Flame Boss wifi lesson

OhioEgger · April 2016

I bought a Flame Boss 200 this week. Just finished a great cook of a couple racks of baby backs and thought it might be useful to make a suggestion for anyone thinking of buying this gadget.

First, I've never owned any other temperature controller, because I didn't think they were worth my hard earned money. But I've read so many great comments about the Flame Boss that I decided to try it. And I was blown away by how pleasant it makes the whole experience. I'm the type of person who tends to hover around the Egg and check the temperature every 10-15 minutes, so having the machine do that for me was a huge relief and time saver. It works really, really well.

Now to the problem I experienced. About three hours into the cook, it disconnected from my wifi, despite the fact that it was only about 30 feet from the router and had a very strong signal. OK, not such a big deal, but I couldn't get it to reconnect and had to do the wifi setup all over again. The problem is that I have a very long and complicated password to my wifi network with lots of upper/lower case letter changes, numbers, and plenty of special characters, all randomly collected in the password. That's bad enough using a computer keyboard, but when you only have two buttons and have to scroll through a million choices for each character, it's a royal pain in the Boston butt.

So here's my suggestion. If you use a wifi controller, set up guest access on your wifi network with a shorter, simpler password. Use that to connect the Flame Boss or equivalent. This may be obvious to a lot of the tech-savvy eggers here, but it was a major discovery for me.

Bottom line: I love the Flame Boss, and now that I have it on its own guest wifi access, it's definitely my new favorite toy.

stlcharcoal · April 2016

There's something up with the security setting of your router then, because that's not a problem anyone else is having. I had a customer over the weekend that had to enable a "allow ping from WLAN" or something like that. Also, you may have to click "allow [mac address]" if you have your router locked down to new users.

Do you experience this with any other non-computer/tablet/etc devices?? (e.g. TV, Roku, stereo equip, etc.)

chuckytheegghead · April 2016

Thanks for sharing. I'm still on the fence about controllers.

DeltaNu1142 · April 2016

I've been using my CyberQ for over a year and it connects to my WiFi every time. Every MAC address is filtered, pre-assigned an IP address, and nothing connects to my router that I haven't already added to a whitelist. WPA2 security with a pretty long, complicated password.

I have a separate parallel router for guest access. I don't want my devices on it.

This isn't meant to be a FB vs CyberQ argument--the issue is way more likely on the router end.

@chuckytheegghead , I understand the purist notion of manual temperature control, but a controller with a fan is a real game-changer for low & slow cooks.

@OhioEgger , consider dedicating an IP address to your controller. I use DHCP and allow the router to assign the same IP address each time by the MAC address.

Disclaimer: I'm by no means a network guy. I just learn by repeatedly borking things up until something sticks.

OhioEgger · April 2016

I'm not convinced it's a router issue. The connection was perfectly fine the day I set it up, and it reconnected automatically a couple of days later when I actually did the cook. Three hours later, the connection dropped mysteriously and would not reconnect until I did the setup all over again.

I have several other devices that have never had this issue.

I'll just chalk it up to a random glitch, but will post if it happens again.

dougcrann · April 2016

I have been using the 200 for 6 months or so, never had the problem. Which leads,me to my question...why make your wifi password so complicated? No reason for it to be. Mine came with a 26 key code...very simple to go in and change it.

dougcrann · April 2016

chuckytheegghead said:

Thanks for sharing. I'm still on the fence about controllers.

I swore I would never get one. But after using it....

Some folks make manual temperature control out to be some sort of testosterone powered "I am THE MAN" type of thing...well it ain't. As long as you don't have a big air leak it is very simple. Thing I like about using the controllers is it allows me to pack the Egg with all of the smaller pieces of chunk, so nothing goes to waste. Our Large will struggle to hold 250* with fines....unless of course you put a controller on it. Then there is no struggle.

Want to struggle with temp control? Buy a stick burner....way more difficult than the set and forget nature of the Egg...

billt01 · April 2016

I work in IT for a large regional bank...I also have two wifi Rocks BBQ Stoker II's...

My two cents..

Go out and buy you a cheap wireless router +/- 40 bucks or so...

Create a new wireless BBQ network, DO NOT BROADCAST THE SSID..

Its not connected to the internet and you can create a trusted connection from all your devices that access the isolated wireless BBQ network...no onewill be able to see it...if you are really worried about some hacking into your BBQ network, use MAC address filtering on it...

