forum.pistar.uk

Very strange. My pi-star works great AT HOME - no serious issues, but still learning about getting it all to work together. I use 3 tablets, a phone, and a PC without any access problems. I have changed the default password to NOT be raspberrry. This is normal.

Since it was stable, I defined a second WiFi network to function with my cellphone as the internet hotspot. My first trip out with the pi-star everything worked OK - up to a point. The cell-hotspot worked, connected to the pi-star - and I tested my HH with BM TG and it functioned properly. I then connected a tablet to the cell-hotspot (my cell does not permit browsing etc while functioning as a hotspot). Internet browsing worked fine. I browset to the pi-star (at 192.168.101.175) and the dashboard came up fine! So that confirmed no problems with Cell, Radio, Pi-Star functioning w/BM, WiFi SSID, Internet etc.

Now I selected ADMIN on the dashboard and I was asked for Login and Pwd - that makes sense. HOWEVER - nothing I put in will work! pi-star as ID and raspberry or the correct password - no luck with login.

My first thought was that something got corrupted. I reconfirmed all the above - then returned home. At home (automatically) the pi-star connected to the home network - worked fine and NO PASSWORD PROBLEM. The next day, I repeated the above with a different tablet with the same results.

What could possibly cause a password/ID to work fine on one WiFi but not another? NOTE This has nothing to do with the SSID/wifi, this is the ADMIN login "pi-star".

thanks,
Joe

Pi Zero W v1.1 Kernel 5.1017+
Pi-Star 4.1.5 Dash 20210721
MMDVM_HS 1.5.2
Duplex using UHF

You don't state what model cell-phone you are using -- but Apple products appear to be infamous for stripping or corrupting a number of punctuation characters people often try to set as passwords.

Try your experiment using NO punctuation in the password -- just upper/lower letters and numbers.

If that is successful, you can try adding just one punctuation... Repeat until you hit a punctuation character that doesn't work -- take note of that character... Try with others...

THANKS for the suggestions.
I'm using a Pixel 2 android phone on Google Fi.

The password is only letters and numbers - 10 letters and 3 numbers. no special characters. I had seen that warning. I don't want to use the defaults - but it doesn't need to be extreme.

I don't know much about the programming of the pi-star other than the config screens etc. so I don't know how to program it to be selective on just the admin screens (admin or config). I guess that's possible, but i'd have to be hacked for that.

It does appear that the cellphone/hotspot must randomly set the 3rd octet, as the first time the pi-star was 192.168.101.175, and next 192168.151.175 (the first, second, and fourth octets the same). This also means I can't have a shortcut or bookmark on the tablet - but that's not a huge issue.

I guess next I will try a password with only letters? If the thing is so delicate, I hate to mess with passwords unneccearily.

thanks again,
JOE

Thanks again for reply.
Good to know I can remove password altogether. I assume that applies to config, admin, etc. As it does not require any password to just do the dashboard, which is a good test I think.
But no, I prefer a password. I think the DHCP abilities of my smartphone cannot do exotic stuff like mac assigned ip. But even if it did, it seems to pick a different 3rd octet every time I engage it. And it consistently gives the pi star .175 as the 4th octet. Having fixed ip would be a bonus, I agree.
I tried 2 different tablets. Both Android, both Amazon fire, just different screen size. Both running Brave browser but I think I tried chrome also. I'm pretty careful of the pwd especially since it failed. No space at the start or end, etc. And don't you hate things that capitalize for you?
Dragging out the laptop is a pain, but only 3 tablets, laptop, and phone are my available devices. I will try again with
Only letters in pwd
Silk browser
Chrome browser double check
That third trailer

Also I have defined and refined the 2 wifi nets I use, not that I think that's an issue. From previous experience I find my cellular phone hotspot as highest priority, then home. I don't ever use the cellular hotspot at home, unless there is in internet cable failure, so the logic is... If you detect cellular hotspot, I want to use that over anything else. Otherwise, use the home network.

Thanks
Joe