Firewalls are virtual security barriers that regulate network traffic between your devices and the internet. Many routers and internet providers have firewalls enabled by default, so you may have one without ever setting it up or knowing that it was enabled. Usually, if you can freely browse the internet on your other Wi-Fi-dependent devices, your Friendship Lamp shouldn't have any issues going online. However, if your Friendship Lamp is being blocked from connecting or Pulsing blue, a firewall may be responsible.

How do Friendship Lamps interact with firewalls?

Our Friendship Lamp Devices use outbound connections only and communicate to our servers on TCP ports 53, 68, 80, 123, and 443, which are all fairly standard ports used in regular web browsing.

Shared/Public Wi-Fi environments

It's not uncommon for non-personal Wi-Fi networks to have a bit more security, which can sometimes add a step to the normal setup process. If your shared network utilizes a captive portal or requires more than a general password to connect, our article Do I need my own router to use a Friendship Lamp? (Shared networks and hotspots) may be able to help.

Routers and ISPs with past issues

We do know that Spectrum specifically has an inherent firewall in their service. We have had customers have luck bypassing this firewall; you will need to go to the website associated with your VPN, then turn off the firewall. From there you can connect your Friendship Lamp. Once the lamp is connected, you may turn the firewall back on. If your Friendship Lamp ever gets disconnected, you may need to repeat this process to get your Friendship Lamp back online.

If you have a smart router with an app that allows you to regulate which devices are connected to your Wi-Fi, make sure your Friendship Lamp is not being blocked or paused. We've seen this issue with the Netgear Mobile App and the Xfinity app. Our lamps are listed as Espressif IoT or ESP_XXXXXX (Xs are the last 6 digits of your Friendship Lamp Device's ID number) on these apps.

If you have recently updated your Wi-Fi to a mesh network router system and are struggling to reconnect your Friendship Lamp, your lamp may need a firmware update before it can connect to your network. Please contact us with your lamp's ID number and let us know what mesh system you're using.

Questions? Please contact us and we will be happy to help! 

Tags: won't_connect, eero, orbi, meshforce, AmpliFI HD, Tenda NOVA, Google Wi-Fi, nighthawk