This article addresses the networking issue of the Bobcat Miner 300.
Check Bobber App/Web Dashboard Status
The Web Dashboard function of the Bobber App allows you to keep an eye on all of your miners’ connection status remotely.
No matter where your miner is, just log in to the dashboard to see if it’s online!
To keep an eye on your miners, download the Bobber app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
If your miner shows offline status, you can try the following simple troubleshooting steps to bring it back online:
- Check to see if the miner has power and that the LEDs are functioning normally. Check out our article on Miner LED for an explanation of LED status.
- Verify the internet connection is working and there are no ISP issues
- Reboot both the miner and the router it is connected to
- Test the WiFi connection using another device if your miner is connected via WiFi
- Unplug and re-seat both ends of the Ethernet cable if your miner is connected via Ethernet cable, and ensure there are activity lights on both ports
- If still not online, proceed to the next step to check your router’s connected devices page
Check Router’s Connected Devices Page
If your miner won’t turn on, make sure your router has picked it up. Most routers will have a “connected devices” or “LAN device list” section which will show all devices on your home network that the router can communicate with.
Look for the miner in the list of devices:
- Bobcat Miner 300: Typically listed as bobcatminer
- Bobber 500: Typically listed as bobber-gateway
If you need assistance with logging into your router, or finding information in your router please reach out to your ISP. Bobcat can’t help with your specific internet connection because there are so many different routers and ISP-specific settings available. In addition, some ISPs mandate that you use an app or website to access configuration rather than the local router webpage while logged into your account. In these situations, you shouldn’t ever give a support agent your login details for assistance! Protect your login information!
If your miner is shown in the list of devices but is still offline, try the following steps:
- Verify that the LED color is not indicating an error. Visit our Miner LED article for a description of LED status. An offline state might result from improper operation of the Helium Miner software.
- For more information, check the local dashboard of your miner: Bobcat Miner 300: Check the Diagnoser by following our instructions on how to access the Diagnoser.
- Restart the router and the miner simultaneously.
- Continue to the following step to ping the miner from the same network. Send the results of the ping test along with a support ticket to Bobcat for additional analysis.
If your miner is not showing in the list of devices:
- Verify that the LED color is not indicating an error. See our article on Miner LED for an explanation of LED status. An offline state may result from improper operation of the Helium Miner software.
- Reboot both the miner and the router
- If your miner is linked to WiFi, check the connection with another device. Instead, for testing purposes, connect the miner using an Ethernet cable.
- If your miner is connected via Ethernet cable, unplug it and then reseat both ends of the cable. Also, make sure both ports have activity lights.
- Try connecting the Ethernet cable to a different port on your router.
- Send a support ticket to Bobcat if the device is still not visible in the list of connected devices so that they can look into it further.
Ping Miner from the Same Network
A quick test called a “ping” is used to see if the connection between two devices—in this case, your miner and the device you are using to perform the ping on, like your laptop—is functioning properly.
A ping asks the target device to respond with an echo by sending several packets to the destination address. Following that, it lets you know if and how long it took to receive the responses.
Your miner must be connected to the same router and be on the same local network as the device initiating the ping in order for it to work. A Command Prompt window should be opened on Windows devices. Open a Terminal window for MAC computers. In the window, type ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where x is the IP address of your miner. Ping 192.168.0.250 as an example.
Refer to the section above on checking your router’s connected devices page to find this information if you’re unsure of the miner’s IP address.
A successful ping will show 0% loss and all pings having replies:
An unsuccessful ping will show a large amount or all packets lost and ping responses such as Request timed out or Destination host unreachable.
NOTE: It is typical to occasionally observe that the first one or two ping replies are lost. The ping command should return 0% loss if this occurs. This is necessary so that your computer can determine which device that IP address belongs to.
Move Miner to DMZ for Testing
If your miner is online but traffic isn’t working properly to it (for instance, Bobcat Support can’t connect, your miner can’t receive OTA updates, proof of coverage isn’t working properly, etc.), your router may have a firewall setting or other packet filtering rule in place that’s preventing traffic from getting to the miner.
It is not advised to completely disable your firewall because doing so will leave your internal network open to threats from the internet. Disabling all firewall rules and filtering for the miner alone is the quickest way to determine if a setting is preventing traffic from the miner. To do this, you’ll need to place the miner in the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ in your router’s firewall settings.
Your router’s firewall has a separate zone called the DMZ that it handles differently from your local network (LAN).
Devices in your LAN are typically free to send traffic to the internet. Return traffic (responses to your requests) is permitted to enter your LAN, but internet-originating traffic is not (unless you set up a port forwarding rule to permit it).
Similar to the internet, the DMZ is a second internal zone. The LAN devices on your network can send traffic to the DMZ and receive traffic back, but requests coming from the DMZ to your LAN are typically denied.
Unlike with the LAN however, traffic originating from the internet is allowed full access to DMZ devices. Devices like servers that need to be reachable from the internet (outside of your home network) as well as from within your home network are typically placed in a DMZ. However, because these devices are exposed to internet traffic, they run the risk of being compromised. As a result, to reduce risks to your LAN, a DMZ zone is used. If a device in the DMZ is compromised, its traffic is not permitted to send to LAN devices without first being requested by the LAN device.
Placing your miner in the DMZ will enable you to determine whether a firewall rule is to blame for your problems because traffic from the internet can freely flow to the DMZ. When a miner is moved to the DMZ, the rules are no longer applied to it, and if the problem goes away, it was probably a firewall rule. The miner can then be moved back to the LAN or left in the DMZ while you try to identify the precise rule that is restricting traffic so that you can disable it only for the miner.
If you need assistance with logging into your router or configuring the firewall/DMZ, please reach out to your ISP. Bobcat cannot help with your specific internet connection due to the wide variety of possible routers and ISP-specific settings. Some ISPs also prohibit using the local router webpage for configurations and instead demand that they be made through an app or website while logged into your account. In these situations, you shouldn’t ever give a support agent your login details for assistance! Don’t lose your login information!
