HA GivTCP on a Virgin router

Anyone here able to help/advise? I have installed Home Assistant on a Dell Thin Client with GivTCP/MQTT following instructions gleaned from this forum and YT videos (gratitude to those contributors), however the GivTCP log says it fails to connect to my inverter "Connection to (192.168.1.52, 8899) failed: timed out". The Thin Client is directly cabled to my Virgin Media Hub 5 router and I believe I have the correct IP address for the dongle/inverter as it shows the HF-A21 hostname with MAC starting 28:9C:6E on the list of attached devices. I can also successfully ping that IP address from the VM hub ping tool. The GE dongle is connected to the Hub on a wifi guest network solely used by the inverter and I have been using the GivEnergy web portal successfully since installation in April so I know the dongle is connecting to the network. I have connected my laptop to that guest network and tried to ping the inverter but it also times out and the IP address is not found through an 'arp -a' or using the Advanced IP Scanner app which aligns with what I see on HA/GivTCP.

So in summary, it seems the VM Hub can see the inverter but nothing else can. I did find suggestions that some routers have an 'AP Isolation' setting that blocks clients on the same network communicating with each other but I can find nothing like that in the VM Hub config unless I'm not seeing it or it's a background default that cannot be user configured. Is there anyone else using GivTCP on a VM Hub 5? Am I right thinking it's the Hub causing this? I appreciate I could use a separate wifi router but am trying to avoid that expense unless really necessary. Cheers All

daveyge Some routers have a guest network so that guests can access the internet but aren't able to access any resources on your LAN. I suspect that while the router is doling our IP addresses responding to DHCP requests, it's preventing traffic from the guest network getting to the home network. Personally, I'd just change the dongle SSID and password to connect to your home network and then you can forget the router having to manage traffic.

Yeah first step i would move the Givenergy connection off the guest network (this is likely your issue).

I would also recommend setting a static IP address to the inverter within the VM router. Finally and again in the VM router, I would rename it to something obvious to make it easier for you in future ‘Givenergy inverter’ or something.

Tim A900 Thanks both. Makes sense, will give that a go

As others have said, it needs to be on the same network as the device you are connecting it to - as far as the Dongle is concerned it can see the internet but not the devices on the home network.
As long as you secure the dongle with strong passwords, no one can hijack your internet.
I fully understand why you might want it on a separate network - but unless you have a better router and switches that you can manage, you won't be able to do both as I don't think the virgin router allows you to route one network to another - as that would defeat the purpose - you could probably route it to an IP address which would mean fixing the IP of the device - and more than one device wouldn't work.

[unknown] keep us posted

[unknown] [unknown] [unknown] OK yes that worked and GIVTCP connects to the inverter now
:-) ...though I have had to rename the 2.4Ghz SSID to differentiate it from the 5Ghz as the dongle refused to connect otherwise. Bit of a pain having to reconfigure the smart switches, lights, Sonos etc I have but it's a better setup overall anyway.
The reason I had it on the guest network was that I found the login credentials frequently defaulted back to admin/admin (but not my router SSID/pw curiously) when I used the reset button on the dongle to switch it from STA to AP mode. Not critical if it stays in STA mode but a precarious situation in my view and will have to remember to check them every time I access it which isn't often of course. Hopefully my experiences and your advice will help others in the future so many thanks all and Merry Christmas!

You probably didn’t need to rename your WiFi. Just turn off the 5ghz whilst you connect the dongle and then turn it back on once it’s connected.