PM me if you have additional questions....Its what I do

stlcharcoal · April 2016

dougcrann said:

chuckytheegghead said:

Thanks for sharing. I'm still on the fence about controllers.

I swore I would never get one. But after using it....

Some folks make manual temperature control out to be some sort of testosterone powered "I am THE MAN" type of thing...well it ain't. As long as you don't have a big air leak it is very simple. Thing I like about using the controllers is it allows me to pack the Egg with all of the smaller pieces of chunk, so nothing goes to waste. Our Large will struggle to hold 250* with fines....unless of course you put a controller on it. Then there is no struggle.

Want to struggle with temp control? Buy a stick burner....way more difficult than the set and forget nature of the Egg...

Same here.....don't need it, but I really like it.

I egg'd for 10+ yrs before buying one. I had it down and never really had a problem. But then after two 14 hr night shifts of coming home to a cold Egg, I spent the money and never looked back. In each, I lost 20-30# of meat; then with one, it screwed up the food for the birthday party the next day (and the added expense of pricier meat that I could prepare quickly.) That was easily $200-300 down the drain.

A temp "controller" is more cheap insurance (keep the fire alive) to me than actually controlling a specific temp.....that is an added benefit.

I don't need power windows in my truck either, but they sure are nice.

blind99 · April 2016

billt01 said:

I work in IT for a large regional bank...I also have two wifi Rocks BBQ Stoker II's...

My two cents..

Go out and buy you a cheap wireless router +/- 40 bucks or so...

Create a new wireless BBQ network, DO NOT BROADCAST THE SSID..

Its not connected to the internet and you can create a trusted connection from all your devices that access the isolated wireless BBQ network...no onewill be able to see it...if you are really worried about some hacking into your BBQ network, use MAC address filtering on it...

PM me if you have additional questions....Its what I do

@billt01 the FB needs internet access. remote monitoring and control aren't run from a server in the controller, but rather accessed from a webpage (at myflameboss.com)

DeltaNu1142 · April 2016

Yeah. I just pulled up my CyberQ from Trader Joe's. I consider that more than just a nice feature. It's why I didn't go with a standalone controller.

billt01 · April 2016

blind99 said:

billt01 said:

I work in IT for a large regional bank...I also have two wifi Rocks BBQ Stoker II's...

My two cents..

Go out and buy you a cheap wireless router +/- 40 bucks or so...

Create a new wireless BBQ network, DO NOT BROADCAST THE SSID..

Its not connected to the internet and you can create a trusted connection from all your devices that access the isolated wireless BBQ network...no onewill be able to see it...if you are really worried about some hacking into your BBQ network, use MAC address filtering on it...

PM me if you have additional questions....Its what I do

@billt01 the FB needs internet access. remote monitoring and control aren't run from a server in the controller, but rather accessed from a webpage (at myflameboss.com)

Yes I see that about the FB now. That's interesting it doesn't have its own web interface inside the box...if you have firewall in your environment, it may be blocking traffic...

colts124 · April 2016

I will have this same issue. I will start my cook on my wifi network "NETGEAR45." Then I notice it stops working over the internet. I go to my controller and it says "Wifi Status Joining FB" Then it will say configure WLAN? Then I have to manually select my wifi network again. When it's connected properly it says "WIFI NAME (SSID) Netgear45.

blind99 · April 2016

I believe it saves a few wifi profiles and if it loses one it will cycle through the others.

My wifi is not the greatest but so far it has been good at keeping the connection. I have had other wifi devices get kicked off the network by my microwave.

@billt01 you must be the most popular guy in your neighborhood. Home networking drives me absolutely crazy!

billt01 · April 2016

If anyone is ever in the market for a new automatic draft controller, I highly recommend the stoker....

OhioEgger · May 2016

colts124 said:

I will have this same issue. I will start my cook on my wifi network "NETGEAR45." Then I notice it stops working over the internet. I go to my controller and it says "Wifi Status Joining FB" Then it will say configure WLAN? Then I have to manually select my wifi network again. When it's connected properly it says "WIFI NAME (SSID) Netgear45.

OK, it's good to know that at least one other person had the same problem.

FWIW, it has been working fine since that incident, so maybe the solution is just keeping my fingers crossed while cooking?

Flame Boss wifi lesson

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