Aria WIFI Err with set up

[kandrades86]

I have been trying to set up my scales.  I go through almost the whole process until its trying to connect to WIFI and then a "WIFI ERR" shows up on the scales.  I have checked my settings on my modem and it is on WPA2 PSK.  I have also reset the modem more then once and tried the set up various times with no sucess.  Does this have something to do with my modem?  I have never had so many issues trying to set up one of my devices and I am considering just returning your item as I didnt realise I would have so many issues (obviously I dont want to return it).  Can anyone shed any light on this issue?

[gariti]

First I would suggest going through the setup process again with the Aria
if you have done this.

If you're still having issues you may need to go into your router settings
and change the wifi mode like I did. (The process for that depends on what
your ISP / router is)

[CLO22]

Okay, I will look into my router settings. Thank you!

[ECM68]

If you have the Aria first version. It is only compatible with 802.11 b. My
router, from my internet provider. Has a b,g,n mode that (I thought)
should work but didn’t. For the time being, I am using my Aria as a
ordinary bath scale. When I have time I plan to dig through my assortment
of WiFi hardware to see if I still have a router that is compatible.

Hope you find this helpful. If you come up with another solution, e-mail me.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve tried to fix the WiFi err I could
easily pay for an Airia 2 that is compatible with my router. I have tried
every “fix” suggested on the blog with no success. When I get a chance I
will try to find an old router that has a setting compatible with 802.11
b. For the remainder of the holidays I will use my Aria as a dumb scale.

Regards,

Moderator edit: merged reply

[JuanJoFitbit]

@CLO22 Thank you for joining us in this thread and our Fitbit Community! I would like to follow up on this issue and would like to know if you were able to change the router protocol to 802.11b as @gariti mentioned, which is the protocol that the Aria scale needs to be set up.

Looking forward to your response!

[Jjthfuture]

You will delete this comment, but I don’t appreciate seeing repeatedly that you understand how frustrating it is and that we are helping you solve the issue. It’s been a year, the issue is not solved, people are just as frustrated.

[ECM68]

Sorry, I don’t understand. You seem upset when I point out that I have
tried numerous times to reconnect my scale to my network. The approved
proceedure for connecting has not worked for me. My conclusion is that the
Arris modem/router that works with a dozen or more of my other devices, is
for some reason not compatible with my Aria scale. I am traveling now and
can’t do anything with my scale. I appreciate input from other frustrated
Aria owners but at this time there is nothing I can do. If I have somehow
offended you, please accept my apology.

[epkulse]

I changed Internet Provider (and wifisetup) some months ago, and since then the scale has not been working. I have now read through the info in this thread, and tried to apply whatever changes with lowered security (however, I will never reduce to WEP if that´s required), pw without "underscore", 802.11 b only (even though my router seems to only support setting b/g/n). Nothing works.

So, my conclusion is - it ends up in the wastebin forever. Expensive and crappy scale - will never buy anything more from fitbit for sure!

[ECM68]

I know how you feel but the Aria is still a good scale and even if I can’t
clear the WiFi Err message, I’ll probably continue using it.
If I get the wifi working, I’ll post a message.

[JuanJoFitbit]

@epkulse @ECM68 Welcome to our Fitbit Community! I'm sorry that your Aria is also displaying a "WiFi ERR" message. Our team is still working on this issue and looking for a solution. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

[akasharaine]

Tried syncing to my new wifi for about two hours.
My wifi name and password were already simple (no special characters or spaces).

I had to call Rogers and have them set as per previous commenters suggestion
(Updated WIFI 2.4 ghz mode to 802.11 b/g/n (Error was in mode 802.11 g/n))

Rogers did note that this change may slow my connection speeds on other devices, as the /b technology is older. Will see if having the fitbit synced to wifi is worth it. May be bin time.

