Hi, my wifi dongle is making a network called something like 'WF1049F832' and it's using the same Wifi channel as the 2.4 GHz as my router. This seems like a bug to me as I can't imagine that this is intended.
Is there a way to disable this so that it doesn't make it's own network? It's currently causing issues with 2.4 GHz devices connecting to my router, as it's using the same wifi channel
HypnoToad you can change the wifi config by logging on to the inverter network and following this setup guide. Your installer may not have followed it properly, mine didn’t, they left it unsecured and broadcasting its SSID so it was an open network onto your home wifi
HypnoToad the only way to turn off the wifi is to use the LAN cable.
HypnoToad if it's a gen1, then the dongle should be secure, but it is supposed to log on to your router and send the signals to the cloud and your app. If it's a gen2 or 3 then its wifi is built in and I believe they work in the same way, but you can use a lan connection on the 2 and 3 but you need to change some dip switches to make it work.
HypnoToad The reason they use 2.4GHz is because the signal travels through walls better and many people have the inverters in garages or outside.
deepanshus The OP is looking to turn off the access point the WiFi dongle sets up for initial configuration.
It should either be secured and not left open, or disabled and just have the dongle as a client to the existing WiFi network of the OP.
So the answer to the original question is yes you can (Or you can with Gen 1 inverters - I would expect it to be the same on subsequent versions)
deepanshus my bad, the wireless which is the AP mode of the inverter does not switches off when connected via LAN
Hi all, I have had my GE install now for 2 weeks and I have just had a look at my wifi. Mine also is generating an open Wi-Fi. Is there a way which it can be made secured or hidden so that it can not be used by anyone else.
chris2023 Yes log onto it - with luck it has a password that you know - and then go through the settings
Change the Security mode of the WF (Yours may be different but I suspect they are similar) and change from open to secured - or just disabled.
Password is just out of view.
anglefire
Thanks for that, all sorted I don’t know why I did not just try that in the first place. The login was the typical admin one. I was searching all over my router settings for something.
Much appreciated hopefully I will be able to return the favour on sometime.
tbh, this is a big headache, once setup is done, there is no need for the network and it just creates noise hampering the home network. GivEnergy should find a way to switch off the inverter "AP Interface Setting" from the web portal
deepanshus No that's not a good idea! On another thread Paul said that the newer ones will turn off the AP after a couple of minutes once its been setup as client.
Just had system installed.
Open ssid left that transparently bridges to home network completely insecure.
Absolutely we need way to disable AP or the radio.
s_r_thomas you can change the password by logging into the inverter from its IP address so that its not Open. Select the WPA2-PSK security and select your own password
Bit late in the day now in terms of design but it'd have made a lot more sense to have used bluetooth to setup the wifi side of the dongle so that it joins the local wifi network. Button on the dongle to turn bluetooth on/off. Easy to change wifi details in future without trying to remember passwords which may not have been used in years. Even if the bluetooth accidentally gets left on, its not visible as far as 802.11 networks and there wouldn't be a bridge to the local network.
The wifi chipset used in the dongle will have bluetooth as well as 802.11n (or whatever its capabilities are on 2.4GHz) as it's virtually impossible to buy a chipset which has 802.11 and doesn't have bluetooth 🙂
It appears (just today actually) someone has found a way for Gen 2 or 3 to disable wifi entirely via Telnet, however for gen 1 dongles this will likely leave you with a doorstop I guess.
s_r_thomas full details on how to manage the dongle here: https://kb.givenergy.cloud/article.php?id=1
hoggy can you provide more details?
deepanshus not my work, nor any warranty given or implied.
Also apparently GE can see the commands you've sent to the dongle via Telnet (this was news) so they'll know you've done it.
Don't do this on a Gen1 as you'll have no other way into the dongle - turns off WiFi chip entirely.
hoggy Gen 1 there is no need to turn off the ap with telnet. The web browser works just fine!
anglefire I know, I'm just trying to make it abundantly clear before someone hoses their dongle entirely!
Just set the AP password and set hidden.
Wifi networks will interleave their data with each other.
Also I have found from a few hours of testing, dongle are more stable on your WiFi if it supports WPA2 Mixed mode
The dongle can then use the far less CPU intensive TKIP.
The super secure among us will frown at this. But in the big scheme is it really an issue? In a home wifi situation? Do you have the Russians living next door?
