it should be fixable, but someone needs to dig in and find the problem. 


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[DoctorKnow]

I'm going back to the PC connect. Problem solved, and much easier... I should be back on the air in a few more days.

[yukit]

I followed Steve's description on this post:
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=36552.msg375631#msg375631

I finally got my MeteoBridge working yesterday since downloading XAMPP & acurite-bridge on Sun, but it may have been working not realizing I actually didn't need the weatherstation scripts to work. I spent a couple nights trying to fix PHP script dependencies until Steve pointed out he never got the script to work, but just having the URL redirected to his webserver was enough to make SmartHub working so MeteoBridge can sniff the traffic.

I did end up installing XAMPP on my Windows laptop, but I should be able to make this work on my Mac with builtin Apache webserver. I'm guessing I just need the SmartHub's URL GET requests to load a dummy page to respond with 200 OK status. This is just mumble jumble for people not familiar with webserver configuration, but hopefully this will help some of people trying this approach to make SmartHub & MeteoBridge working again.

I needed to make my SmartHub & MeteoBridge working so my irrigation controller can resume to monitor my PWS.
I also have Access, but I cannot post the weather data to CWOP or PWSWeather with Access & myacurite.

[edit]
I got the builtin Apache webserver running on my mac (my main machine running 24/7) to work with SmartHub now. The old Windows laptop can now be shutdown till I need a Windows machine for some other testing.

[Mattk]

When is everybody going to move on from this Acurite hub thing, things don't go on forever, need to move on people 

[vreihen]

When is everybody going to move on from this Acurite hub thing, things don't go on forever, need to move on people 

I suspect that everyone will move on the day that AcuRite exposes a proper local data access API on the Access device for everyone to tap.

There are years of hacks/kludges in use by various PWS data collectors to get access by tapping the old hub's transmissions to the Lake Geneva mothership, and no equivalent way to tap the Access' transmissions...or even the ability to pick the Atlas data off of the air with an SDR at this point.....

[ke9lz]

When is everybody going to move on from this Acurite hub thing, things don't go on forever, need to move on people 

Why and move on to what?  There is nothing out there that doesn't require you to jump thru hoops to get your data so you can publish it to a web site.  There is a working permanent fix that isn't dependent to the internet for the hub and meteobridge combo.  I have 2 setups that have been running for a couple of weeks flawlessly.  Is it not better to continue using it instead of throwing it away? 

Steve

[nincehelser]

You can pick up the Atlas data currently with Acuparse.  It’s just in 5 minute intervals. 

Data to wunderground can be monitored in rapid fire, too.  If you don’t actually want to send data to wunderground, you can just fake it like what some now do with MyAcuRite.

They aren’t perfect methods, but they work.  A nice local API would be better, though.


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