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What does(did) this do?


SRQUser

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I noticed this hanging behind my wall mounted TV, connected to a Cat 5E cable. It is an ARAKNIS AN-500-AP-I-AC

It was installed by the people who installed my Control 4 system, but I was unaware it was there since install 2 years ago. (Can't ask them - they are gone)

I've been having trouble with my WiFi signal in that room, where the speed is about 1/10 of what I get in the rest of the house.   Comcast came out, and told me to disconnect this device.  The WiFi got a little better in the room.

What was the purpose of this device, and have I lost any C4 functioning by disconnecting it?

 

IMG_4113.jpg

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3 minutes ago, SRQUser said:

I noticed this hanging behind my wall mounted TV, connected to a Cat 5E cable. It is an ARAKNIS AN-500-AP-I-AC

It was installed by the people who installed my Control 4 system, but I was unaware it was there since install 2 years ago. (Can't ask them - they are gone)

I've been having trouble with my WiFi signal in that room, where the speed is about 1/10 of what I get in the rest of the house.   Comcast came out, and told me to disconnect this device.  The WiFi got a little better in the room.

What was the purpose of this device, and have I lost any C4 functioning by disconnecting it?

 

IMG_4113.jpg

 

Thats a Wifi access point. Your C4 dealer may not know much about networking. The Comcast guy has zero clue…. 

If your wifi did improve the two networks are/were likely interfering.

 

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Yes, it would power off of that network cable.  Hard to know why it's better with it disconnected without diagnosing it.  Could be interference, could be that WAP had your devices connecting to a 2.4G band instead of a 5G band, could be that WAP wired through multiple switches back to the network, or a number of other reasons.   

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4 minutes ago, Control4Savant said:

also because its a POS. 

Are you describing the device, or the installer?   🙂

Our installer was a total disaster - almost nothing works, and other dealers have come in, looked at the wiring, and said "We're not going to touch this. Have no idea what they did"  This just adds to our list.

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6 minutes ago, SRQUser said:

Are you describing the device, or the installer?   🙂

Our installer was a total disaster - almost nothing works, and other dealers have come in, looked at the wiring, and said "We're not going to touch this. Have no idea what they did"  This just adds to our list.

Ha. The device. I don’t want shame other dealers but I make just as much a year doing system take overs and Control4 removals as new systems. There is no reason a listed dealer should be afraid of a takeover but the majority of C4 dealers IMO are really inexperienced and way in over their heads.  Just looking for the big payday. 

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well for one, the wap should not have been behind the tv, the amount of interference  that the tv gives off would definitely screw up the wifi signal. keep the wap find a better dealer and u should be good to go, where are you located, 

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2 hours ago, tekki70 said:

well for one, the wap should not have been behind the tv, the amount of interference  that the tv gives off would definitely screw up the wifi signal. keep the wap find a better dealer and u should be good to go, where are you located, 

Ha - finding a better dealer is the problem.   As I mentioned, two highly recommended dealers came in here & said they wouldn't touch this since the wiring from the low voltage installer is such a mess.

Just found another issue this morning that installer did wrong. We never know when someone rings our DoorBird doorbell. We are switching to Ring.  But when we removed the Doorbird, not only did we find the wrong wires there, but there are supposed to be antennae on the device - they were not there - the antenna connections were capped. Thus we never received the WiFi signal!  This guy was a disaster!   He was our builder's friend.  Sarasota, FL

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On 1/8/2022 at 10:02 AM, SRQUser said:

Ha - finding a better dealer is the problem.   As I mentioned, two highly recommended dealers came in here & said they wouldn't touch this since the wiring from the low voltage installer is such a mess.

Just found another issue this morning that installer did wrong. We never know when someone rings our DoorBird doorbell. We are switching to Ring.  But when we removed the Doorbird, not only did we find the wrong wires there, but there are supposed to be antennae on the device - they were not there - the antenna connections were capped. Thus we never received the WiFi signal!  This guy was a disaster!   He was our builder's friend.  Sarasota, FL

If the DoorBird was connected via POE , you would not have the antenna installed if I’m not mistaken.

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On 1/8/2022 at 11:02 AM, SRQUser said:

Ha - finding a better dealer is the problem.   As I mentioned, two highly recommended dealers came in here & said they wouldn't touch this since the wiring from the low voltage installer is such a mess.

Just found another issue this morning that installer did wrong. We never know when someone rings our DoorBird doorbell. We are switching to Ring.  But when we removed the Doorbird, not only did we find the wrong wires there, but there are supposed to be antennae on the device - they were not there - the antenna connections were capped. Thus we never received the WiFi signal!  This guy was a disaster!   He was our builder's friend.  Sarasota, FL

Sarasota?  Why didn't you say so.   Shoot me a dm ;)

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Are you using the Wi-Fi provided by Comcast?  How big is the home?

Most ISP techs are absolutely clueless about anything other than their system. I would not be asking Comcast about anything other than if my cableTv or internet at the modem is working.

Most companies probably won’t touch your system because you may not want to deal with the time or money involved to fix it.  We do not provide any quotes for labor on takeovers.  It is billed as Time and Materials to fix the problems.  We’ve done takeovers that last only a few days to some that last months. 

