JRS router/AP wake up with Android and Apple wireless devices

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Shaun A Kranish Principal

Android and Apple (roughly 2016 and newer) wireless devices use a random MAC address (the identifying address of the device for WiFi).  The JRS Eco Routers normally rely on a static non-changing MAC address to "wake up" from wireless sleep mode.

Solution 1:

Disable the MAC randomization on your Android/Apple devices.  This will allow them to be recognized by the JRS eco firmware and "wake up" the wireless of the router.

To Disable MAC Randomization on iOS Devices:

Open the Settings on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, then tap Wi-Fi or WLAN
Tap the information button next to your network
Turn off Private Address
Re-join the network

To Disable MAC Randomization on Android Devices:

Open the Settings
Tap Network & Internet -> Wi-Fi
Tap the gear icon associated with your network
Tap MAC address type
Tap Phone MAC
Re-join the network

Solution 2:


When the router is sleep mode, the lights look as shown in the image on the right. To be able to wake up the Eco router from standby, modern Android and Apple wireless devices need to be connected to the hidden network ‘jrs’. You need to manually enter and connect to hidden or other network ‘jrs’ with security WPA2 and the same wifi password you set for the visible network. You need to set this up only once in your device. The next time it will remember the credentials.

If the wifi network doesn’t appear in the list of available wifi networks on your wireless device when the Eco 100 router is in Full Eco standby, this is when you need to connect your device to the hidden network as explained above.

Connecting to the hidden network is needed on devices that do so-called MAC address randomization. It is usually not needed on devices that are older than 5 years. Connecting to the hidden ‘jrs’ network assures that the Eco router can recognize the connection request signal from your wireless device and come out of Full Eco standby mode. Always connect to this hidden network and ‘forget’ the visible networks on your devices, in case you already entered the wifi password for those.

There is also a 5GHz hidden network labeled ‘jrs5’. The router automatically creates the two hidden wifi networks. You can rename them if you like. See the ‘Match hidden network’ setting in section 9.1 of the manual.

The screen shots show how to connect from a recent generation Android phone (left) and from an iPhone 7 (right). Click on the screen shots to enlarge. To make this ‘Add network’ screen appear on an Android phone, you either need to click on the menu icon and then press “Add network” or you need to click on the ‘+’-sign at the right top in the list of available wireless networks. On an iPhone or iPad, you need to click on ‘Other network’ at the bottom of the list of available wifi networks. Enter ‘jrs’ for the network name. Select WPA2 at ‘security’ and enter the wifi password that you set for the visible network. Set Hidden network to Yes if this advanced option is available. For a Macbook, see here.

On Windows 10, connecting to the hidden ‘jrs’ network is only needed when you have set Windows to use random hardware addresses. Open the Settings and then go to Network & Internet. Select Wi-Fi and click “Manage known networks”. Then click the “+ Add a network” button. Enter ‘jrs’ for the network name. Select WPA2 at ‘security’ and enter the wifi password that you set for the visible network. Check the box that says “Connect automatically”. Also check the box that says “Connect even if the network is not broadcasting.” Click on the screen shot to enlarge.