Geofence

[terk]

With BI4 I was unable to use BI's Geofencing options without the webserver port open through my router and the app setup to use my external IP and port when not on the LAN. I wanted to use only a VPN connection without the port open on the router so I used my home automation hub to manage the BI profiles for me since that hub could do Geofencing without opening a port. If you had the port on your router open and your app so it could connect over cellular without opening the VPN tunnel I'm guessing the Geofence options would work as expected. If you have a home automation hub like ST or Hubitat it is pretty easy to have them change the BI profile when their security mode changes so you wouldn't need to have the port open on your router.

[plongson]

Well guys...you are doing better than me...I can't get ANYTHING to work. Entry, exit yada, yada. Essentially it is jacked up and of no use. I sure wish someone (Ken??) from BI would chime in and spend time to get this great feature working.

[TimG]

Well mine is working quite well now. I will try to write down some of the settings at the weekend.

BI5 shows I entered my geofence at 16:05 today, which is correct, but I don't recognise the IP address it shows on my mobile phone. It's not my home internal or external IP

The big thing for me seemed to be allowing the mobile phone to use full power for BI. My "enter" info was the standard info.

[HeneryH]

but I don't recognise the IP address it shows on my mobile phone. It's not my home internal or external IP

Is it your cellular IP?

[plongson]

I checked and it doesn't look like I'm restricting power settings for BI of anywhere else. I'm sporting a Samsung Note8. What power settings are you referring to specifically?
I'd sure like to get the geosetting up and running again.

[TimG]

Hi plongson,

It was here:

I had a good look at my android phone, and found location services were ON, but set to "battery saving" which must cut out GPS and just use the mobile phone masts. After setting that to normal, and then putting the phone geofencing off, then on at 50M, I'm in(side) !

I have a Galaxy S7, and "Connections/Location" is now set to "High accuracy". If I click on that, it opens another window, where I can see "Recent location requests" which has Blue Iris, and Google services named.

Does that help ?

[TimG]

And for Heneryh,

Is it your cellular IP?

Doh! Must think before posting

[plongson]

Tim, Still no joy here. My settings seem to be the same as yours but still no geofence. It's not looking good...

[boomer]

I have geofencing working on BI 5. In order for it to recognize you leaving and returning you need to have a method for it to stay in contact with your phone remotely. There are several ways I can think of. You can go thru the webserver and setup remote, use a DDNS server account of your own. I am not sure if UPNP works on BI. I setup a DDNS account with a special port poked thru my firewall for geofencing and remote access for the app. The apps geofence needs to communicate with the BI server. Mine was on the blink 5-6 months ago, but has worked fine since about May with no issues. I was running V4 and have been on BI 5 for a week or so. I am using iPhones though. It must have a method to communicate with your phone. A good check will be if you can access the server functions remotely with your app. The other things you need to do are setup the entrance for geofence to run a certain profile and to run a different one for exit of geofence. There are many varilables and reasons why this may not work. So it is best to start with one phone and get it working before you introduce a second phone to contend with.

[boomer]

The other thing to check is your radius (on your app). The default is 50 m and I think that is too close to the house. I suggest either 200 or 400 m. Close enough to not leave you too exposed but far enough that it does not get confused.