Hi,

I've got a companion thread on this over at the Logitech forums: https://community.logitech.com/s/question/0D53100006DwTep/echo-harmony-hub-i-was-unable-to-reach-your-logitech-harmony-hub-other-issues-uk , but there's now some possible commonality in the responses...and it's Draytek/other business class routers; I'm using a Draytek 2860n-plus.

In essence, the Harmony Hub just doesn't play well with an Amazon Echo or Dot and the new "Alexa, tell Harmony to do X" Red skill (I'm in the UK, so it's the only skill we have).

I'd guess the Harmony Hub/Echo/Dot integration works correctly about 20% of the time, the other 80% I get:

• The Echo/Dot telling me "I was unable to reach your Logitech Harmony Hub" (after a prolonged period of the blue, circling, light on top of the Echo)


• One device switched for an activity that has 3 e.g. the lights by the TV will switch on, when the full activity includes those lights, my TV, my amp and my Fire TV box


• The "I was unable to reach your Logitech Harmony Hub" statement from the Echo, followed 30 or so seconds later by the full activity actually being triggered correctly - sometimes makes me jump!

Now...everything else is fine, and the link above includes further details/others experiencing the same problem, but I'm wondering whether anyone on this forum, using Draytek routers, has seen anything similar with this setup?

Thanks.

I'm not sure this is a DrayTek issue seeing as it's entirely a LAN issue. This is not a general technology question forum just because there are lots of helpful/informed users...otherwise we'd have anarchy, drug sellers, charity pleass etc...

I'm temped to remove the thread to avoid helpful users' good will being abused/time wasted as, at the very least, should have posted this to 'irrelevant chatter' unless I have misunderstood.

>> I don't see what this has to do with DrayTek seeing as it's entirely a LAN issue. Y
>> I'm temped to remove the thread to avoid helpful users' good will being abused/time wasted as, at the very least, should have posted this to 'irrelevant chatter' unless I have misunderstood.

You appear to have misunderstood - I've a history of posting on here going back some years, ditto with Draytek products, so I'm actually quite surprised by your response.

I'm not *saying* there's an issue with Draytek routers - for your benefit I've added a "?" to the title - what I'm asking here is if anyone has seen the same with Draytek routers to see if we can identify whether there's a trend, the reason being that it has come up as a common link for nearly all those having problems using an Amazon Echo/Dot with a Harmony Hub.

It may resolve itself to be an issue with Harmony - I suspect and hope it will - but given there's absolutely nothing obvious in any of our setups that identifies what the issue could be, it would be useful to know if other Draytek users are seeing the same...and even what they might have done to resolve it? Hence:

>> I'm wondering whether anyone on this forum, using Draytek routers, has seen anything similar with this setup?

It's a known issue with the UK version of the Harmony skill.

I experience the same issues, and also happen to have a Draytek router, but if you read the reviews of the Harmony Skill in the Alex app, you'll see that the UK version of the Harmony skill is pretty much useless compared to the USA version.

I gave up using it for now.

Ah, interesting, thanks - will have a butchers.

TBH, there were barely any reviews of the Skill when I first picked it up for use, but I haven't checked back there for a while to see later responses.

The thread we have open on the Logitech forums seems to be getting little Logitech technical response either, but a common trend (up to now) is the use of mostly Draytek routers by those seeing it - probably just says more about the sort of people that are trying the skill out "early doors" though, than a router specific issue, though at least one chap has swapped his Draytek router out and is seeing improved performance (could just be a coincidence though, of course).

I'm having the same problem with Draytek Vigor 2860ac (VDSL2). This is not a LAN issue though and I think there is at least some connection to my Draytek Vigor router... To simplify everything we can take Amazon Echo/Alexa skill out of equation completely. The core issue here is that when Harmony Hub is beyond Draytek Vigor Router it is inaccessible from outside the network (via Logitech Cloud) around 60-80% of the time (you can test this by connecting to your hub using Harmony smartphone app via 4G, or WiFi outside your home network). When the hub is inaccessible from outside, it also breaks all third party integration (Alexa skill, Yonomi skill, etc.). These third party services are connecting to the hub via Logitech Cloud, not directly via LAN.

The first obvious answer here would be that there is an issue with Logitech Cloud. However, after days of extensive testing swapping my Draytek 2860 with ZyXEL VMG1312 I found that the issue always occurs when the harmony hub is beyond Draytek router and never occurs when it's beyond ZyXEL router. I'm not drawing any conclusions yet, but simple coincidence is looking less and less likely. I swapped these routers at least 10 times, over 3 or 4 days, every time running multiple tests connecting via Logitech cloud (using Harmony app) and trying Logitech Alexa skill and Yonomi Alexa skill integration. Result is always the same - with Draytek router the Hub is inaccessible from outside the LAN network vast majority of the time and when it is inaccessible all types of external integration fail. With ZyXEL router though, the hub is accessible 100% of the time - I didn't have a single instance when connection to the hub from outside wouldn't work, of Alexa command wouldn't be executed immediately.
To make sure it's not something in my Draytek router config, I tried resetting it to the factory defaults. That didn't make any difference.