Topic: HOW to connect a GW2000, GW1x00 or WH2650 (clone) or other consoles to WiFi

[Gyvate]

As this has become a frequently reported / posted issue here in the forum, below the instructions and prerequisites for a successful connection of a GW1000 or other consoles with GW1000 functionality (e.g. WH2650, WH2600Pro WiFi, Steinberg sbs-ws-600, Waldberg Halley ....) or a HP2551 (clone) console. The connection of th e new GW1x00 and GW2000 consoles is also described.

Below configuring your console / pairing it with your router is described for the (Android, iOS) WSView or awnet app.
A possibility to do this on a Windows PC is described later in this thread: https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=41575.msg430951#msg430951
  using the WS Tools app as (wrongly) described in some reseller manuals will NOT work - you need the WSView app 

The pairing process below is decribed with the WS View app (dark background) -
it also works the same way for all (!) Ecowitt / Fine Offset (clone) consoles with the WS View Plus app

Pre-requisite: the DHCP server has to be activated in your router !!! (that's usually a default setting, but one never knows)

The new GW1100 and GW2000 consoles possess also a WebUI for pairing and configuration.
The process is well documented in the manual - see also  https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=41575.msg433148#msg433148
- it can be configured via either the WSView app or the Web interface

The pairing process consists of several steps which are transparent to the user but need all to be completed for the pairing to be successful. The pairing of your GW1000 with your local WiFi router/access point is successful, when an entry like
GW1000-WIFIxxxx
192.168.xxx.xxx (or other private network segments starting with 10. or 172.)
MAC:XX:XX:XX:XX:xx:xx (the last 4 characters are the 4 x-marked characters in the GW1000-WIFIxxxx entry)
appears in the device list of the WSView app

for WS-2902 / WS-2910C  / WS2320 / WH4000SE / WH3000SE etc. WiFi consoles, the below process is the same - only the entry in the Device List will be a bit different, you CANNOT see live data, you can only configure sensor data posting to Weather Networks and to a customized server.
For Ambient consoles you are supposed to use the awnet app (for all other [re-]sellers the WSView app is to be used - however, Ambient consoles can also be paired with the WSView app, for Weather Networks use the awnet app).

Here the device list entry will be:
EasyWeather-WIFIxxxx V.1.5.9 (or AMBWeather-WIFIxxxx V2.6.8 in the awnet app)
192.168.xxx.xxx
MAC: XX:XX:XX:XX:xx:xx
(the version number will depend on the WiFi-firmware version installed)

In case of an Ambient WS2000/WS5000 console (or an Ecowitt HP2551, Froggit HP1000Pro SE) you can do the weather network configuration either in the WSView/awnet app or in the console itself.
These consoles can also be connected to WiFi from inside the console.

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clicking on this entry will show the live data of the sensors which the GW1000 receives in the WSView app

Prerequisites:
1. download the latest version of the WSView (Plus) app to your Android or iOS smartphone/tablet
(sometimes the manuals of clone resellers speak of the also existing WSTool app - this is wrong and will not work for the pairing)

1.a if you don't own a smartphone or tablet, you can still do the pairing by installing the NOXplayer (an Android emulation program) on a Windows computer and then install/download the WS View app inside the NOXPlayer - this won't work for GW1100 or GW2000, but there it can be done via their WebUI

2. if your WIFI router / access point transmits on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, switch off the 5 GHz band during the pairing process. You can switch in on again after the successful pairing.

3. de-activate the mobile data option of your smart phone (if you don't know how to do this, put the phone/tablet in flight mode and then switch on the WiFi (only!)). After the successful pairing the mobile phone functionality can be switched on again.
Removing the SIM card temporarily has the same effect as de-activating mobile data (in case you do not figure how to switch it off)  . Same with using a tablet which has no mobile network connection.

background:
During the pairing process the phone needs to connect to a temporary WiFi network coming from the GW1000. Some mobile phones will refuse this WiFi connection because it does not provide Internet service and the pairing process fails. Turning off cellular data forces the mobile phone to use this WiFi connection without Internet.

4. if you are using a Mesh network setup, switch it off during the pairing

(you can also start with 1. only, and if you get lucky, the pairing will work right away, but if the pairing fails, you have to continue with 2, 3, 4 ...)