TheDragon (GivEnergy) It is if you are running TKIP on your home network as its UTTERLY trivial to crack, takes literally seconds.
I'm not aware of any ISP currently supplied routers in the UK which support TKIP anyway - some ancient 10 year old ones maybe but none of the last couple of generations so its unlikely many people will be able to follow your somewhat flawed advice.
Vestas It was just from tests. To see if it will help anyone else.
All my devices bar an old printer use AES, so mixed mode is still useful
Surely coming from the industry you were in you know that wouldn’t pass, particularly in the relatively dense city environments.
Ignoring the GEN1, I would swap telnet for SSH and then commission via a wired connection. WiFi off by default, on (with an tickbox) only if you need it. If it supports it WPA3 with fallback to 2/AES.
Gen1, it’s too late now, but disabling the AP or at the very least using something g from a physical sticker (like a serial number) as password would help those who don’t know better.
I’m not criticising you, just to be clear, but it’s the 2020s and the current state isn’t good enough for new kit.
hoggy In my opinion, you would need to enter
cd net
before the ifconfig command for it to work.
The effect shouldn't really be permanent, pressing the button on the bottom of the dongle should reset it and re-enable the access point. But I am NOT going to test this.
Hi, thanks for the info. I'm able to log in by going to the inverter IP address, however I cannot see any settings / options that can stop the dongle making it's own network.
I can change the network name and also the security setting of the network also. Also setting the channel of the wifi network seems to just ignore whatever I set it to.
For example, my home wifi is on channel 11, so I set the dongle wifi to channel 2 for example, but after restarting the dongle, it's using channel 11 which causes issues with my wifi router.
Turning off the dongle wifi network would be the best option for me, but if this can't be done with a software update then being able to set the wifi channel would be better than nothing!
Hi, LAN would be great, I didn't know this was an option. I would have to install a network switch but I have a LAN cable nearby.
I cannot see where I can connect a LAN cable on my inverter I'm afraid... it's possible my inverter is the wrong gen. I did search the Givenergy site, but cannot see any docs relating to Ethernet connection or setup, only Wifi and LoRA.
Hi, I'm not sure what gen inverter I have I'm afraid, it was comissioned in mid-2021. Does it show the gen in the cloud portal at all? Once I know what gen I have then I can see what options I have here, and if LAN can be used as I'm having wifi issues at the moment.
HypnoToad the dongle accesses your Wi-Fi router, so wouldn’t it need to be on the same channel as the router?
Yes the access point used for configuring it could be on a different channel, but after reboot, it’ll be in pass through mode?
If you have an AC connected inverter (e.g. not a hybrid, not got DC connections to solar panels) then it’ll be gen 1
Obviously AIO is a different generation, but that has only been released this year.
If it’s a hybrid inverter, not sure how to identify the gen. Maybe it’s on the inverter data sticker, but not sure.
kram swap telnet for SSH
sshd compiles to nearly 1MB. It wouldn't be possible to run it on the current dongle hardware, which has only 4MB memory. (Yes, MB not GB).
HypnoToad if you are using a gen2 or Gen 3 inverter you should have a lan port and a set of switches next to it(very small white ones). You plug-in the lan and then flip the switch as shown in the pic for lan to work.
Note: the IP address will change
the dongle accesses your Wi-Fi router, so wouldn’t it need to be on the same channel as the router?
Hi, yes it will need to be on the same channel in order to connect to my router. However it's also making it's own wifi hotspot network on the same wifi channel as my router which is does not need to do, and I would like to turn this off if possible, as my wifi network is already pretty crowded and I'm having wifi issues with other devices at the moment.
Even if I change the channel on my router, the HF-A21 dongle thing soon changes to match the channel. I'm eventually planning to put in a mesh network, but that can come with it's own issues.
deepanshus
Thanks for the info, it looks like I have gen 1 then, so I'm out of luck with trying to get a wired connection here. I may be able to work something out, but if anyone with a gen 1 has found a workaround then I'd like to give it a try.
Thanks for all the info + advice, it all helps.
HypnoToad I've just realised that what I suggested is not correct - or not totally.
You can't disable the AP like I thought - best thing is to secure it and hide it so passing "trade" can't see it to log in.
anglefire but the problem that it interferes with the router 2.4G signal still remains. thats the only reason i would like to turn it off once the setup is done
TheDragon (GivEnergy) Its not useful at all...
