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Weather Station Hardware => AcuRite Weather Stations => Topic started by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 08:49:50 AM

Title: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 08:49:50 AM
My old hub quit working yesterday and others have reported the same thing. (I knew that they discontinued it and received the notice.) It would appear that none of the 3rd party workarounds are functional anymore. It looks as though they did not want us finding a way to still use the products that we paid for in good faith. Why would you do that to us Acurite? What was it hurting you to have folks try to get just a little more use out of their bought and paid for equipment? I hope this bites you in the butt in the end. I am moving on. The only reason I stayed this long was due to the people who wanted to make this equipment something more powerful than Acurite cared to. Just like a mobile phone company they have eliminated the leakage now. I promise you they will more than likely start charging for a service as well as for the cheap hardware. Now that they have "Your" data locked down with encryption, they can do whatever they want. They have provided inexpensive hardware solutions so more folks can afford to get involved with weather monitoring and data collection. I will give them that, and I do appreciate that aspect of their business. Now it would seem that your data is no longer your data. On a positive note, I would like to thank Kevin Key and all the 3rd party developers who coded such brilliant solutions to our needs over the last several years. Thank You!!!
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 05, 2019, 09:27:18 AM
Looks like we're screwed over all right. I had mine working really well too. I have spent so much time and money on this, and now I may just find a new hobby...
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: daman on April 05, 2019, 09:37:46 AM
Did you guy's firmware number change??
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 05, 2019, 09:41:40 AM
Application Version   224
Boot Firmware Version   210

Below status will come and go...Five In One Weather Station
 
Identifier Battery Status Signal Strength (low 0--4 highest)
no devices detected
Five In One Weather Station
 
Identifier Battery Status Signal Strength (low 0--4 highest)
2164   nominal  4

Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: galfert on April 05, 2019, 09:51:17 AM
Wow that just sounds evil. Unless is it possible that the old hub was somehow still reliant on some Acurite server to have remained online and it was finally decommissioned? Did the firmware change? If the firmware didn't change then it is most likely that something from Acurite's cloud was still keeping it alive. So until we know all these facts then we won't know if Acurite acted deliberately or if it was just consequential of them commissioning infrastructure. Maybe there is no way to tell because we can't look a the code that was running to know what was happening. Unless someone has a very good record of some Wireshark captures to reference and find clues.


Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 10:01:44 AM
There's zero evidence for the assertion that the firmware was updated.

No one is talking about it except here.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Storm017 on April 05, 2019, 10:13:18 AM
My hub went down at 13:15 yesterday after running without any issues for over a year and a half.  Every once in a while I do see only one sensor on the splash screen then it disappears. 

Application Version 224
Boot Firmware Version 210

This is what I'm seeing since yesterday:

Apr  5 09:47:50 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:47:52 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472072.44 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 2c 00 0d 00 00 64 06 15 a9 c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 91 00 50 b5 33 60 ad 00 00 00 00 60 02 01 90 39 5a 00 00 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:47:52 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:47:53 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: MainThread: empty queue
Apr  5 09:47:56 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472076.44 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 2c 00 0e 00 00 64 06 15 a8 c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 91 00 50 b5 33 60 ad 00 00 00 00 60 02 01 90 39 5a 00 00 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:47:56 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:03 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: MainThread: empty queue
Apr  5 09:48:04 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472084.43 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 28 00 0f 00 00 64 06 15 ab c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 91 00 50 23 ec ae 97 7c 60 90 8c 50 14 01 90 83 d8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:04 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 00 00 00 00 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:04 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472084.45 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 2c 00 11 00 00 64 06 15 a5 c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 92 00 50 48 88 6f e8 00 00 00 00 60 02 01 90 96 c9 00 00 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:04 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:05 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472085.45 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 2c 00 12 00 00 64 06 15 a4 c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 92 00 50 48 88 6f e8 00 00 00 00 60 02 01 90 96 c9 00 00 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:05 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:07 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472087.45 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 2c 00 13 00 00 64 06 15 a3 c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 92 00 50 48 88 6f e8 00 00 00 00 60 02 01 90 96 c9 00 00 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:07 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:11 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472091.45 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 2c 00 14 00 00 64 06 15 a2 c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 92 00 50 48 88 6f e8 00 00 00 00 60 02 01 90 96 c9 00 00 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:11 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 02 04 02 18 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:13 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: MainThread: empty queue
Apr  5 09:48:19 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: timestamp=1554472099.43 pktlen=60 data=e4 f4 c6 01 c1 f2 24 c8 6e 08 36 07 08 00 45 00 00 28 00 15 00 00 64 06 15 a5 c0 a8 01 6d 7f 00 00 01 09 92 00 50 8d 2c cd 7c 7c 60 90 8c 50 14 01 90 fb b1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:19 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: ServerThread: sniff: ignore 00 00 00 00 00 00
Apr  5 09:48:23 stormRPI3 interceptor[1249]: interceptor: MainThread: empty queue
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: fastracer on April 05, 2019, 10:32:59 AM
Same here... Was updating weather underground with no issues until 1:20pm yesterday 😥 Any ideas? Lol
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 10:47:54 AM
I concur on the time. No evidence, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 10:51:32 AM
Quote from: ColoradoWeather on April 05, 2019, 10:47:54 AM
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. 
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: daman on April 05, 2019, 11:01:17 AM
Quote from: DoctorKnow on April 05, 2019, 09:41:40 AM
Application Version   224
Boot Firmware Version   210