Open the WSView app and select "Menu" - "Configure New Device"
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select the console by pressing the icon (usually the 2nd row either left or right icon depending on your console)
- then press "Next"
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- follow the instructions on the picture shown next, if completed press next.
(for a WH2910 or WS2320E [clone] the picture and instructions shown will be different)
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you will see several messages - find device .... etc.

you will be asked to enter your SSID of your mobile network and the router password;

be careful - these manual entries risk to be easily mistyped - there won't be an error message if your mistype SSID or password.
Passwords tend to be case sensitive.

once this done the message will say "connected ..." - BUT this doesn't mean that the pairing is already complete.
The pairing is only complete once your get a success message - and usually (not always) the screen closes.

You may have intentionally suppressed the display of your WLAN SSID for security reasons. Then the SSID cannot be found be the console. You will have to allow the display of the SSID at least until the pairing process is complete.

This should in 98% of all cases work.

There are in our experience some other very rarely occurring constellations

In 1.5% of the cases you may be using special characters like %, $, §, & etc. in your password, and this can create conflicting situations due to so-called code page issues. If you have such a router password, create a new one only from numbers and letters. Letters can be upper- and lower case. In future firmware versions the entry of potentially problematic special characters will be rejected.

In 0.5% of the cases, there can be a conflict with a neighbor WiFi network whose router is transmitting on the same channel as yours but with a stronger signal than yours. Then you will either have to change the channels in your router, or first try to get smartphone and console very close to the router for the pairing to complete.

In even less % of the cases another IoT "gadget" may have gone rogue in your household (or your neighbor's if you live rather close to each other) and disturb the whole WiFi network - but then you will also have general WiFi issues not only with your console.

addendum:
- One more possible (but not console related issue): if you happen to run out of IP addresses from your DHCP budget, the pairing cannot complete.
I know of at least one case where this happened.
- in Europe, especially German, a WLAN-router brand by the name Fritz!Box gives the possibility/option to exclude new WLAN devices from connecting. It's unfortunately a default setting; therefore the respective option needs to be untagged for the pairing to be successful.

Also, more than one of the above obstacles may apply in your case !

The HP2551 console (and its clones like WS-2000/-5000, HP1000SE Pro etc. - see compatibility matrix and footnotes for clone brands)
doesn't need the pairing with the WS View (Plus) app.
It can directly connect to a WLAN - HOWEVER, many of the above mentioned obstacles can still apply !!

A WN19x0 console will be paired via Bluetooth - and it needs the WLAN 802.11b mode enabled in the WLAN router/accesspoint

other options/situations:

• pairing and configuring under Windows )
  see post further down - https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=41575.msg430951#msg430951
  (due to attachments limitations we have to open a new post) 

• Regarding firmware updates, WiFi and console firmware updates, see https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40730.msg426256#msg426256

• the console and the router have paired but the console still doesn't appear in the device list
  see post further down - https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=41575.msg430977#msg430977
  (due to attachments limitations we have to open a new post)

[broadstairs]

May I ask one question - Why does the 5ghz wifi have to be turned off this should never be necessary just to get a device to connect.

Stuart

[galfert]

May I ask one question - Why does the 5ghz wifi have to be turned off this should never be necessary just to get a device to connect.

Stuart

Good question. Here is the answer...

The pairing process requires the GW1000 (or other consoles) to receive the credentials for the local WiFi network. Being that the GW1000 (and other consoles) only have radios that work with 2.4 GHz means that you cannot pass 5 GHz band credentials for pairing. This requires that the mobile device therefore be on the 2.4 GHz in order to pass only those credentials during the pairing process.

Technically speaking you can leave the 5 GHz on if you can ensure that the mobile device is only using the 2.4 GHz band. The way to accomplish this is to ensure that your 2.4 GHz SSID and the 5 GHz SSID are different names. Then you make sure that the mobile device is set to only use the 2.4 GHz SSID (it must also not have the 5 GHz SSID remembered or it may use it). That then guarantees that only the 2.4 GHz SSID credentials are passed during the pairing process. But unfortunately many WiFi networks have the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz configured to be the same SSID and they do this so that device can arbitrarily move in and use either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz depending on signal quality. If your 2.4 GHz SSID and your 5 GHz SSID are different you still need to be sure that the 5 GHz SSID is not saved as a connection possibility or the mobile could be using it instead of the 2.4 GHz.  If your 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are the same SSID then the pairing process might fail. It is just much simpler to tell users to temporarily turn off the 5 GHz band than to explain all this.

Other smart IoT devices have a much nicer pairing experience because they either support both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands or they use Bluetooth to pass along the WiFi credentials of which then that pairing process asks which 2.4 GHz SSID to pass along. The pairing process of the GW1000 does not ask you which SSID to use..it just uses the one that is currently in use. Adding Bluetooth or adding both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz to these stations would increase the price point.

