Unable to communicate with the HKC App

van_beano

Hey folks,

Quick one for those that have a clue about these things.

I’ve the HKC alarm 1070 set-up with the GSM add-on for 2 years now.

All has been running ok, subscription is up to date etc. However, I have been unable to log into the HKC App all day, I have managed to log in a couple of times but most of the time I just get the “SecureComm is unable to communicate...” message.

But, I do get notifications from the App about alarm armed / disarmed etc.

Can anyone think of why this is? Are HKC having issues with the sim-cards or something?

Thanks for your help.

kennethsmyth

van_beano wrote: »

Hey folks,

Quick one for those that have a clue about these things.

I’ve the HKC alarm 1070 set-up with the GSM add-on for 2 years now.

All has been running ok, subscription is up to date etc. However, I have been unable to log into the HKC App all day, I have managed to log in a couple of times but most of the time I just get the “SecureComm is unable to communicate...” message.

But, I do get notifications from the App about alarm armed / disarmed etc.

Can anyone think of why this is? Are HKC having issues with the sim-cards or something?

Thanks for your help.

Getting same issue for two days, this is not good enough hkc

van_beano

It’s now telling me this morning that my password is incorrect.

kennethsmyth

Seems to be back up now, bank holiday issues probably.

However interesting to note I also use texts as well as app and these texts had no affects while the app had issues. Do our texts need confirmation through the servers?? Or does the panel confirm with server when texts sent.

Odds are actually that HKC must of had issues with their sim supplier. But I logged into the alarm in engineer mode when this issue occurred earlier and it said gsm was fine

van_beano

Thanks Kenneth, I don’t have the engineer code myself so would need to contact the installer, fun times on a bank holiday!

I have no idea why it’s telling me that the password is incorrect now, worried about setting it with the fob now in case I can’t turn it off!

kennethsmyth

van_beano wrote: »

Thanks Kenneth, I don’t have the engineer code myself so would need to contact the installer, fun times on a bank holiday!

I have no idea why it’s telling me that the password is incorrect now, worried about setting it with the fob now in case I can’t turn it off!

Password is different to the PIN number to turn off, the pin you use in the app just denotes who turned alarm off or on. Is your fob pin based or just one button off on?

van_beano

kennethsmyth wrote: »

Password is different to the PIN number to turn off, the pin you use in the app just denotes who turned alarm off or on. Is your fob pin based or just one button off on?

I have a fob for it that works and also can key in the code on the keypad.

Shouldn’t have re-installed the App so as I’ve no idea what the PIN to get in is. Was thinking it was just the normal pin number

kennethsmyth

van_beano wrote: »

I have a fob for it that works and also can key in the code on the keypad.

Shouldn’t have re-installed the App so as I’ve no idea what the PIN to get in is. Was thinking it was just the normal pin number

The fob can be pin protected so say your fob is found it cannot be used to under alarm without putting in zero and then pin.

The password you need for app relates to password put in a different section in your alarm panel- engineer should have given you this and also the installation id, if they didn’t then the engineer will have to give it to you if they recorded it or to put in a new password or check old one on panel. If you weren’t given this on setup I’d be asking them for it.

van_beano

kennethsmyth wrote: »

The fob can be pin protected so say your fob is found it cannot be used to under alarm without putting in zero and then pin.

The password you need for app relates to password put in a different section in your alarm panel- engineer should have given you this and also the installation id, if they didn’t then the engineer will have to give it to you if they recorded it or to put in a new password or check old one on panel. If you weren’t given this on setup I’d be asking them for it.

I have the installation ID alright but no PIN. Never had this issue before so I always presumed the PIN would be my normal PIN. Thanks for your help.

kennethsmyth

van_beano wrote: »

I have the installation ID alright but no PIN. Never had this issue before so I always presumed the PIN would be my normal PIN. Thanks for your help.

Just be clear with the details for engineer- pin is the code for key panel or logins to app once app is setup.

Password is in the are setup on app along with installation id. This password can be numbers or letters - mine is letters as I have my engineer pin

van_beano

kennethsmyth wrote: »

Just be clear with the details for engineer- pin is the code for key panel or logins to app once app is setup.

Password is in the are setup on app along with installation id. This password can be numbers or letters - mine is letters as I have my engineer pin

Thanks for all the advice Kenneth, I managed to figure it out now. It's all up and working again.

Joe Public

I can't access my HKC alarm via the phone app either but if I set off an alarm it will send the texts to my phone and app ok and then the app will connect.
Then I left it for a few minutes and can't connect.

Looks like something wrong at HKC?

kennethsmyth

Joe Public wrote: »

I can't access my HKC alarm via the phone app either but if I set off an alarm it will send the texts to my phone and app ok and then the app will connect.
Then I left it for a few minutes and can't connect.

Looks like something wrong at HKC?

Mine seems to be ok now if a little slow to connect but yes while I had the issue I still received notifications

manster

Down for me tonight also

hatchman

From HKC after I contacted them. "At the moment there’s a cellular network issue that we have been made aware of this morning, our technical team are following up on this so hopefully this should kick in again today."

KoolKid

Im confused. How does a cellular issue affect all networks. These units are supposed to use international SIM cards. Also what happened to the WiFi/IP connection?
Very strange

Joe Public

KoolKid wrote: »

Im confused. How does a cellular issue affect all networks. These units are supposed to use international SIM cards. Also what happened to the WiFi/IP connection?
Very strange

The GSM route was definitely an issue.

Was the WiFi route also affected?

van_beano

Joe Public wrote: »

The GSM route was definitely an issue.

