Network Binding Search Finds Nothing

I can’t imagine how I can be the first person with this problem but I have searched and searched the community and nothing came up that addresses my problem.
I am following:
OpenHab Configuration
I installed the Network Binding, it starts the “automatic discovery” but finds nothing.
I can open a browser window and go to my router and see 17 devices all on 192.168.1.xxx.
I can ping my cellphone.
So I clicked “Add Manually” and tried both Newtork device… and Pingable…
I entered my cellphone IP and in both cases it reports Online.
But that must be bogus because I can turn off my phone wi-fi and OpenHab still reports Online but my router no longer has my phone listed.

I am running release 2.4.0 on windows 8.1

1 Like

Last time I checked the Network Binding Docs you needed to install arping to be fully functional.
Did you do that?

See this topic Network binding ping does not work with some devices - how to debug

Wow, I am overwhelmed. I followed the Network Bindings Docs link you provided and I would say that about 99% of it is totally beyond my knowledge.
I and a real newbie. I was following the “for dummies” instructions as specified in the link I provided above. There is nothing in those instructions about installing arping. Is that something that should be added? How would one go about adding those instructions? And where can I find the instructions?

Thanks,
Pete

Glad I could help!

Now you can give something back to the community :heart:
This is the GitHub Repo for the openHAB docs:
https://github.com/openhab/openhab-docs
You can create a “pull request”, but you stated yourself the you are a real newbie so you might not be familiar with Git/GitHub.
But trust me on this one, it is 500% worth your time getting known to git and github. You can ask everyone :slight_smile:

I do have an account on github but I haven’t gone beyond their “Hello World” example.
As for doing anything that might help this community, I am at a total loss.
As I said I was following the “for dummies” instructions and the “Network Bindings Docs” totally overwhelmed me. There is no way I can fathom the information there and come up with steps that allow a dummie like me to get to the first step with OpenHab.
I need something else to get me to the point of doing something with OpenHab.
Sorry.
Pete

There are lots of good links and information in How to get started (there is no step-by-step tutorial).

Automatic discovery in the Network binding in 2.4 is known to be broken.

Thanks Rich. I will agree that there are lots of links. How good they are is TBD. There are so many and I keep finding obsolete or at least out of date information.
For example, if I start at:
Tutorial
and go to First-time setup I don’t get that first image. I get an image similar to the second image except it includes a fourth item, “Home Builder”. Then following the “step by step” of the Tutorial, it says install the Network Binding but as you point out, Automatic discovery is known to be broken. I tried to follow the rest of that page to see if I could pick up somewhere along the way but no luck.

I think it is best to abandon the Tutorial.
I thought I might try forking the Tutorial but seriously, I’m adrift and doubt I could contribute beyond complaints. And as is typical with an open source project, there is no one to complain to. It comes with the territory.

I’m not looking for a step-by-step to build my home automation system. But It would get me a long way if I could just get one thing working. Anything!

BTW, on github, open issues, on May 22 tmrobert8 posted, “[windows.md] Windows installation not correct” but not much else.
Would it be prudent to suggest that on:
Windows Installation

A warning be placed that says, basically, “Don’t waste your time”?

Pete

But even that is a contribution. And a needed one. Many users here work with openHAB for longer then a year or even longer. So they get stuck in their mindset of “That’s not in the docs but you know it”.
To push those people (including me) to work on the user experience is really helpful.

If you could create a list what you expected from a nooby tutorial this would help us all :slight_smile:

Well, I wrote that post less than a month ago so most of the links and the overall approach is sound.

Start with reading the concepts section of the docs to understand what the various parts and terms used in OH mean and how they work together. Review the New User Tutorial. If that doesn’t do it for you then move on to the other links. I have a link to an extensive multi-page tutorial on the forum with corresponding YouTube videos. And another link to a series of YouTube videos from another person.

Elias,

OK, if I stay with OH I’ll see what I can collect.

Pete

Rich,
I have spent a fair amount of time reading the docs…things, channels, bindings…etc but I am a bit of a hands on guy and I have a problem keeping the concepts in context without a little hands on work.

I will try to continue with my Windows installation if the consensus is that the “issues” post on github by tmrobert8 that,
“[windows.md] Windows installation not correct”
is not fatal.

I’ll see if your “How to get started” post can get me somewhere.

Any other words of wisdom about getting some simple thing working?

Thanks,
Pete

Well, even with the Network binding, you can easily manually create a Thing. In the Inbox click the blue + Icon, choose Network binding and fill out the information.

image

Select which type of device or service you want. Chose pingable device if you want to see if a specific computer is online. Choose network device with a running service if you want to see if a specific program is running on a host (it will connect to a specific network port).

Hi Pete, I had a pretty steep climb when I first started with OH and as a result have built a new product that will get you all the basics working, if you’re ok with using a raspberry pi… It wil be ready in about a week… if you’re interested, you can find all the relevent info here… https://rpi-ha.com/getting-started/
It may be a bit of a stretch if you really want to pursue the windows install, but if you do get a pi to install it on, you will have all the relevent config files generated for you that you can customize as much as you like. Also, you will have a well supported, dedicated server for your HA and a few extras that I built in… https://rpi-ha.com/sarah/ … and, it’s free, of course. Let me know if you have any interest and I will let you know when the final release is ready.

Rich,
I actually followed steps like that before I started the thread. I used a browser window to logon to my router and saw about 17 devices including my cellphone. I made sure I could ping my cellphone and proceeded to add it manually using its IP. OH reported it to be Online. But I tried to test it and concluded they just were not talking.
I tested by shutting off my phone and refreshing the page. I waited the Refresh Interval (and a lot more) and still it reported “Online” with the phone powered down (and no longer in the “Connected Devices” list of my router)
That is when I started the thread hoping to find out what I am doing wrong.

Pete

cr,

I would be very happy to try S.A.R.A.H. I intend to put my system on my RPi eventually. It is just too difficult to do a lot of experimenting on the Pi. My desktop has so many more resources not to mention a larger screen…etc.
Right now I am using the Pi to get another part of my system working. That is monitoring my house full of sensors, detectors, etc.
So, mark me definitely interested.

Excellent… thanks, Pete. I’ll contact you when it’s ready - hopefully by July 1.

But which “it”? A Network binding Thing does not model some end device, like a phone. It models the pathway to the device - if the Thing is available for sending a trial ping to the target, then the Thing is online.
You’ll be more interested in the response to ping of course, which is why the Thing provides channels. The “switch” channel is convenient to link to an Item allowing “on/off” status to be easily examined in rules or UI.

Hmmmm. I vaguely remember there some threads about Network binding always reporting everything as online in Windows, but I thought that got fixed. But since 2.4 is more than six months old now I’m going to guess that it was fixed after that release. You might try moving to 2.5 M1 or the latest snapshot and see if that works.

Rest assured, I don’t think you are doing anything wrong. I think the Network binding is broken for your version of OH on Windows.

This project suddenly got bumped down on my priority list.
It may be a few days before I can get back to it.
Please hit the “Pause Button”.

PAUSE INTENSIFIES