1) If you enable TKIP on a WLAN and connect a TKIP client then you destroy the PHY rate of that WLAN. Reason is simple - TKIP client will force the entire WLAN to 802.11g rates. ie 54Mbps and remember that's PHY rate so probably 35Mbps top whack at the TCP/IP layer. 2.4GHz is bad enough without forcing everything back to 20 years ago 🙂
2) AES is not "more cpu intensive" on any wifi chipset made in the last ten years. TKIP is because the assumption is that since its deprecated then nobody is going to be daft enough to use it. None of the hardware offloading will happen with TKIP, it will with AES.
I suspect the reason you saw "more stability" was simply because you destroyed the PHY rate of the WLAN and hence limited everything to 35Mbps or less.
Edit - for those interested, this is the reason mainstream ISPs in the UK disabled TKIP as an option on newer routers. Its got nothing to do with security issues, valid as they are; it has everything to do with people complaining about slow wifi (largely caused by ancient crap eating up excessive airtime) and the increased support costs incurred from those complaints.
Disclaimer - I have designed wireless plant installs for more than a decade now so I do have a vague clue about this stuff 😉
You can get or just implement cut down versions of an sshd. OpenSSL isn’t the only one and if you pick your options right you can have that fairly compact too.
Also I did say ignore the gen1 …
Telnet just doesn’t have a place to be enabled by default…
Vestas Can you advise what I should do then? Should I choose AES or TKIAES if TKIP is not advised?
anglefire I cannot get my setup off channel 6. When I select another channel, apply and reset the interface it just jumps back to channel 6???
Pete G that’s correct, same with everyone. No way to alter it for now :-( mine is connected via lan and still the inverter is broadcasting its own Wi-Fi
Pete G You think thats irritating I cant even change the name of my inverter on my AIO unit
But on router page it usually shows up as HF-A21-1 but the last digit for some reason keeps going up lol
I just checked now and for some reason its coming up as "unknown" maybe due to the hiccup the system had where the inverter communication went MIA for 75 minutes.
is there any way to turn off the built in wifi when using LAN? I found today that when I rebooted the inverter, my previously hidden & secured AP popped up again with the default open SSID again! I don't need the wifi, it's an unnecessary hole in my network.
If you’re using LAN could you remove the aerial connection for the WiFi and replace it with a terminator?
Jellybaby For this I think it has to be one sentence or have no spaces and maybe put a - inbetween for a space.
I just went with simple "Inverter, Gateway" and it was fine and comes up properly named.
Thanks to Pete for reminding me about this post I made.
What a pain. I've been trying to switch off/disable the All in One Gateway & Battery wifi points, as I have them connected via Ethernet. The Wifi setting keep jumping back to default at the drop of a hat. The settings are often not taken or not persistent. It's a bag of spanners that has taken far too much of my time trying to fix, still with no end in sight. :-(
You don't want to fully disable it imo, if you lose comms you can connect to the access point and try pinging 8.8.8.8 to see if anythings getting out or there is any packet loss to indicate any issues.
Not sure what settings you are referring to but if you are running via ethernet the access point is just there as a backup tool.
Reason is that its a vulnerability on your network is the main reason.
For some network might be tied down and monitored - aka say like putting security on your front door with special key and bolts PIN code etc then after all that handing your neighbour a key just in case.
I do agree though to disable with no manual override could be risky but then not sure if there is a reset hardware button on the machine/dongle as never looked
DreadorUK But you can password it at least and if you are that concerned you could disconnect the antenna, you have to get very close to the unit to connect to it.
I have also followed what was suggested in other posts:
Changed the WiFi name
Changed the PW
Changed the security protocol
Hide the WiFi
Do not join your network with WiFi, leave it as its own AP with its own IP range. If for any reason the LAN breaks you can still access the AIO via the AP. This is the best and most secure option you can have, without disabling the WiFi.
If anyone needs help please let me know and I will post the settings.
I have also asked GE if WiFi can be turned off in a future software release for the AIO.
Unless we can confirm there is a physical reset switch if WiFi is switched off the AIO could become a door stop, if the LAN port breaks?
Had my inverter installed yesterday and wondered why the wifi was broadcasting even though the DIPS had been set to LAN by the installer.