Was the WiFi route also affected?

I don't have the WiFi route so don't know

KoolKid

If you are going to be paying for a service , I'd be expecting duel path.
Its hard to get a rational explanation from them for some things. Its either something generic like cellular network issues or their reason for charges a while back was they were rolling out fiber across Europe,:eek::eek::D:D

Stoner

KoolKid wrote:

If you are going to be paying for a service , I'd be expecting duel path. Its hard to get a rational explanation from them for some things. Its either something generic like cellular network issues or their reason for charges a while back was they were rolling out fiber across Europe,

Koolkid, you are a professional installer aligned to other products.

You have defended the products you supply and install in a similar way, I've closed threads about different manufacturers that centred around very similar issues.

With comments about painful HKC sensors on one thread and the remarks above we will end up losing all the good ground we have made up since all the flaming issues we've had in the forum.

Please keep this in mind when posting.

I explained that I would bring this up if it was raised when I closed the thread on a GSD network issue some time ago.

Good for the goose is good for the gander.

KoolKid

As a professional installer my professional opinion is a paid for service should have redundancy in more than one comms path at least.
For the record, I am not aligned to , nor have I any commercial agreements in place with any panel manufacturer.

van_beano

It must be a weekend thing with HKC now, communication with the App has been slow the last couple of days and now it’s started not communicating at all.

Stoner

KoolKid wrote:

As a professional installer my professional opinion is a paid for service should have redundancy in more than one comms path at least.

Please don't take this down a technical route or use your reply to generate further criticisms of a system your commercial competitors install.

I was referring to the reasons why a system can go down. You defended another manufacturer when their system went down, here you did the opposite.

In the other case I agreed with you, closed the thread and reminded you that other manufacturers should be afforded the same courtesy if and when that happens.

I'm simply following up on that and ask that you do the same. We need to keep things fair on the forum.

KoolKid

Most of my commercial competitors would install most systems also.
I think a paid for service like this should have back up of a second path. I'd consider that a fair comment.
The comments that I am commercially aligned to any single manufacturer or suggestions I have commercial agreements with any manufacturer is not true and unfair comment in my opinion.
I'm not going to get into an argument about it. Just putting across some facts.
I won't be posting in this thread again.

kub

KoolKid wrote: »

Most of my commercial competitors would install most systems also.
I think a paid for service like this should have back up of a second path. I'd consider that a fair comment.
The comments that I am commercially aligned to any single manufacturer or suggestions I have commercial agreements with any manufacturer is not true and unfair comment in my opinion.
I'm not going to get into an argument about it. Just putting across some facts.
I won't be posting in this thread again.

Sorry just to correct you there.
I take it that this " paid for service " you are referring to is the HKC Securecomm service.
Ok, just so you are aware, there are actually 4 paths.
HKC recommend of course that panels are kept up to date with regard to software etc.
It might be best that those on this thread who are experiencing these issues, contact their Installers as a simple software upgrade may be all that is required.

hatchman

Would a software update to my panel have prevented the cellular outage last weekend ?

van_beano

hatchman wrote: »

Would a software update to my panel have prevented the cellular outage last weekend ?

Same question. How’s this weekend Hatch? Hit and miss with me, have e-mailed HKC myself, nothing back and my installer has gone so far underground that he’s probably in Oz now.

What are our options with a HKC system for better self monitoring?

van_beano

I’ve edited my last message a couple of times so don’t want to add to the same message. Just writing a new one.

I’m away from my home for a few days. I do not have control over my home alarm at the moment nor did I leave keys/fob with a neighbour Incase the alarm goes off.

Generally speaking, HKC has been stable, are they experiencing over subscription at the moment or something?

All I want, plain and simple, is a system that I can log into remotely.

Edit: Back working again now 🀔

Joe Public

kub wrote: »

Sorry just to correct you there.
I take it that this " paid for service " you are referring to is the HKC Securecomm service.
Ok, just so you are aware, there are actually 4 paths.
HKC recommend of course that panels are kept up to date with regard to software etc.
It might be best that those on this thread who are experiencing these issues, contact their Installers as a simple software upgrade may be all that is required.

"4 paths" - I'm curious, can you explain the 4 paths please?

bk

Joe Public wrote: »

"4 paths" - I'm curious, can you explain the 4 paths please?

Yes, I'm curious about that to. What I think he means is that you can opt to install one or a combination of the following "paths":
- IP over wired broadband
- IP over GSM
- SMS over GSM
- Voice dialer over phoneline.

Personally I wouldn't really consider those 4 paths. As while not exactly the same, they largely overlap on the same physical networks.

IP over GSM and SMS over GSM are both using the mobile network. If the mobile network is down or jammed, they both fail.

Likewise, most people get both their broadband and landline phone service over the same physical line (Usually Eir or Virgin Media) so if your line is cut, etc. then you would lose both IP over wired broadband and voice dialler over phoneline.

Also while it is technically possible, it certainly wouldn't be normal to install more then two of the above. The most recent communicator that HKC make and sell is a dual path IP over GSM and wired broadband.

2G and anaologue phone lines are going to be going away over the next few years, so I wouldn't be making an investment in those.

BTW I agree with what was said above, any new alarm system should come with wifi/ethernet IP, remote app and notifications for free, out of the box. It is simply table stakes for any modern alarm system IMO.

Dual path and frequent polling can then be optional extras for those who want it.

markm5ireland

I have been having issues trying to get into the App all weekend eventually saying cannot communicate..anyone else