Even if you could join your station to the 5 GHz band I would argue that it is not an efficient use of your 5 GHz band. The 5 GHz band should be reserved for devices that really benefit from the increased bandwidth that way there is more of it to go around and the use of wider channels can be employed by the 5 GHz band without needing to downsize to smaller bandwidth channels for the sake of compatibility reasons.

[plunet]

I can confirm that some of the resellers instructions (looking at you Mr Waldbeck) do still ship out products and tell you to use the WS Tool app to configure the console unit. Which is really annoying because the tool will see the unit but can't do the configuration. That wasted me at least 20mins at the weekend...

[broadstairs]

I've been looking into this some more and if you really need to switch off 5ghz to set the device up it is very sloppy programming in the device itself if it only supports 2.4ghz as it should never see 5ghz. If it does both then I can see some benefit but what happens when the router is rebooted and the device reconnects? Recovery from a power failure could be problematic perhaps!

Stuart

[Rover1822]

I've been looking into this some more and if you really need to switch off 5ghz to set the device up it is very sloppy programming in the device itself if it only supports 2.4ghz as it should never see 5ghz. If it does both then I can see some benefit but what happens when the router is rebooted and the device reconnects? Recovery from a power failure could be problematic perhaps!

Stuart

The information on turning off the 5 GHz on your router (IMHO), really only applies to those that have difficulty. I have 4 GW1000s , router is an ASUS RT AC87R (Actually 3 are on that router, the 4th is a crap DLINK dual band at my office). I have not had had to shut down the 5 GHz to setup the units. I do run the 2.4 and 5 on the same SSID. Once the information is set in the unit, never had a problem with router or device reboots. The information is primarily for those that have an issue and can't get the unit to connect. Of the 3 at the house , at some points I have moved them around for testing to 2 other access points I have (Asus AC1300s), which also have a different SSIDs from the main router, but are also dual band, no issue.

Think troubleshooting steps. We are talking about a sub $40 console/gateway that can do amazing things at that price. So, yes , maybe , there might be issues for some. Because these units do not have their own entry point for setup, like a screen, with little prompts to follow, they do require some more technical knowledge, like how to download and app to your phone, how to change your phone to the AP provided by the unit, etc.  And yes the phone portion is mandatory.

[plunet]

I've personally never had any issue with needing to switch off 5Ghz WiFi in order to get 2.4Ghz IOT devices configured for WiFi, and I've probably done literally hundreds in various locations with various phones and WiFi networks over the years. Apart from the issue of smartphones being too 'smart' and ignoring WiFi connections with no internet access, I suspect people who do have difficulty must be because the router (or WiFi) is failing to bridge clients connected on 2.4G and 5G together at layer 2 on the same LAN, or the WiFi has a client isolation service enabled (unlikely for domestic WiFi).

[Gyvate]

I've been looking into this some more and if you really need to switch off 5ghz to set the device up it is very sloppy programming in the device itself if it only supports 2.4ghz as it should never see 5ghz. If it does both then I can see some benefit but what happens when the router is rebooted and the device reconnects? Recovery from a power failure could be problematic perhaps!

Stuart

reboot or restart after power failure (or intentional power disconnect) will not have the potential 5 GHz issue.
Once the connection to the router was once = one time established, it is remembered again.
After a factory reset (e.g. needed when you change your WiFi router) the pairing will be necessary again.

[broadstairs]

You should only need to do this if the router is not set up identically to the old one. Anyone with any common sense changing router will set it up the same as the old one otherwise the GW1000 will not be the only device needing set up again. It's easier to set the router up once identically rather than having to go round all devices and change settings!

Stuart

[wardie]

Interesting observations about 5GHz impact... I'm having a battle with stable WiFi connectivity of my HP2551C, unlike my GW1000s which are rock solid on WiFi. My main WiFi setup is a mesh pair of routers (master/slave), wired backhaul, exposing 2.4GHz and 5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2 as a tri-band system. Neat if it works. Anyway I can get all things connected fine but the HP2551C keeps on occasionally losing the WiFi connection, then struggles to reconnect. Obviously with the HP2551C you can enter the credential directly via the screen & buttons.

To try and isolate/fix this I ended up using a spare router to create a separate WiFi access point. I also switched the 5GHz radio off on it. But I still had the same sort of drop-off problems only with HP2551C. Having probed around in the AP settings it seems like that router was in a dual-band mode still even with 5GHz radio off. I've got a hunch something weird has been happening like the routers seem to want to move the HP2551C to 5GHz or something like that, which clearly it doesn't support.