[JuanJoFitbit]

@akasharaine Welcome to our Fitbit Community! I'm sorry to hear about the setup difficulties you've experienced with your Aria scale. I would like to follow up and would like to know if the issue persists or if your Aria scale is syncing with your network.

I'm afraid that the Aria scale only connects with routers running the protocol 802.11b.

I look forward to your response! 

[ECM68]

I haven’t given up yet. I have a couple of routers to try out. Who knows.
The one thing I am sure of is the lack of support from Fitbit and the
confusing information on the website do not help. Obviously not a priority
for Fitbit.

For now my iphone’s WiFi is crippled by version 12.1.2 of iOS. Perhaps the
new and improved 12.1.3 will make it possible to work the problem with Aria
later this week.

[JuanJoFitbit]

@ECM68 I understand how you feel about this and I appreciate your feedback. Since you mentioned that you will try other routers, please make sure that they run the protocol 802.11b, bandwidth 2.4GHz and the WiFi password is alphanumerical.

I really appreciate your efforts with this.

[ECM68]

Thanks

[carmenr88]

Yesterday, the during a technical with with fitbit, they said I need to connect to b/g/n as I have xfinity- is that correct? I was connected and then it stopped working and now it's saying "wifi err". I did not do anything from when it was connected to now receiving error messages. 

Now are you saying I have to change my password? Why is it that every device and phone connects great, but a scale can't connect? 

I've now spent 3+ hours working on this and I'm giving up. 

[ECM68]

The first gen Aria is only compatible with 802.11 b the earliest protocol
available. The industry began phasing out 802.11b in 2012 as newer faster
hardware became widely available. My understanding is that the b protocol
is very different from what is common today. I have 7 devices using the 2.4
GHz band with g or n protocols. My theory is that as the router transmits
and receives data on g and n devices, there is a lapse in the b protocol,
the scale can’t find the signal and loses the connection long enough to
trigger the WiFi Err.

I have an old router I used when I traveled for business and many hotels
only provided Ethernet connections to the internet. I plugged my ASUS WL330
Ge into the Ethernet and power and had my own WiFi. The router only does b
and g protocols so I am experimenting with setting the SSID as 4aria and
going through the setup on the Fitbit website I was able to briefly get my
scale to connect which is a step in the right direction. When I have time,
I will do more testing but at this point I think the second router, the
older the better.

There are very specific rules on what the scale can work with.
2.4GHz and 802.11 b protocol
SSID and password can only contain letters and numbers
I believe the security has to be WPA2 but I would check to be sure
I plan to test with no security to see if I can get the scale to connect
and if that works, try adding security protocols and passwords until I have
a stable connection.

Is all this worth the trouble? Probably not but it gives me something to
do. 😕

Thanks for the tips to get my scale reconnected. I would like to add my experience for the benefit of frustrated owners of the early version of the Aria scale. I finally decided my router/modem from my internet provider would never work with my Aria. Even in 802.11b,g,n mode.? I dug through all my old WiFi hardware to find a 802.11 b gateway with WPA security. What I have is an ASUS WL-330ge that I used on the road before all motels all went WiFi. They are still available on eBay for a reasonable price and in the advanced settings there is an 802.11b with WPA option. As far as I know this is the best solution short of buying a current model of the Aria. After setting up the ASOS router with a SSID of 4Aria and a nine digit password and connected the ASUS router to my modem/router with an Ethernet cable. I then went to the Fitbit.com/scale/setup site and followed the instructions to connect my Aria. In short after a month of struggling to understand the requirements of Aria and it’s incompatilty with current WiFi hardware, coming up with a a practical solution. If you don’t want to buy the ASUS router I have, start digging in that closet where you keep the stuff you thought you might need someday and look for a 802.11b router. It works if you set it up right but I have to say, the Aria scale is one of the most difficult pieces of technology I’ve seen. User friendly it ain’t. If you have questions feel free to contact me.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[obreezy89]

I'm having this same issue. What is a router protocol and if my router is running the wrong one how do I change it?

