Why won’t my gateway connect?
Gateway Unreachable
When a gateway is unreachable, this is normally because the gateway is unable to connect to the Internet. The gateway’s lights are the best starting point to discover why the gateway has lost Internet connection.
Important!
Please contact Pelican Technical Support before sending a warranty requesting or replacing a gateway. For those extremely rare situations where the gateway does need to be replaced, we can assist with important steps you must take before installing the replacement gateway.
None of the gateway's lights are on.
This is normally an indication of a power issue. First, confirm the gateway is connected to power.
If the gateway is connected to an active power source, but none of the lights turn on, this could be a bad power plug or an inactive electrical outlet.
The gateway uses a standard micro-usb 5V power supply (similar to an older smartphone’s charger). A quick test is to use a different micro-usb power supply. If this works and you would like us to send you a new Pelican power supply, Pelican Technical Support can issue a warranty replacement power supply to be sent to you.
LAN light continues to blink.
When the gateway first gets power, its LAN light will begin to blink. This indicates it is waiting to be provided a DHCP IP address from the Internet router/switch it is connected to.
If the LAN light continues to blink and does not go solid, this is normally an indication that either the router/switch’s port is not active and/or there is no active DHCP server to provide the gateway with an IP address. A conversation with your IT department will be required to assist with remedying either of these issues.
Note: If your IT department requires the gateway to have a static IP address, click here for more information.
Some additional lights to look at to help further:
The light left of the gateways Ethernet plug: Should be solid green. This indicates the gateway is connected to an active and usable Internet port. If this is off or blinking, then the port is not active.
The light right of the gateways Ethernet plug: Should be occasionally blinking yellow. This indicates that there is activity between the gateway and the router/switch port it is plugged into. If this light is off, then the port it is plugged into is not active.
LAN light went solid, but the Internet light continues to blink.
Once the gateway has an IP address, its LAN light will remain solid green and its INTERNET light will begin to blink. This blinking indicates the gateway is trying to connect to Pelican’s cloud servers. The INTERNET light should go to solid green within 5 to 10 minutes.
If the LAN light does not go to solid green, instead it continues to blinking, this is normally an indication that there is a firewall blocking Outbound Internet connections. A conversation with your IT department will be required to assist with remedying this issue.
Note: If your IT department wants to know what Outbound port’s the gateway uses, click here for more information.
The LAN light is flickering (a really fast blink).
Note: This is different than the LAN light blinking slowly. A slow LAN light blink is explained above under LAN light continues to blink. A flickering LAN light indicates the power supply for the gateway is bad.
The gateway uses a standard micro-usb 5V power supply (similar to an older smartphone’s charger). A quick test is to use a different micro-usb power supply. If this works and you would like us to send you a new Pelican power supply, Pelican Technical Support can issue a warranty replacement power supply to be sent to you.
If the both the gateway's LAN and INTERNET lights are solid.
This does NOT mean you have a bad gateway. Here are some common reasons why the gateway’s LAN and INTERNET lights are solid, but you still have Unreachable Thermostats.
Duplicate IP Addresses:
This is something your IT department can assist with. Duplicate IP addresses are like two people being given the same phone number from a cellular provider. If someone is trying to call that number, it is a gamble on who will actually get the phone call. Sometimes person A answers the phone and other times person B will answer. This is an issue, but is easily remedied by re-issuing IP addresses or restarting the DHCP server.
How can an IT professional determine if this is the issue?
With the Pelican gateway plugged in, provide the IT professional with the gateways MAC address (this is different than the gateway’s serial number and is labeled MAC on the gateway). Using the MAC address, your IT professional can do a discovery to find the gateway’s IP address. Have the IT professional PING the gateway’s IP address to confirm it is active. Then remove the gateway’s Ethernet plug and have the IT professional PING the IP address again. If this IP address is still ping-able, then there is another device using the same IP address as the gateway.
The NAT session timer is too short:
This is something your IT department can assist with. A NAT session timer limits the length of time a device retains its current Internet connection (a session). If the timer is set too short, then it cut’s off the gateways connection to Pelican’s cloud servers before data transfers can complete, which creates an issue because now only partial data is being delivered.
How can an IT professional determine if this is the issue?
Because NAT is a firewall feature, there is no standard approach to check this. But, you can have your IT department check the NAT session timer setting and either increase it to at least 1 hour or exclude the Pelican gateway from these session limits.