Why does my gateway lose connection to my office network and the Priva Cloud after a power failure?

By default, the Priva Gateway connects to your office network over DHCP.  DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. When using DHCP, the installer does not need to configure the network settings in the gateway.  They just plug the Gateway into the office network and the DHCP server in the network figures out how to make the connection.  

Unfortunately, there potentially can be a problem when using the DHCP server.  When the Gateway first powers up, it asks the DHCP server for an IP address.  If the DHCP server does not respond after a short time, the Gateway will assign its own IP address.  Most of the time, this alternate IP address is in a different network range.  When the DHCP server finally starts up, the Gateway cannot communicate with it because the IP address is not in the correct range.  Because of this, no one will be able to communicate with the Gateway until the Gateway is powered down and back up again. 

This situation will occur in installations where a backup generator is used to power up part of the installation but not the entire installation.  When power is lost to the site, everything powers down.  The backup generator immediately starts up and restores power to the Gateway.  But since the DHCP server is not in the part of the installation that is fed by the backup generator, is not running when the Gateway restarts.  Since it is not running, it's not going to respond to the request for an IP address and the Gateway will switch to the alternate IP address.  Even when power is finally restored to the DHCP server, the Gateway continues to use the alternate IP address. You will need to turn the Gateway off and back on again to get it to ask for an IP address from the DHCP server again.

If you are having this problem, we recommend that you go into the setup of your Gateway and switch it to a static IP address.  Use the following steps in order to do this.

1. Talk to your IT support people and ask them to give you a static IP address. They will assign one to you in the correct range and configure their network so that it knows that that specific IP address is tied to the gateway.  They should give you the following information:
   1. IP address
   2. Subnet mask
   3. Gateway
   4. Primary DNS (optional)
   5. Secondary DNS (optional)
   6. DNS suffix (optional)
2. Have your IT support people log into the gateway setup app and follow this procedure
   1. Select the NETWORK tab to enter the network settings.
   2. Click on the little pencil icon by Ethernet 1 to modify the network settings.  (Note that Ethernet 1 is used for the office network and Ethernet 2 is used for the Priva network.
   3. Click on the radio button that says "Use the following IP address and enter the correct information.
   4. Enter the information as you received it.
   5. Click the SAVE button and the Gateway will reboot with the new configuration.