SmartLink Login Persistence Issues

Marc

if things go on like this, good by flex & hello again remoterig.com

EA7JQA

I´m looking fordward this is being fixed, they are going to listen me all over the world talking about this.... Flexradio it´s not precisely a cheap radio.

Mike-VA3MW

https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8024566/smartlink-login-issues

EA7JQA

One day now, I couldn´t turn on my flex radio today, never thougth that the sistem was so fragil. I so sad, after spent a lot of money on my remote station, I have to listen to my friend Alex w7hu trought youtube.

Wolfgang

Hi all

I am disappointed and also very surprised that you don't even have a BCM concept or solution for the cloud service SmartLink or even a current backup ot the servers in the cloud with the crypto-keys. We are not able to use our high-end remote station. The fact that this incident now requires a new Windows desktop client shows that there are other challenges here with the current SmartLink solution. I hope that the SmartLink service will be up and running again soon and we can be on the air again.

It would be much easier and more efficient for us as SmartSDR users if we could communicate directly peer-to-peer with the Flex radio instead of using the SmartLink cloud server. Or we have to build our own site-to-site VPN Network in order to use our Flex radios without any cloud services.

We will be happy to pay a yearly license fee for SmartSDR. But dependencies to cloud service are not desired to use the Flexradio.

Best 73 de HB9RYZ, Wolfgang

www.hb9ryz.ch

Ronald Panetta

Given the current SmartLink issue and the need for a upcoming SmartSDR release to correct the issue, I would suggest Flex suggest to customers who have not upgraded to 3.2.34 stand down unless there is functionality critical to them in that update.

73, Ron WB2WGH

Dan-N7HQ

Version 3.2.34 has nothing to do with the current SmartLink issue, which impacts all released versions equally. Customers should upgrade to v3.2.34 to improve stability and fix a bug that prevents static IP addresses from working as intended.

73.

Dan, N7HQ

Wolfgang

Hello Dan,

my statement (see above) is not based on conjecture but on facts. Because if you would have had a working BCM, there would have been no SmartLink service failure. BCM is a risk based management decision whether to invest money and resources in a redundant SmartLink cloud solution and not a pure technical question. From a technical perspective, any cloud solution can be developed and operated redundantly, even complex architecture with encryption keys, etc.. It is a question of effort and management commitment and finally and the right cloud provider choice and SLA.

73 de HB9RYZ, Wolfgang

EA7JQA

The image you are giving is pathetic, you are out of control, you go like a chiken without head. A system who depend thousand of ham operators in whole world can´t be so fragil, greed breaks the sack. Second day I can´t turn on my radio.

EA7JQA

I´m going to try to sell my flex as soon as posible, and come back to my Icom 718 with remoterig, or ts480.... I´m don't goin to acept this hapen again in some other moment.

Gabriel

As Marcus Tullius Cicero told: "Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? "

Dan-N7HQ

Wolfgang,

You are assuming that it was the service in the cloud that failed, and a redundant architecture would have prevented the downtime. It was not the cloud service that failed. All aspects of the service side of Smartlink follow redundant cloud service best practices. A full accounting of this incident will be provided to this community.

Juan (EA7JQA),

We understand the frustration (we are frustrated, too), and you are always welcome to vent constructively here. That comment was not so constructive. Please understand, we are doing everything we can to get SmartLink fixed.

73,

Dan, N7HQ

Mike-VA3MW

I don't think Dan and a few others have had a bunch of sleep lately.

Please keep in mind that any fix needs to be QA'd and tested to make sure it doesn't break anything else. While we want to rush this out, it has to work on all models, Maestros and M models. The good news is that is all going in the right direction.

We don't take this outage lightly and there will be more discussion internally on it once we get it back online. Right now, that is the priority.

For everyone else, we appreciate your patience and for your remote users, we want to get you back online as quickly as possible.

73

EA7JQA

No Dan, I think you have not understood my comments, it is not a question of being constructive or not constructive, my position is not one of opposition and offering alternatives, my position is as a client who demands a correct functioning of his equiment. It´s easy to understand.

Ha Gei

You say :

Our engineers have been working non-stop on this and have isolated the problem to a change in encryption parameters required by our OAuth security vendor. Unfortunately, the fix requires a client-side code change and cannot be mitigated by our cloud services.

As a seasoned IT Manager i must say : I do not believe that some "security vendor" changes something overnight , without announcing this several times before a change occurs. I wonder what excuse you have to this . Didn´t you get a notice. In that case i would have done everything to to convince a takeback of that change to the vendor. And, if it was their fault, use a more reliable one or better :

As others also have said : Take smartlink out of any externals server needs. Give your customers FULL CONTROL over what the have PURCHASED as soon as possible. Otherwise i doubt´s you will stay in business for long when this comes out to the magazines and future customers. also don´t argument that it works inside a network/VPN . Many customer have bought the radio because of it´s remote usability.

