How to disable hybrid inverter's WiFi access point?

Hi all,

I've tried to follow through this thread as best I can, but it refers to various different setups, issues and aims. After doing a bit of unrelated network troubleshooting, I discovered that my Gen3 Hybrid inverter is behaving as an unsecured WiFi access point on the same channel as my home WiFi (and thus potentially a source of interference).

My findings so far:

1. I could log into the WiFi module via my home network and a very easily guessed set of credentials (1st try!). I've since managed to change the password;
2. Under 'AP Interface Setting' I have managed to hide the SSID. However, the 'hidden' setting sometimes (not always) seems to uncheck itself, revealing the SSID again;
3. I've tried to change it away from its default channel 11, but this setting keeps just reverting after the required module restart;
4. It looks like I've managed to set a security mode and passphrase, which is a start - presumably this should have been set at installation rather than leaving it unsecured?!

So...

1. Is this normal? (I mean, are others hitting the same issues? It's clearly not desirable.)
2. Is there any way to turn off the access point (to prevent interference with our home network) without also turning off its connection to our home network?
3. Failing that, how can I get the channel setting to 'stick'?

Thanks very much,
Jo

Okay, new discoveries:

1. The inverter's AP does not seem to stay on all the time, but disappears and reappears periodically (on the order of 10s of seconds to a minute or two);
2. The inverter's channel number follows my home WiFi network's. If I change my home network's channel to 6 (say), after a few seconds the inverter's AP's channel also changes to 6 - I can see this both in the inverter's WiFi module portal and on my WiFi analyser app.

This seems like very weird behaviour to me... anyone else seeing similar?

Josephiah See https://kb.givenergy.cloud/article.php?id=1

My installer didn’t follow the installation guide properly and left both of my inverters broadcasting open networks with no password. Sounds like your installer was equally at fault.

I had no issues in turning off SSID broadcast on my inverter but I don’t think you can disable the wifi broadcast entirely, and TBH it gives you a way to connect locally to your inverter if the wifi connection drops out. If you are using a wired connection then less useful of course.

Having finally got my inverter to be recognised and on my network, It seems to have an 'active SSID'
At times, I have found that my iPhone or iPad have logged onto the inverter's local network.
One plus though is that I can easily log onto my inverter.

I have my inverter on its own IoT network on my Deco Mesh to guarantee 2.4 GHz frequency.
But should I 'forget' this network as I can always search for it again if I need to?

Rob

Did anyone find a way to disable the wifi of the inverter? I use a LAN connection and my wifi setting don't 'stick', which creates a hole in my network security I keep having to fix. I'd love to just TURN IT OFF!

Which gen inverter do you have?

I detail how to disable the Access Point for Gen 1 inverters in these posts.
It would also be worth checking if there are firmware updates for the latter generation dongles that do the same thing - this is distinct from the firmware for the inverter itself or the batteries.

pwdst great set of guidance, thanks

But just to clarify, the Gen 1 hybrid inverters don’t have an ethernet port so disabling the wifi isn’t a good idea ….

I should stress that this isn't disabling the WiFi, or our system would have been offline for months, this is disabling the built in Access Point on the dongle whilst connected to the home network. I haven't tested if it will spring back into life should our WiFi go offline, screams of rage would follow even briefly simulating this, but if all else fails I will simply reset the dongle.
Whilst it is connected you can simply reach the dongle management page using the IP address of the router on your internal network. The setting is labelled "AP Site in STA Mode" and I was able to check this by using the management pages despite the Access Point having been off since last September.

pwdst Thank you, your posts are very helpful.

Would you mind sharing the exact place/setting which allows configuring encryption for the broadcasted AP?

pwdst Gen 2.

ectoplasmosis

For help connecting to your dongle see the instructions in the GivEnergy WiFi Setup Guide.
To change the Access Point settings click on the "AP Interface Setting" button on the left side. On that page change "Security Mode" to "WPA2-PSK", set "WPA Algorithms" to "AES" and enter your desired WiFi password in "Pass Phrase" - by convention this is usually set as your inverter serial number but you can set your own if your prefer.

For bonus points GivEnergy also has a dongle firmware upgrade guide.

Well that was a frustrating evening. Updated firmware and Boot thingy, all good. Can set password to AP, can put in local wifi details for station mode, switch to station mode ok, AP disappears, so far so good. Plug in LAN cable, inverter reboots, all settings lost. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Give up.

It seems the inverter really doesn't like Station mode over LAN, I may have to concede and just use wifi.