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Anki Vector can't connect when the firewall is on?

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GoNz0

Very Senior Member
Hi, has anyone got a Vector robot on AsusMerlin as I can only connect with the firewall disabled, not ideal obviously but I wasn't sure how to get around it. If anyone has figured this out I would love to know how?

TIA.
 

I think always keep the firewall on and nothing is ever worth having it disabled. Instead enable UPnP.

Is UPnP on? Is the device connected to a guest wifi network? Have you made any other configuration changes or customisations to the router? Scripts?
 
UPNP is on, no custom scripts and it isn't on a guest network either, AP isn't isolated etc.
 
I don't know anything about a Vector robot so can't help you with that. But are you talking about the firewall on the router or some other device?
 
If I were troubleshooting an issue like this I’d try temporarily disabling UPnP secure mode and allowing the full internal range of ports. If that doesn’t work then I’d be backing up my router settings first and then doing a factory reset just to check if it works with a default configuration.

IoT is a mess. Many IoT products have quirks that’ll never be properly explained, bugs that’ll never be fixed, security vulnerabilities that’ll never be closed and huge dependencies on poorly developed mobile apps that will eventually stop receiving updates and consequently break the product functionality. My point is to keep low expectations of IoT products and plan on returning them. If you can’t get support and it requires disabling the main firewall to work then I’d return it.
 
I don't know anything about a Vector robot so can't help you with that. But are you talking about the firewall on the router or some other device?

Thanks I will give it a shot. When the routers firewall is active the robot can't connect to the app over wifi, bluetooth initial connection is fine.
Annoyingly it works fine until it downloads the latest update then can't connect again.

If I were troubleshooting an issue like this I’d try temporarily disabling UPnP secure mode and allowing the full internal range of ports. If that doesn’t work then I’d be backing up my router settings first and then doing a factory reset just to check if it works with a default configuration.


IoT is a mess. Many IoT products have quirks that’ll never be properly explained, bugs that’ll never be fixed, security vulnerabilities that’ll never be closed and huge dependencies on poorly developed mobile apps that will eventually stop receiving updates and consequently break the product functionality. My point is to keep low expectations of IoT products and plan on returning them. If you can’t get support and it requires disabling the main firewall to work then I’d return it.
Yeah support has stopped already for this hence the price drop from £200 to under £80, once working it's fine and doesn't need to connect to the phone to work so I can live with it, as the dev kit is out plans are happening to continue support after anki stop in 2020.
 
Last edited:
Thanks I will give it a shot. When the routers firewall is active the robot can't connect to the app over wifi, bluetooth initial connection is fine.
Annoyingly it works fine until it downloads the latest update then can't connect again.


Yeah support has stopped already for this hence the price drop from £200 to under £80, once working it's fine and doesn't need to connect to the phone to work so I can live with it, as the dev kit is out plans are happening to continue support after anki stop in 2020.

Until which device downloads the update?

Not surprising Bluetooth works because that operates p2p with no router. Wifi I have no idea. Best of luck to you with this.
 
I have an RT-AC68U on the latest Merlin firmware (384.13) with the firewall enabled. I have no port forwarding for Vector. UPnP is off. Vector connects with no problem. I do have it on a static IP though.
 
I have an RT-AC68U on the latest Merlin firmware (384.13) with the firewall enabled. I have no port forwarding for Vector. UPnP is off. Vector connects with no problem. I do have it on a static IP though.
Yeah mine is also on a static IP, I will try with UPNP off when I get the chance. Thanks.
 
It looks like I spoke too soon! I've just tried connecting Vector and it's now stuck at "searching for Vector...".

If you read the comments on the App there appears to be a lot of people struggling with this. One suggests clearing user data stored on Vector but I have not tried this as I'm having no problems with Vector itself and the App is pretty useless anyway.
 
It looks like I spoke too soon! I've just tried connecting Vector and it's now stuck at "searching for Vector...".

If you read the comments on the App there appears to be a lot of people struggling with this. One suggests clearing user data stored on Vector but I have not tried this as I'm having no problems with Vector itself and the App is pretty useless anyway.
Nah I tried all the basics, as soon as the firewall is off on the router it connects fine.
 
Nah I tried all the basics, as soon as the firewall is off on the router it connects fine.
As an experiment instead of turning off the firewall try logging into the router and issuing the following command. Do not reboot or apply any other changes in the router's GUI until after testing or else this change will be undone.
Code:
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
 
Ok..... well today it's working again :confused: Same settings as before, firewall on. Probably an Anki server problem yesterday.
 

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