Harry

DL9NDW

EA7JQA

"Auth0 gave almost 4 months notice about their TLS 1.0/1.1 deprecation. The SmartLink outage could have easily been avoided." Copy and paste from facebook, Harry....D9NSW
https://auth0.com/docs/product-lifecycle/deprecations-and-migrations?fbclid=IwAR3CetMDYy-9ibYMzm0MyJs7obsOq46WGbZTaMm48JqyXfPkpaay6zYt7_0#legacy-tls-deprecation

Don

My remote station has stopped working. I cannot get my remote software to work. It has worked fine for a couple of years. I cannot get my Maestro to work either. I need help. Will try to create a help request.

Don...W4TO

KD0RC

Hi Don, This is a known issue and Flex is working on it:

https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8024566/smartlink-login-issues

Wolfgang

Hello again

Harry, your words hopefully heard.

If someone is still telling us to use Teamviewer or AndyDesk in order to run the Flex Radio remotely, has really no idea about IT and is ok for remote support but not to use the radio in professional manner e.g. with JDTX etc.

There are many Hams in the world using amateur radio in professional way and not just over the weekend for 2 hours to talk with a friend in the same town.

We invested a lot in money and time in to our remote DX-Station at 1'660m above sealevel in order to use your "excellent Flexradio transceiver/hardware".

But please re-assess your Business model regarding your SmartSDR and SmartLink software. Peer-to-peer direct connection from home to the Flex radio at the remote site.

73 de HB9RYZ, www.hb9ryz.ch

Wolfgang

Steven Lott Smith

More than a few of us are now looking for Elecraft hardware......

K3 and K30 and associated equipment

We love how the Flex system was working, I know it will work again

I also have a strong feeling will need another method to use our Remote stations

Therefore l will build a redundant system, which will allow less investment in more Flex gear.

Steve

KG5VK

Mike-VA3MW

@Wolfgang

You are likely not aware that well over 90% of the customer install base has no clue what you just said. They just do not have the IT expertise to do anything on a LAN, VPN's, etc. I'm not making this up. This is factual data.

A lot of business direction comes from how post sales support for any given solution. If you make it not plug and play then you get 90% of your customers calling to help you set it up and make it work after all you sold it. :)

I have features in my Nissan that drive me crazy on how it works and how you deal with it. When I got to the Nissan Product Manager here in Canada he told me in no uncertain terms that the design is for the lowest common denominator owner.

Sadly, amateur radio is not what it was when you and I were 17 (that is a long time ago for me). People want it to just work. They want to get on the air and talk. Some of us, me included, love to deal with the latest and greatest and get under the covers and do it the way we think everyone should do it.

When I give club talks on Zoom (and, I do a lot) I can now see everyone thanks to Zoom and I can see when their eyes glass over. At that point, I know I am too deep into an explanation and I am losing my audience.

Smart people like yourself have many options to make things work. This what we do.

73 and have a nice weekend.

EA7JQA

We are already going for two days, I think we have already talked a lot about the subject, it is necessary that we go further and know in what situation the problem is and we need to know when it going to be fixed.

James Del Principe

Gentlemen, let's keep it in perspective. It is amateur radio, a hobby. No one lost an eye. No ones house burned down. Let's all take a deep breath and relax. Flex will fix it. 73 All, Jim

jkb

Since It´s still is working on iOS/MacOS Devices, I think I have to donate some Bottles of **** to Marcus Roskosch. I wonder If he likes Stauder Pils :p
Hey Marcus, I live just a five minute drive away *HI*


Luckily I can also access my Flex via VPN as a further backup, but a "manual" way for Win/Maestro users to enter the address where the Flex is reachable (via Internet) would be nice. I know, this requires additional authentication to be in place ... but please at least think about implementing something like this in the future.


I can understand the frustration of some users, I also freaked out about some Networking issues regarding Flex in the past (PMTU, lacking the ability to force MTU on M Models via GUI etc.)

But after my blood pressure went back to QRP levels, I said to myself: Meh....It's just a Hobby... my FlexRadio is not a vital Medical Device.

73´s

Jan

EA7JQA

Yes, we must put this in perspective, even more so when in your remote station you have spent some ten thousand euros and it stops working because someone has not read the notice of the change of the security protocol ... My free time and my Hobbies are as important as my work, now much more with confined cities and curfews ...

N5NHJ

Do we deserve an update?

Maye I'll have a good weather this weekend so I can enjoy my bicycle!

EA7JQA

Saturday morning in Spain, EU, we are still hanging, as we say in Spain, caught by the cow.
https://www.qrz.com/db/EA7JQA

aa3ssradio

Still hanging here too. As soon as I get notification my Elecraft K4 is ready to ship my Flex is going bye bye. This is just more BS on Flex's part. Should have been done months ago when they were notified.

Maybe it was a hack by the same crew that hacked the pipeline . . . Hi Hi

EA7JQA

No in serius, I´m considering seriusly a system where I have whole control, I´m looking at the new remote system of Yaesu

Massimo

I obviously have the same problem here, it is inconceivable to buy a radio and depend on the manufacturer for its entire life, now we all realize this big problem :-((