[ECM68]

You asked for an explanation of protocols, routers and how to fix the WiFi
Err.

Network routers made it possible for many computers to share one internet
connection. In the beginning routers were connected by Ethernet cables then
WiFi came along and replaced all that annoying cable between devices. Now
it’s done by digital radios. For digital radios to work together to form a
WiFi network there have to be rules and standards for what they can do and
how they do it. These rules and standards that all manufacturers agree to
follow are called protocols. The WiFi communication protocol is called
802.11

As technology evolved over the years there needed to be variations of the
protocol identified by letter codes they started with b which was great
when data was relatively slow but as the market grew and technology
developed faster and faster connections, b couldn’t handle the speed. Newer
protocols developed and we moved on to g and n. Since there was a huge mix
of WiFi hardware installled and it would be expensive to replace all the
old b hardware, if the old hardware would still serve in a particular
application, it would be good if the new router you are designing was able
to talk to all existing (legacy) hardware as well as newer, faster
hardware. They call it 802.11 b,g,n or mixed mode. This as I understand it
is cause of the WiFi Err fault in the Aria scale. The theory is that when
your mixed mode router is trying to serve several devices the router is
jumping sequentially through all three modes to handle all the devices and
their data. Further, when the scale is being paired with a mixed mode
router the router might be switching from b to g to n and fail to complete
the pairing process between scale and router.

In addition to the WiFi Err there is also the problem of the b protocol
being very slow compared to g and n protocols, resulting in slowed
communication through the router. This led me to think forcing our modern
routers to somehow accommodate the scale that only operates in b protocol
was not the solution. It would be simple to plug a second, b only, router
with a different SSID (network name) Into one of the Ethernet ports on our
mixed mode router. The only tricky part is finding an old WiFi router with
an option for running in b only protocol. Fortunately I have a closet full
of old hardware and just happened to have an ASUS WL330 gE which is exactly
what I needed. Once I had the ASUS router configured using a router manual
That I found by googling the router model, it probably took me 15 minutes
to use my iPhone and the Fitbit website to connect my scale. I’ve tested
the scale and everything works.

As I said, I had the perfect modem for this application but I also had a
second b,g,n mixed mode router as a backup. Since the router with, b only,
worked, I never tried the other one. If you have a mixed mode router I
would try it before buying the, b only, router. Having said that, I have
checked eBay and the old ASUS is still available.

Router- ASUS WL330gE sometimes it’s referenced as ge
The router settings I used:
Mode- Gateway
SSID- 4ARIA
WiFi Password - (9 digit number)
Security - WPA
WiFi protocol- (advanced setting) 802.11 b

I know this is long and involved but believe it or not it’s really a
simplified explanation.
I’m sure there are network engineers out there that could and perhaps have
written books on the subject. This is a rough outline of my search for a
solution and the working solution I came up with based on experience and
bits of information gleaned from the work of others on this blog. I’m
charging off the time spent chasing my tail working the WiFi Err problem to
experience. If anyone has a question please feel free to contact me.

Good Luck

[JuanJoFitbit]

@carmenr88 Thank you for joining us in our Fitbit forums and it's great to see you here @obreezy89!

Regarding your question, yes, the Aria scale requires the protocol 802.11b and bandwidth 2.4GHz. Regarding the WiFi password, as long as it's less than 31 characters and doesn't have special characters, is good. Does the password comply with these details?

Also, the information that shared @ECM68 is perfect.

Please let me know if the issue persists!

[ECM68]

Perfect? High praise indeed. 😉

I just hope that it will help other users of the first gen aris get a few
more years out of their scale. To me, the data logging capability is a
valuable tool that made it possible for me to lose weight while my scale
was working. When it lost connection to my WiFi it became easier to ignore
individual readings. Now that I can see the trend of my chart, it motivates
me to keep losing and my last A1c was 6.4.

Thanks for the support from the other members of this blog.