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 I am writing this to Control 4 and to the Dealers on this forum.

Although I am not a dealer, I know enough about home automation, networking best practices, electrical best practices, how to inspect and ensure good install best practices, and contract law to ensure any work on my house is performed properly before I sign any contracts and before I pay any final invoices.

The issue that seams to come up too often on this forum is that many homeowners do not have this experience and/or know how and get burned because of it (now to be clear I am not criticizing or judging anyone - for example, I am not a doctor and would be the wrong person to do surgery on someone).

If i was Control 4, I would set some contractual standards with all my dealers that make them liable for poor workmanship that another Control4 dealer needs to step in and resolve. Although people smarter than me may have thought through this deeper than I have, please trust me when I say I understand all the complexities of what I am suggesting. But if a dealer had responsibility for my name or reputation, I would have some contractual teeth, backed by an insurance policy or deposit, and then I would be sending out customer surveys to Control4 users for feedback on dealer performance. 

I think such a policy would benefit the many reputable dealers out there, Control4 and us users.

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1 hour ago, C4 User said:

 I am writing this to Control 4 and to the Dealers on this forum.

Although I am not a dealer, I know enough about home automation, networking best practices, electrical best practices, how to inspect and ensure good install best practices, and contract law to ensure any work on my house is performed properly before I sign any contracts and before I pay any final invoices.

The issue that seams to come up too often on this forum is that many homeowners do not have this experience and/or know how and get burned because of it (now to be clear I am not criticizing or judging anyone - for example, I am not a doctor and would be the wrong person to do surgery on someone).

If i was Control 4, I would set some contractual standards with all my dealers that make them liable for poor workmanship that another Control4 dealer needs to step in and resolve. Although people smarter than me may have thought through this deeper than I have, please trust me when I say I understand all the complexities of what I am suggesting. But if a dealer had responsibility for my name or reputation, I would have some contractual teeth, backed by an insurance policy or deposit, and then I would be sending out customer surveys to Control4 users for feedback on dealer performance. 

I think such a policy would benefit the many reputable dealers out there, Control4 and us users.

What you are asking for is pretty much how I spent my career - assuring that if our Distributors did not live up to our standards, they would be terminated. THen it was my job to make sure we never got into Legal trouble for doing so.  99% success rate.   I would expect that C4 does in fact have certain standards and oversight over their dealers, but how much enforcement is unknown.  In my case, I blame my builder at least as much as the C4 dealer since the builder cut corners, and I assume he passed that philosophy on to the dealer (and then he didn't pay him).  

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16 minutes ago, SRQUser said:

What you are asking for is pretty much how I spent my career - assuring that if our Distributors did not live up to our standards, they would be terminated. THen it was my job to make sure we never got into Legal trouble for doing so.  99% success rate.   I would expect that C4 does in fact have certain standards and oversight over their dealers, but how much enforcement is unknown.  In my case, I blame my builder at least as much as the C4 dealer since the builder cut corners, and I assume he passed that philosophy on to the dealer (and then he didn't pay him).  

The best way to ensure this is for C4 to develop some relationship directly with their customers,  eg through surveys, focus groups, follow-up calls, etc.   My sense is they don't do anywhere near enough of this (many of us have been C4 customers for years without a single survey, call etc).   This is often a problem with 100% dealer / distributor models where companies confuse their channel partners as the customer.  

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2 hours ago, C4 User said:

 I am writing this to Control 4 and to the Dealers on this forum.

Although I am not a dealer, I know enough about home automation, networking best practices, electrical best practices, how to inspect and ensure good install best practices, and contract law to ensure any work on my house is performed properly before I sign any contracts and before I pay any final invoices.

The issue that seams to come up too often on this forum is that many homeowners do not have this experience and/or know how and get burned because of it (now to be clear I am not criticizing or judging anyone - for example, I am not a doctor and would be the wrong person to do surgery on someone).

If i was Control 4, I would set some contractual standards with all my dealers that make them liable for poor workmanship that another Control4 dealer needs to step in and resolve. Although people smarter than me may have thought through this deeper than I have, please trust me when I say I understand all the complexities of what I am suggesting. But if a dealer had responsibility for my name or reputation, I would have some contractual teeth, backed by an insurance policy or deposit, and then I would be sending out customer surveys to Control4 users for feedback on dealer performance. 

I think such a policy would benefit the many reputable dealers out there, Control4 and us users.

No. Control4 or in this case Snap can not force a separate small business that sells their product to insure the time and cost to fix a system they had nothing to do with unless clients want to be force to automatically cover said costs. They can and do advise good standing local or regional dealers who they feel could appropriately solve said clients issues, help said dealer financially with upgrade programs or transitional solutions and also supply their own additional field support. Clients are free to and do also pursue legal matters if they feel things look out of place, these systems after all aren’t cheap a lot of times. Clients shouldn’t let someone get away with months of troubleshooting, learning on the job and phantom tech support suggestions, solutions from a good experience dealer on most occasions should be somewhat common knowledge and quick to produce. 

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