Connecting your Home Center to your router enables your Fibaro system to be controlled from mobile devices in your home.  Connect your router to the Internet, and now your Fibaro system can be controlled from anywhere in the world.

Each device on your network has a unique address – its IP address.  There are three ways your Home Center can get an IP address.

  • Via DHCP – the default
  • Giving it a Static IP
  • Forcing it to the factory assigned static IP
config-lan

WAYS TO SET THE HOME CENTER'S IP ADDRESS

To change the way you IP address is assigned, open the LAN Settings page on your Home Center:

LANsettings
  1. Click Configuration in the top menu bar
  2. Click LAN Settings in the menu on the left

Below we will refer to all the fields on this page except the last: "Remote access".  For more information on remote access, see our page on Setting up remote access.

DHCP

The default behavior of your Home Center when you first unpack it and plug it in, is to retrieve its IP address via DHCP.  This mode can also be selected by changing the Connection Type box on the LAN Settings page to "DHCP".

In this mode, the Home Center will send a request out onto the network asking the DHCP server (normally your router) to set aside a new IP address which the Home Center can use.  The DHCP server will look at the pool of addresses it has available, choose one, and give it to the Home Center.  The address will then 'belong' to the Home Center for a set amount of time, after which the Home Center will need to request to have it renewed.  (A bit like borrowing a book from the library.)

The DHCP server may renew the same address, or it may give the Home Center a different address from the address pool. In this way, the address of the Home Center is not fixed and may change at any time, however it is flexible and will work on any network it is plugged into.

To find the address of a Home Center configured in this way, you use the Fibaro Finder.

Static IP Address

If you require your Home Center to be on a specific IP address or you don't have a DHCP server on your network, you need to set your IP address to be static.

To set this mode, change the Connection Type on the LAN Setting page to "Static IP" and fill in the Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS boxes.

In Static IP mode, the Home Center will not ask your DHCP server for an address, it will use the address (and other details) that you specify for it.  You must make sure that the address that you use is not one of the addresses that your DHCP server has in its pool.  Otherwise the DHCP server may give out the address your Home Center is using to another device and you will get address conflicts.  You will need to refer to your DHCP server's settings to know what addresses are part of its address pool.

The Subnet, Gateway and DNS settings are generally the same as those issued by your DHCP server – you should not need to change these.

Once you have changed these settings, your Home Center will need to restart.  Once complete, you can now access your Home Center with its new static IP address.

If you ever need to move this Home Center to a different router, make sure you change the connection type back to DHCP first so that it will get an automatic address on the new network – the old network and the new may not be compatible.

If you ever forget the address you specified, you can find it using the Fibaro Finder.

Forced Static IP Address

It is possible to set the IP address to a factory defined, static IP address.  This mode is used when you don't have a router and your Home Center is in DHCP mode or has a Static IP address that you can't remember and you want to connect with a network cable directly to a computer.

To enter this mode, press and hold the Learn button (it looks like a + on the back of the Home Center) for 10 seconds.

When in this mode, the IP address is set to 192.168.81.1.

Connecting to the factory set IP address

If you have pressed the Learn button for 10 seconds, or when you use Fibaro Finder, it reports that the address is 192.168.81.1, then you need to adjust the settings on your computer in order to be able to connect to your Home Center.

Changing your network settings on a PC
  1. Click on your network connection near your clock.
  2. Click Open Network and Sharing Center
  3. Click Change adapter settings
  4. Right click on Local Area Connection
  5. Click Properties
  6. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
  7. Click Properties
  8. Take note of the settings here as you will need to change them back later
  9. Click Use the following IP address
  10. In the IP address box, enter 192.168.81.5
  11. In the Subnet mask box, enter  255.255.255.0
  12. In the Default gateway box, enter 192.168.81.1
  13. Click OK
  14. Click Close
  15. There will be a delay while the settings are processed.
Changing your network settings on a Mac
  1. Open System Preferences
  2. Click Network
  3. Click Advanced
  4. Click TCP/IP
  5. Make a note of all the settings we are about to change – you will need to change them back later.
  6. In the Configure IPv4 box, select Manually
  7. In the IPv4 Address box, enter 192.168.81.5
  8. In the Router box, enter 192.168.81.1
  9. Click OK
  10. Click Apply
Once you have changed your computer's network settings, you will be able to connect to your Home Center by going to 192.168.81.1 in your browser.

You then need to change the network settings back to DHCP or give the Home Center an IP address from your standard network.

  1. Connect to your Home Center by typing 192.168.81.1 in your browser
  2. Log in to the Home Center
  3. Click Configuration in the menu bar at the top
  4. Click LAN Settings in the menu on the left
  5. Select DHCP from the Connection Type box
  6. Click the blue save icon on the right of the screen Save Button - Active

The settings will be changed and you will no longer be able to access the Home Center using 192.168.81.1

You will now need to change your network settings back to what they were before.  Follow the same procedure you used to set the IP address to 192.168.81.5, but change the details back to what you wrote down.

You will now be able to use Fibaro Finder to locate your Home Center and connect to it normally.