Diagnosing Network Issues ​

1Home Server uses Matter to connect to smart assistant ecosystems. Matter uses mDNS (Multicast DNS) DNS-SD in order to discover Matter network services. mDNS being based on Multicast IP is very sensitive to certain network (router) settings. The most common symptom when there are mDNS related issues in a network is rendering bridged devices in smart home apps as offline or even prevent 1Home Server from pairing via Matter.

Find below some common issues and solutions. There is also a dedicated section for systems using Ubiquiti's UniFi network systems.

Table of contents

Verifying the basics ​

1. Verify that the Matter hub and 1Home Server can discover each other ​

• 1.1. Go under Integrations -> Matter bridge -> Confirm that assistant hub is reachable.
• 1.2. Investigate if the respected hub is discovered by the 1Home Server within the list of discovered services. Devices that often are related to smart assistants are highlighted (see below example for Apple Home hub). If you do not see your hub in the screen below and are experiencing Matter bridging issues (no connection, no response, etc.) make sure that Matter hub and Server are within the same LAN as well as that mDNS is correctly configured (see below for more details).

2. (Apple Home) If you have multiple Apple Home hubs (Apple TV, HomePod Mini, etc.) ​

Make sure that all the hubs are visible in the service discovery step above. This is because Apple Home can decide at anytime to change which hub is primary, which will make it the only communicator with the 1Home Server.

Common problems ​

I can't pair to Matter app ​

Make sure that you have verified the basics first.

1. Make sure your phone and 1Home Server are on the same subnetwork. Double check that your smartphone:
   1. Is on correct WiFi
   2. Is not using mobile data
   3. No VPN is used
   4. Can access the 1Home Server local dashboard (eg. at 1home.local)
2. Google Home We have seen some issues with certain Android smart phones (eg. Samsung Galaxy S22+) that it has problems pairing the Server. Try using another phone (even pairing Google Home via iPhone and Google Home iOS app, if no other Android phones are at hand).
3. Apple Home Make sure your iPhone is at least on iOS 17.

Still having issues? Submit a bug report.

Pairing successful, but all devices are offline (not responding) ​

Make sure that you have verified the basics first.

This issue is almost always caused by a misconfiguration of the mDNS in the router's network settings.

Please make sure that in your router, the following settings are configured:

1. Disable Multicast DNS related enhancements and optimizations. These options usually negatively affect mDNS DNS-SD related traffic, especially for WiFi.
   • Note that with some routers Multicast DNS enhancement or optimizations has to be disabled in more than one location within the router settings.
2. Make sure that Domain Name (DHCP settings) is NOT set to .local. .local is reserved for mDNS discovery, which would prevent the mDNS from working correctly.
3. Disable IGMP Snooping. This option usually negatively affect mDNS DNS-SD related traffic, especially when using multiple WiFi access points.
4. (Google Home) If you are using Google Home hub, also try resetting the Google Home hub to factory settings, re-installing the Google Home app, and re-adding the hub to the Google Home app. Then try the pairing process with the 1Home Server again.

After applying the settings, give your network a couple of minutes to apply the changes. Then reboot the Apple hub, your smart phone and 1Home Server.

After that see if the issue is fixed. Also try repairing the Server with your Matter app again (unpair from the Server AND from within the Matter app).

Still having issues? Submit a bug report.

Bridged devices stopped working in Matter app, showing no response ​

Make sure that you have verified the basics first.

If the devices never worked after pairing, please see the section Pairing successful, but all devices are offline (not responding).

If however you were able to control bridged devices via your Matter app in the past but it only stopped working after some time, read on.

If you reboot the 1Home Server, does the system work again for a couple of hours and then stops working again? ​

This is usually an issue with mDNS settings, where the Server can only advertise itself on the network on the boot, and the advertisement times out in a couple of hours, which makes the 1Home Server unreachable.

Make sure that the following settings from the previous section are correctly set.

In most cases investigating WiFi settings and disabling multicast related "optimizations" fixes this issue. WiFi equipment manufacturers implement various multicast related optimizations so that WiFi works overall better when using IPTV over WiFi. In most cases these optimizations negatively impact DNS-SD over mDNS - not just Matter network services but also other services using mDNS such as: Apple Airplay, Google Chromecast, etc. If you are not using IPTV over WiFi, multicast related optimization features can be usually safely disabled.

