What is the difference between LAN and AP?

[PotatoPig]

Just got my first lights and setting them up, in the manual I see there are two connection options - LAN and AP.

What are these and what’s the difference between the two?

 

[JoJosReef]

Just got my first lights and setting them up, in the manual I see there are two connection options - LAN and AP.

What are these and what’s the difference between the two?

AP is "access point". It is a wifi signal that the Noop light sends out. You can connect to it's AP signal to set the light up in the App. Kind of like bluetooth, just not quite as easy.

LAN is connecting the light to your wifi network (think it has to be 2.4ghz) and then you connect your phone to the same wifi network to control the lights through the App.

Both have worked for me, but I just find AP mode easier since I have multiple Noops not all running the same schedule, so I just connect to wach light individually.

Hope that helps! Others please chime in if I made an error.

 

[tdog]

AP should be a WiFi connection, and LAN should be a hardwired connection. Does it have an Ethernet port?

 

[JoJosReef]

AP should be a WiFi connection, and LAN should be a hardwired connection. Does it have an Ethernet port?

They don't have ethernet ports to my knowledge, at least none I've seen. Both modes are wifi based. I think they just call it LAN even though it's meant to be your home wifi vs. AP which is meant to be the light's internal wifi. At least that's my understanding.

 

[Gtinnel]

AP is "access point". It is a wifi signal that the Noop light sends out. You can connect to it's AP signal to set the light up in the App. Kind of like bluetooth, just not quite as easy.

LAN is connecting the light to your wifi network (think it has to be 2.4ghz) and then you connect your phone to the same wifi network to control the lights through the App.

Both have worked for me, but I just find AP mode easier since I have multiple Noops not all running the same schedule, so I just connect to wach light individually.

Hope that helps! Others please chime in if I made an error.

Sounds right to me.

 

[Aaron75]

Just got my first lights and setting them up, in the manual I see there are two connection options - LAN and AP.

What are these and what’s the difference between the two?

The difference is AP works and Lan doesn't. Lol in all seriousness, the first answer with access point vs wifi connection is correct. I just wish I could get LAN to work

 

[Thumbster]

The difference is AP works and Lan doesn't. Lol in all seriousness, the first answer with access point vs wifi connection is correct. I just wish I could get LAN to work

Is there a benefit to using LAN vs AP?

 

[Aaron75]

Is there a benefit to using LAN vs AP?

Ap requires you to connect to the Noopsyche as if it was WiFi. So I have to cancel my current connection, connect to noopsyche network and then change settings. If I was able to set up in LAN, the app operation would be seamless

 

[JoJosReef]

That's my understanding too. If you have three lights connected over home wifi, you can just flip through them in app. With AP, you have to go into settings and select each one's wifi name to connect to the light.

In the end, not a real problem for me because I'm not changing my lights all that often.

 

[Gtinnel]

The difference is AP works and Lan doesn't. Lol in all seriousness, the first answer with access point vs wifi connection is correct. I just wish I could get LAN to work

This has been my experience as well. I can’t separate or disable the 5ghz band on my router so I have never been able to get lan mode to work

 

[Thumbster]

Ap requires you to connect to the Noopsyche as if it was WiFi. So I have to cancel my current connection, connect to noopsyche network and then change settings. If I was able to set up in LAN, the app operation would be seamless

That would have been really convenient during the first couple weeks that I had my lights.

Now that I have them where I want them, and I only have two, it’s not that big a deal to go into my settings once a week if I have to check something.

Question on the LAN though that I haven’t been able to find….if I connect the lights through LAN can I log into them from anywhere or do I still have to be near the lights?

 

[Gtinnel]

Question on the LAN though that I haven’t been able to find….if I connect the lights through LAN can I log into them from anywhere or do I still have to be near the lights?

I was never able to set them up in with lan mode, but my understanding is they can be accessed from anywhere.

 

[Aaron75]

This has been my experience as well. I can’t separate or disable the 5ghz band on my router so I have never been able to get lan mode to work

I have mine separated, different names, different passwords and it still doesn't work

 

[BeanAnimal]

The difference is AP works and Lan doesn't. Lol in all seriousness, the first answer with access point vs wifi connection is correct. I just wish I could get LAN to work

Both modes work - but the applications architecture is garbage.

The light gets a DHCP address from your network and that is cached along with the network name in your phone. If you have multiple lights this gets even more complicated as you have to manually switch IPs to connect to each light.

As well your phone has to be on the same wireless SSID as the light AND AND AND if you have a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz then the phone is likely on the 5Ghz SSID- it doesn't matter if they share the same IP address space, the app will not connect because it THINKS they are different networks so doesn't allow you to even try.

To make this clearer.

Say you have 4 Wifi SSIDs

2.4Ghz - reefLAN
5Ghz -homeLAN
2.4Ghz - officeLAN

All 3 SSIDs are on the 10.0.0.1 network and your DHCP server passes out addresses from 10.0.0.50 to 10.0.0.100

Your iPhone is on homeLAN and 10.0.0.50
Your iPad is on officeLAN 10.0.0.51
The lights are on reefLAN 10.0.0.52 and 10.0.0.53

You can ping the lights from the iPad or iPhone, they are all on the same subnet. However the APPs limitation is that it CAN NOT CONNECT to the lights from the iPhone OR the Pad because it when you set the lights up it stored reefLAN in the settings and checks your phone or iPads SSID NAME instead of IP subnet - and thinks that reefLAN is a different network than officeLAN and homeLAN. It is insanely poor programming and logic and part of the reason that I moved on to GHL Mitras and the 3 noops are sitting in the corner. Nice lights for the most part, crap software.

 

[Thumbster]

Ok.

The “to make this clearer” part must not have showed up on my end. Lol

Thank you for explaining it. It sounds like you are very familiar with this and think it’s crap and that makes my Neanderthal brain feel better.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I have mine separated, different names, different passwords and it still doesn't work

This keeps coming up. Anytime support for for a product tells you that an IoT device must have a dedicated 2.4Ghz SSID and not shared with a 5Ghz - they are uninformed or using a red hearing to avoid explaining that their WiFi chipset is having compatibility or signal issue with your APs radio.

The 2.4Ghz IoT radio can't see the 5Ghz network to begin with, so it can't interfere or band steer, etc.

Ok.

The “to make this clearer” part must not have showed up on my end. Lol

Thank you for explaining it. It sounds like you are very familiar with this and think it’s crap and that makes my Neanderthal brain feel better.

I don't think the lights are crap. I think they are pretty good. I do think that the application is crap and the support mechanism (facebook) is crap.

I also think that they use whatever components are available during each production run, and tweak firmware to match. Too many consistent problems localized in groups, but not the same between each group as they relate to date sold.

I also think that the Wifi chipset is not ideal.

 

[AtlanticGail]

Question
If your using Lan connection and everything is working fine, if your wifi stops operating will the lights still work as normal?

 

[threebuoys]

Question
If your using Lan connection and everything is working fine, if your wifi stops operating will the lights still work as normal?

The settings are stored within the light hardware. So they will continue to operate but you will not be able to change your settings.