Below status will come and go...Five In One Weather Station
 
Identifier Battery Status Signal Strength (low 0--4 highest)
no devices detected
Five In One Weather Station
 
Identifier Battery Status Signal Strength (low 0--4 highest)
2164   nominal  4

Sooo...do you remember what it was before, DID it change?
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 11:08:12 AM
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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Storm017 on April 05, 2019, 11:09:04 AM
As far as I can tell, the firmware was not updated.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 05, 2019, 11:11:07 AM
Is there a fix, or should I just get a hammer and have at it?
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Storm017 on April 05, 2019, 11:19:26 AM
One possible fix; there are several options available. 

https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-interceptor

Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 11:29:15 AM
Quick-and-dirty, try putting the IP number of a minimal web server into your local DNS server for hubapi.myacurite.com.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 01:25:45 PM
To no avail. The hubapi.myacurite.com and the original IP address associated with it are not resolving. I made an entry in the local HOST file and pointed it back at the original IP, and then tried a local IP, and finally another random Google IP. It is looking for a proper response to work.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 01:30:27 PM
Quote from: ColoradoWeather on April 05, 2019, 01:25:45 PM
To no avail. The hubapi.myacurite.com and the original IP address associated with it are not resolving. I made an entry in the local HOST file and pointed it back at the original IP, and then tried a local IP, and finally another random Google IP. It is looking for a proper response to work.

The host file on your PC?  Is that the machine acting as the DNS server for the SmartHUB?
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Storm017 on April 05, 2019, 01:35:32 PM
Quote from: ColoradoWeather on April 05, 2019, 01:25:45 PM
To no avail. The hubapi.myacurite.com and the original IP address associated with it are not resolving. I made an entry in the local HOST file and pointed it back at the original IP, and then tried a local IP, and finally another random Google IP. It is looking for a proper response to work.

Try this address: www.acu-link.com   It is one of the addresses from the weewx-interceptor driver.  Don't know if it will work.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 01:39:08 PM
Yes, the Windows operating system can map dns entries and IP address at a local level. They have simply entered the loopback IP number in the hub 127.0.0.1. I tried countering that by directing it back to the correct IP at a software level in the HOST file. I got the original IP for hubapi.myacurite.com from archived information at the online Registrars.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 01:42:57 PM
Quote from: Storm017 on April 05, 2019, 01:35:32 PM
Quote from: ColoradoWeather on April 05, 2019, 01:25:45 PM
To no avail. The hubapi.myacurite.com and the original IP address associated with it are not resolving. I made an entry in the local HOST file and pointed it back at the original IP, and then tried a local IP, and finally another random Google IP. It is looking for a proper response to work.

Try this address: www.acu-link.com   It is one of the addresses from the weewx-interceptor driver.  Don't know if it will work.

That web site is now missing
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 01:44:49 PM
Quote from: ColoradoWeather on April 05, 2019, 01:39:08 PM
Yes, the Windows operating system can map dns entries and IP address at a local level. They have simply entered the loopback IP number in the hub 127.0.0.1. I tried countering that by directing it back to the correct IP at a software level in the HOST file. I got the original IP for hubapi.myacurite.com from archived information at the online Registrars.

For that PC, yes, but the SmartHUB?  Is the PC working as the SmartHUBs DNS and DHCP server? 
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: alanb on April 05, 2019, 02:01:25 PM
It is possible that Acurite could brick the Smarthubs without issuing a new update. They could have included some suicide code with a date trigger in their most recent firmware even if that was released some time ago. I have heard of this in other types of devices where the manufacturer wanted a drop dead date or wanted to disable the device for some other reason. I don't even own an Acurite system, so I definitely don't know and am not accusing Acurite of doing this … just offering it as a possible explanation.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 02:15:42 PM
I can assign an IP via the bridged connection or let my local router give it an IP. Each device on a network can specify its own DNS if capable. It would go to the router for the DNS if nothing is specified on the device. The HOSTS file on a windows PC is checked by local IP traffic first. Because the hub is routed through this configuration before getting out to the internet you can control its Domain name resolution as well. The PC in effect becomes a router of sorts. It is not acting as a DNS but it has the ability to modify Domain Name resolution on the fly.
[/quote]

For that PC, yes, but the SmartHUB?  Is the PC working as the SmartHUBs DNS and DHCP server?
[/quote]
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jstx on April 05, 2019, 02:33:05 PM
Yeow! The 'Massacre at AcuRite Gulch'...  :shock:

I sprung for a 5in1 Pro bundle with the Access, it probably awaits the same fate in a couple of years   :sad:.