Reboot of the 1Home Server doesn't help ​

1. Make sure that your Matter hub is running and is still on the same network as the 1Home Server.
2. Was there another Matter hub added (Apple TV, HomePod, Google Home Mini, ...). If it was and it is on a separate network, it might have been selected as a primary hub and because it cannot discovery via mDNS the 1Home Server, the connection is offline.

Still having issues? Submit a bug report.

Tips for Ubiquiti UniFi equipment ​

If you are using a Ubiquiti UniFi networking equipment, please make sure that the following settings are set.

After you change and apply them, wait for the network device to provision the changes. Check under UniFi devices that your UniFi devices display the status Online and not Provisioning after making changes. Then reboot 1Home Server, Matter hub and your phone, before testing the setup again.

Checklist:

1. Disable Settings -> WiFi -> Global AP Settings -> AP Site Settings -> Wireless Meshing

   Reasoning for disabling wireless meshing

   Wireless meshing connects different UniFi AP together wirelessly instead of via Ethernet. This in practice is not used since usually you have your AP connected via Ethernet cable to a network switch. Having this option enabled uses up the radio spectrum unnecessarily and in the case of mDNS, usually drops or significantly affects multicast IP traffic.

2. Disable Settings -> WiFi -> <Your WiFi> -> Advanced Configuration -> :

   • Multicast Enhancement
   • Multicast and Broadcast Control
   Reasoning for disabling multicast related options

   Multicast Enhancement

   This option converts multicast to unicast traffic. Unicast DNS-SD traffic is sometimes not supported very well in certain DNS-SD implementations since the primary use-case for this technology is backed by multicast.

   Multicast and Broadcast Control

   With this option enabled, you need to manually whitelist each device on your LAN in order to advertise it's mDNS network services. Since Matter uses mDNS DNS-SD extensively it is recommended that you disable this option to prevent situations where the network administrator forgets to add a device to the whitelist.

3. Disable Settings -> Networks -> Global Network Settings -> Multicast DNS

   Reasoning disabling Multicast DNS option in global settings

   Selecting various Networks (LANs) here will instruct UniFi to forward multicast traffic between LANs. While there is nothing particularly wrong with using this feature, it usually masks other network configuration issues which could affect Matter network services. If you leave this option enabled, make sure that network services are also actually reachable i.e. firewall rules allow not just mDNS DNS-SD discovery but also communication with the advertised network service.

4. Disable Settings -> Networks -> Global Network Settings -> IGMP Snooping

   Reasoning for disabling IGMP snooping

   Having this feature enabled will improve network efficiency by forwarding the multicast traffic to only those devices that are listening to a specific multicast group. When using WiFi devices this feature can negatively affect multicast traffic when roaming between various WiFi access points.

5. Under Settings -> Networks -> <Your Network> -> DHCP -> Domain Name make sure that the value is NOT local

   Reasoning for not using .local as your network DNS domain

   The .local domain is reserved for mDNS and should not be used by DNS. You can leave this field empty.

Still having issues? Submit a bug report ​

If the above steps didn't solve your issue, please contact our support with the following details:

1. Screenshots of your network configuration in your router settings
2. Description of your network topology. This is often times visible as a diagram in your router settings (e.g. in UniFi). Include IP addresses of the Matter hub and 1Home Server.
3. Brand and model of the networking equipment that you use (eg. Ubiquiti UniFi: UXG-Pro, USW-16-POE and 3x U6 Lite AP).
4. Logs downloaded from the 1Home Server dashboard, that you downloaded after reproducing the issue.
   • ⚠️ Before you start the pairing process, first go under "System -> View logs -> Set log level -> and set 'Matter library level' to "automation". After you download the logs, don't forget to put logs back to "error" level, to avoid unnecessary workload on your Server.

You can report those details using our 1Home Server Bug Report Form, selecting Issue with smart assistant -> Connectivity (no response, ...).

This way our support and technical team will be able to more efficiently troubleshoot the underlying problem and provide recommendations on how to solve the issue.