Issues with extremely poor connectivity

Connection to my profilux is extremely slow, both from the GHL Connect app on my iPhone, and from MyGHL on the website. Actually, for the last few weeks I can not connect at all from the app, although the website seems to work most of the time. But boy is it slooow. I frequently have issues connecting at all, it often takes several attempts. For example, I was out of the country last week when I got a leak detect notification from my sump. I needed to try connecting over and over for about 10 minutes before I was finally able to connect and turn off the return pump. I have gigabit ethernet and there is nothing wrong with my wifi, everything else in the house works fine. For example, I have a Ring doorbell, and I am able to stream live video from it with no issue, at the same time that I am having issues with the profilux connectivity being slow.

And the long "Please wait" delay when loading data for a historical graph is infuriating, I can download high def video in real time, but it takes 10-30 seconds to download a measly few hundred bytes? Come on!

I am a software developer and have a very good understanding of how these things work, and it's baffling to me how the Profilux connectivity could be so slow. All I can think of is that either the software is poorly implemented, the hardware is very underpowered, or that everything is being routed through GHL's servers, and they can't handle the bandwidth. I suspect the latter, but would be curious to know.

In any case, I guess it is what it is, but I have some questions relating to this.

- Is there anything I can do at my end to improve performance, or to at least be able to connect to the Profilux on the first attempt? I suspect you may still blame my wifi, despite what I said above, so I was ready to just add a hard-wired Ethernet connection to the Profilux, only to discover that it doesn't support that.

- Does GHL acknowledge these issues, and have plans to fix them?

- Can you explain how and why the current implementation is so slow?

Thanks!

Hello,

There are no general reports of connectivity speed issues. Load times are heavily dependent on the type of Wi-Fi network, signal strength, interferences of other nearby devices, router settings, server load, etc. It works as expected for the vast majority, but of course there are some cases where this does not happen. That's one of the reasons why we release new firmware updates for the Wi-Fi chip, to make it work with as many different kinds of Wi-Fi network conditions as possible. Within reason, it is not possible to cover 100% of possibilities, too many variables at play. If the quality of the signal to the P4 is affected by any of the above, the speed of your internet becomes irrelevant. If the P4 can communicate uninterrupted, then that is when you get to enjoy the benefits of very fast internet speed.

Aside from other devices in the network connecting "normally", it is important to know that any Wi-Fi device can experience interference from another Wi-Fi device. Just because all other devices are unaffected does not mean that one device that is absolutely, without a doubt, the problem. The reasoning is not so black and white, other variables such as router technology and settings should also be considered.

For instance, mesh routers handle devices differently compared to a traditional router. The device can only respond and react to commands given by the router. If the communication method is constantly being switched between 2g and 5g, that's where the connectivity issues may begin. In your case, the P4 is connected, but the speed is slower than normal. Here we must consider the possibility of interference or range issues. Continuing with the mesh router example, if you have one of these, the main router is free to assign a particular device to a specific node, then later switch back and forth between any of the other "nodes" in the house, however many times it wants. The average user has no control over this and doesn't even know this is happening. If the P4 is connected to one node, but later gets assigned to a node that is further away, now you have a signal strength issue. Yes, the controller is still connected to your network, but the user won't know it's connected to a node that is further away from it unless they actually check the router settings. Meanwhile, the user experiences very slow connectivity and is quick to think that the controller is the problem when in reality it's not the controller, it's the routers method being used for managing connected devices. It's typical mesh router behavior. If that is what you have, that may be the reason for your speed issue.

Of course, not all mesh routers are created equal. There are many out there that perform flawlessly with the ProfiLux and load full dashboards in 2-3 seconds locally and 3-5 seconds when using myGHL. Navigating between pages normally takes only 1-2 seconds. In case you're wondering what router is doing this, it's a TP-Link Deco S4 on a 50mbps internet plan. No changes made to its settings, beside changing the network name and password.

I'm not suggesting changing your router, but it is worth looking into the settings itself and seeing if the 2g/5g bands can be split. If they can, you can set the P4 to connect specifically to the 2g band. Some routers may even give you the option to choose the node it stays connected to. If yours does have this option, pick the node that is closest to your P4.

On the P4's end, you can assign it to a static IP address. This has helped some users in the past. Routers handle static IP devices differently than ones set to Auto IP (DHCP).

If you're convinced the ProfiLux is the problem, connect directly to its hotspot and connect via the app. Navigate through its pages and see if there is a speed difference. If it is faster, then it shows that speed is slowed only when connecting via the Wi-Fi network, possibly for the reasons above. If it is in-fact slower even when connected via the hotspot, open a support ticket and include a video that shows you connected to the hotspot, connecting to the controller via the app and navigating between pages. Only then can we get a better understanding of what you're experiencing.

Thank you. I hear what you're saying, but none of this explains why I can connect via MyGHL, but not via the app, when I'm connecting over the internet. If I am on my local WiFi, then the app connects ok, but it won't connect over the internet.

As far as my wifi, yes - I do have a mesh network (Linksys Velop).

And could you answer my question - does communication my profilux involve connecting to an external server? Or, is it directly between my device and the profilux.

In any case, I would be willing to get a dedicated WiFi access point, hard-wire it to my network via an Ethernet cable, and locate it next to my Profilux, if you think that would help. I could give it its own SSID, to guarantee that the Profilux was connection to that AP. If so, is there any particular type or model of access point you'd recommend?

Also, I am not getting email notifications when new posts go to my subscribed threads on this forum. Is that a known issue?

While using myGHL, all data between a GHL-device and GHL Connect session is copied back and forth, thus doubling the latency. The myGHL-server is in Western Europe and commonly shows round trip times of app at 100 ms and better.
If the communication exceeds 500 ms, that is when connection issues cannot be avoided anymore.

Another thing that might cause performance issues is the processing power of the mobile device being used to run the app. If other resource heavy apps are running in the background, it may bog down GHL Connect. If the app does not receive responses fast enough, communication may begin to stall.

If you're open to trying a new router, you can try the one I mentioned earlier. This would be connected off of your existing router and would become basically a secondary network which the ProfiLux can connect to.

Vinny - I don't think you understand what I'm saying. I'm saying that connecting over MyGHL is more reliable than using the app, not less. So I can connect to my system over the website, but I can't connect from the app. This happens ALL the time. (And I am connecting using the "MyGHL Device" from within the app, when connecting away from my home LAN.

If you're using the app on an iOS device, please continue using myGHL via web browser until the next update is ready.

When you are home, you can use any web browser to access the web interface by typing in the IP address of your ProfiLux into the web address bar. If this is your first time accessing it, it may take a minute to load the welcome screen.

I'm not an expert by any means but my iOS app is working. Have you checked your WiFi version for updates. I previously had an issue that was caused by still being on an old WiFi version, once I updated it everything worked again.