Anyway I seem to have got it stable now by breaking up the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands on the AP, also disabling the 5GHz band too. I'm no WiFi expert to know how those protocols are negotiated but it may be a "feature" of how the WiFi radio chips and firmware Ecowitt use play nicely (or not) with my routers/AP - which is all Asus kit and [subjectivity warning] tries at times to be too clever for it's own good [/subjectivity warning].

[ToXiQ]

thanks Gyvate, the flight mode did it

[Gyvate]

pairing and configuring your console under Windows
If the WSView app cannot be used and cannot be installed inside an Android emulation under Windows like NOX player, Ecowitt provides a Windows tool ("app") for that purpose,
the WS-Connect-Router program (download from https://www.ecowitt.com/shop/goodsDetail/32). Tab "Manual and Software"
  There are two download possibilities on this page/tab - you have to take the first one which says "WIFI Configuration PC Software"

After installation and start of the tool it presents itself like below:
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you choose your console and receive the following page with setup /configuration instructions depending on your console choice:
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after clicking "OK" the configuration interface pops up

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you can either initiate the pairing only (top left portion) by entering the SSID of your wireless LAN ("WiFi") and the router password and pressing "Save".
or, you can, after having pressed "Save", enter the IDs and credentials for the weather network(s) of your choice including a customized server - and  then press the corresponding button.
For Ecowitt.net you only need to press "Register at Ecowitt". The program will automatically create a station based on the MAC address of your console.

At the "Customized" option, "Station ID" and "Station Key" are optional - it depends on the server you are sending the data to - if this information is needed there or not.
  However, "Path" must always have an entry, even if the receiving server doesn't need it. But if that field is empty, your console won't send any data ! So enter at least "/" (without ""). 
The saving of the "Customized" option goes along with pressing the "Save" button.

[Gyvate]

if your device has been successfully paired with the router but still doesn't show in the device list of the WSView app
(and/or doesn't post weather data to ecowitt.net even though you configured it with the WS Connect Router PC software (Windows) - see post before)

1. how do you know that it has been paired ?

when it has been successfully paired, it has been given an IP address by your router - your router usually shows you the IP addresses of the connected devices -
if there is one you don't know yet, it's likely to be it. You will have to do some trial and error work.

2. what to do ?

you will need the WSView app to continue, the latest version (as per post date 12-Jun-2021)
The new version of the WSView app provides a few more options in its menu.
The option we are talking about are "Direct connection" and "Test mode".

a) "Direct Connection" see below picture, select "Direct Connection" from the menu and enter your IP address from your router in the field
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in most cases you should be either directed to the live data page of WSView (GW1000, WH2650, WN1900)
or to the Weather service configuration pages (HP2551, HP350x, WS2320E, WH2910)

b) if nothing works and if you cannot identify your IP address, then use the "Test mode" and make a screen copy of the "gibberish" that will be shown.
Email this screen shot to support@ecowitt.com and they will reply to you with your IP information or other support instructions.
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[Gyvate]

For the new GW1100 - see below

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The installation (= integration into the local network via a WLAN access point) is done either as with the GW1000 using the WSView app or via a web interface.

For this purpose, you have to connect the smartphone, PC, ... ... to the GW1100's internal WLAN via WiFi.
When the GW1100 is connected to power, it will show a WLAN network ID (SSID) which is GW1100A*-WIFIxxxx,
where xxxx is the last four digits of its MAC address.
If you are connected to it, you can access the web interface via IP 192.168.1.4 and configure it or view the live data.
(*GW1100A-, GW1100B or GW1000C depending on the reception frequency: A=868 MHz, B=915 MHz, C=433 MHz)

However, this is only possible as long as you are connected to this WLAN. This WLAN has no internet access.
Therefore, it is not possible to view the data "on the side" in the web browser while surfing the Internet or the local network with other tabs while connected to the GW1100 WLAN.
 Of course, this also applies to a tablet on which you want to view the live data.

This process so far only works with the WebUI. Pairing with the WSView app does not succeed (firmware 2.02).

Once the pairing was successful and the GW1100 has received an IP address  inside the local network,
you can view the live data and do further configuration (calibration, rain totals, Weather Services)
also in the WSView app on the local network and be connected to the internet at the same time.
You can now also connect to the device WebUI directly by entering its local network IP into the browser, e.g. http.//192.168.1.77

[Gyvate]

For the new GW2000 - see below

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Unless using the Ethernet (LAN) interface for connecting/pairing the console, the other potential obstacles described earlier with the GW1000 (top post) also apply.
The WiFi connection works in principle the way described with the GW1100.

[Gyvate]

technical post: please ignore