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I have some smart plugs that I recently installed at my employer's office to deal with some remote-management issues we were having. I used two different brands (the GE one and the Belkin/WeMo one). They have different vendor apps for setting them up, and I've linked both accounts to my Google Home.

The problem is that the plugs are frequently going into a "not responding" state, where I can't control them, sometimes for hours, both in Google Home and in the vendor-specific apps. The plugs continue to work during this state, in that they're supply power to the connected appliances. I suspect that the wifi in the office may be disconnecting them (I'm using the office's "Guest" network). Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this, or what policies the WAP/network might be using that are interfering with the functioning?

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  • Does the guest network have any sort of captive portal, filtering or rules (e.g. no guest access outside office hours)? What sort of network control/inspection tools do you have?
    – hardillb
    Apr 15, 2021 at 18:27
  • hmm. I wonder if they need a software update. Check your product manual to figure out how to update. That may need a less busy environment wifi-wise such as your home. While you're at it, try another brand and see if you have the same issue. This for example. BTW, is there a pattern to when it stops working and when it works again ? One other issue may be that the devices are getting hacked after some time.
    – kalyanswaroop
    Apr 15, 2021 at 19:41
  • Some notes: The office is almost empty, due to Covid, so traffic's not an issue. It is rare for all 4 plugs go to into not-responding; usually just one, from either brand. They're all plugged into the same power strip, in the same room. The firmware is all updated. No pattern I've detemined in terms of downtime.
    – Steve Broberg
    Apr 15, 2021 at 23:50
  • @hardillb: Since usually only one of the four goes offline, it can't be office hours. As for investigation tools - None that I know of, but I'll take suggestions.
    – Steve Broberg
    Apr 15, 2021 at 23:51

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I use a combination of Belkin/Wemo and other devices that are inexpensive and have had the same issues. My solution was to flash them with Tasmota: https://tasmota.github.io/docs/.

This fixed my issue with them being unresponsive but of course, I broke the vendor cloud connection.

My solution was to use homeassistant: https://www.home-assistant.io/ to manage my automations.

The above combination allows me to control my devices through Alexa using voice commands and I also have things managed by various schedules etc.

There is a pretty large community for Tsmota and homeassistant as well.

Hope this helps.

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