AC3200 UPNP/Port Forwarding Problem - Worcester Wave Thermostat

[DBu]

I have just purchased a Worcester Wave [1] Internet connected thermostat to work with my Worcester Bosch boiler here in the UK. The Wave Thermostat connects to a Bosch server at wa2-mz36-qrmzh6.bosch.de [139.15.227.112] according to both Worcester Bosch technical support and the articles on "Hacking the Worcester Wave thermostat in Python" [2]. The protocol used is XMPP (Jabber). Connection to the server is first made automatically as part of the initial setup after the thermostat connects to the WiFi (2.4G). There's also guidance from Bosch [3] that suggests the thermostat uses UPNP to open the necessary ports.

The problem is that the Wave Thermostat fails to connect to the Bosch Server using my AC3200 router running ASUSWRT Merlin v380.69. However it will connect successfully if I use the router provided by my ISP, EE!

To fix the problem I've tried: ensuring UPNP is on; turning the firewall off and setting Port Forwarding on for the XMPP ports 5222 and 5269 to the static address of the thermostat; with no success.

Any help or suggestions on what to do will be appreciated.

UPDATE: This is solved - see below.

Thanks

[1] https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/products/boiler-controls/wave
[2] http://blog.rtwilson.com/hacking-the-worcester-wave-thermostat-in-python-part-2/
[3] https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/literature/download/TB 0104 a

 

[jernau]

As a temporary test how about assigning the device a static IP and then assign it to the DMZ under WAN settings just to see if it can connect, you could then check the connections tab under the system log tab to see what ports are connected for that static IP?

 

[DBu]

Hi Jernau
Thanks for your quick reply. I tried your suggestion of assigning it to the DMZ using the static IP address I set up for it in the DHCP table. I then reset the thermostat which forces it though the startup process, but unfortunately it didn't connect.

 

[jernau]

Really odd dmz didn’t work for you as it should redirect all inbound packets for new connections to the ip you specify. I assume you can ping the thermostat from your LAN? Could try turning off aiprotect if you have that switched on?

 

[DBu]

I can successfully ping the thermostat and aiprotect was already off. I'm going to try a router reset and see if that works.

 

[DBu]

Solved. OpenDNS is the problem - it can't find the Bosch server.
I reset the router to factory defaults, rebooted and it worked - the thermostat could connect to the Bosch Server.
So I gradually started changing the settings to what I had before to try and discover what the problem was and it's OpenDNS. Specifically if you change the DNS Server settings to OpenDNS @207.67.222.222/220 - it wont connect. However if the DNS Server setting is blank (i.e. the ISP default) or Google @8.8.8.8 &8.8.4.4 then it connects.
My conclusions is that OpenDNS can't find the Bosch server (address earlier) for some reason.

 

[jernau]

Great news. You could try setting up DNS filtering then so by default all clients use OpenDNS but put an exception in the filtering for your wave device. That’s how I run my router to have different dns settings for the kids and adults