Will get this updated tomorrow.
TLDR - Skip to the last paragraph for our solution, otherwise read on.
We have been suffering from all of the problems in this thread since our inverter was installed in 2023. We live in a relatively dense urban area with a number of neighbouring WiFi networks, although as of today we are the only WiFi 7 network in range.
Both I and the installer were completely unable to get our inverter connected to our WiFi network due to 5Ghz WiFi 5/6 networks with the same SSID. It feels like installers should be provided with better materials on this very well known issue.
Remaining connected to the Access Point created by the dongle was also difficult and frustrating with the network dropping anytime between twenty seconds or a couple of minutes after connecting. This made configuring it ridiculously difficult.
I ended up having to set up a separate WiFi 4 network on our ISP router which was providing digital voice services anyway. This meant that the inverter added two net additional 2.4GHz networks to already crowded airwaves.
I experienced intermittent network issues with a range of devices, in particular gaming on Stadia, our wireless video doorbell and our Hildebrand Glow IHD. Other devices would also experience intermittent slowness or video buffering. Our video doorbell would seemingly randomly stop recording activity and be very slow to respond until it was rebooted.
The inverter itself would sometimes become slow to respond on Local Monitoring, both using the GivEnergy app and the excellent third party Monitor for GivEnergy Inverter app. I sometimes had to repeatedly toggle between Home and Away modes if I hadn't had the app open for a while.
I upgraded to a WiFi 7 mesh in November 2024 and most of our network issues persisted. This mesh did allow me to temporarily switch off the 5GHz network (leaving just 2.4GHz and 6GHz) and get the inverter connected to our main network and switch off the network I had created on our ISP router. This reduced but didn't eliminate the problems with our video doorbell.
After this change though I also saw increasing issues where I just could not access the inverter data via Local Monitoring at all - using either the GivEnergy or Monitor for GivEnergy Inverter app. Away would still update every five minutes but I could not get live updates.
The solution was in two parts. I will only briefly touch on the first since it is well documented elsewhere in the community.
Either switch your router to broadcast different bands using different SSIDs or temporarily switch off the 5GHz band before connecting the Inverter, after which you can switch it back on again and the Inverter should remain connected. If you have a mesh network then you may need to experiment with some other settings so you might want to search the community for the term "mesh" if you are still struggling.
Go to the GivEnergy Installer Resources page and locate HF21 Dongle Chipset Update under "Accessories". Download the zip file, extract it and follow the instructions in the word document to update both components using the management page accessible either via your Inverter's IP address on your own network, or via the separate Access Point the dongle creates. If you have never changed this then the default credentials are I believe "admin"/"admin" but more information on this and accessing the page will be on GivEnergy's WiFi setup guide.
The dongle will need to be rebooted after each update.
After upgrading there should be a new "AP Site in STA Mode" setting on the "AP Interface Setting" page - setting it to "Disable" will stop the management Access Point (AP) broadcasting when the dongle is connected to your WiFi network. With this switched off the redundant wireless network disappears, and any change in settings can still be done by going to the IP address of the Inverter on your WiFi network - not by connecting to the now disabled built in Access Point.
I am not clear if the Access Point will re-enable should access to your network be lost, so you will want to satisfy yourself that you can reset the dongle just to be safe. If you are changing ISP or router then it would also be a good idea to update the connection to the new details before swapping out the routers, or just change the new router WiFi network details to match the existing ones as is advocated for by several users here.
In addition to allowing the redundant Access Point to be disabled, the updates seem to have considerably improved the stability of both the dongle Access Point (until I switched it off) and the Management Pages. The video doorbell and security camera live footage load faster and at higher quality. I have not seen the intermittent connection error message in the Bright app relating to the connection with the Hildebrand Glow. It appears that the performance of devices connected to 2.4GHz has improved, likely for the reasons @Vestas outlined in their post earlier.
The document does state "The Dongle wifi connectivity on newer routers should now be more stable" and this has been our experience (so far).
I am very pleased with the updates so far and am only disappointed that I didn't do the updates when the files first became available (April and July from the look of it). Obviously do consider the current state of GivEnergy support before deciding to update by yourself as you may need to rely on yourself and your installer should you experience any problems.
Lastly if you haven't already it would be a very good idea to change the dongle administrator password away from the default, providing you can make a note of or remember the new password.