A very similar tech parallel with the Smarthub was a Seagate "Lyve Drive" (that I bought) that is/was basically a self-contained local-cloud storage microsystem (like an Intel NUC, bigger than a Pi, an OS w/a 2TB hard drive/WiFi/display/etc).
It was marketed as a local-cloud storage system. Seagate decided after a couple of years that it wasn't worth supporting, so they just gave a kill notice and later pulled the necessary cloud IP connection, bricking all of the Lyve devices.
Seagate was decent enough to give a long warning period, provide a migration exit path, and they sent out free 2Tb external drives as compensation. I'm still trying to hack my Lyve and turn it into a standalone system, failing that I'll just extract its' internal 2.5" 2Tb HD.

This kind of technological obsolescence is becoming increasingly common. Maybe the most prolific example are the millions (or billions) of cell phones made useless in many cases by tech changes.
Another cell phone scrapper-factor is the use of non-replaceable Li batteries (in many cases, sometimes you can unsolder one and replace it). I now have several of these damned swollen fire traps that lasted about a year or two when the battery died. The phones themselves are still quite functional, what a waste.

I hope y'all work out yet another work around with this latest AcuRite FUBAR.
This kind of stuff sucks. I think that most of us are...errrm...'senior types', we usually have an appreciation for durable stuff, keeping it running, classic cars and whatever. This rapid product scrap cycle is galling. Computer systems too. How many are running the latest absolute 'state-of-art' computers with the latest $1K+ Intel procs, etc? Why? Mine are all 1 or 2 gens behind (mostly HP biz-class), but do OK.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 02:48:47 PM
May be... "Massacre at Acu-link Gulch"  :lol: :lol: :lol:  =D>
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: ke9lz on April 05, 2019, 03:02:15 PM
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 (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 (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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jim_S on April 05, 2019, 04:44:31 PM
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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: saratogaWX on April 05, 2019, 05:02:49 PM
Quote from: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 10:51:32 AM
Quote from: ColoradoWeather on April 05, 2019, 10:47:54 AM
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. 
Quote from: nincehelser on April 05, 2019, 11:08:12 AM
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 (https://support.acurite.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017662473-AcuRite-SmartHUB-End-of-Life).  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.

Quote
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
Quote
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).
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 05, 2019, 05:26:54 PM
Quote from: ke9lz on April 05, 2019, 03:02:15 PM
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 (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 (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

 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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: ke9lz on April 05, 2019, 05:45:23 PM
Quote
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 (https://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
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Jack Bowman on April 05, 2019, 06:16:26 PM
The hosts at the specified IP addresses are not responding. They have shut down all the acu-link domain hosts as well.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nasadave on April 05, 2019, 10:38:24 PM
I can confirm, loading acuparse and doing the DNS trickery gets you back online.  \:D/
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: coherent on April 12, 2019, 01:03:01 PM
Quote from: nasadave on April 05, 2019, 10:38:24 PM
I can confirm, loading acuparse and doing the DNS trickery gets you back online.  \:D/

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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Rzn8 on April 18, 2019, 05:54:36 AM
Quote from: coherent on April 12, 2019, 01:03:01 PM
Quote from: nasadave on April 05, 2019, 10:38:24 PM
I can confirm, loading acuparse and doing the DNS trickery gets you back online.  \:D/

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
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 18, 2019, 10:15:44 AM
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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 18, 2019, 11:02:49 AM
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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Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 18, 2019, 11:22:12 AM
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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: yukit on April 18, 2019, 09:46:59 PM
I followed Steve's description on this post:
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=36552.msg375631#msg375631 (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.
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: Mattk on April 19, 2019, 03:49:38 AM
When is everybody going to move on from this Acurite hub thing, things don't go on forever, need to move on people  :arrow:
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: vreihen on April 19, 2019, 08:37:54 AM
Quote from: Mattk on April 19, 2019, 03:49:38 AM
When is everybody going to move on from this Acurite hub thing, things don't go on forever, need to move on people  :arrow:

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.....
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: ke9lz on April 19, 2019, 10:32:52 AM
Quote from: Mattk on April 19, 2019, 03:49:38 AM
When is everybody going to move on from this Acurite hub thing, things don't go on forever, need to move on people  :arrow:

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
Title: Re: Has the old Hub has been been purposely crippled by Acurite at a firmware level?
Post by: nincehelser on April 19, 2019, 10:57:55 AM
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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