EZCast Pro dongle - connection problems sometimes

[Charles Cotton]

I have a number of the EZCast Pro units, and one EZCast 4k unit. I use them with various Android smartphones and tablets (Android 6, 7 and 8. My application is in training and presentations.

In general all the units work as expected. I only use them to 'Mirror On 'and ' Mirror Off' to cast the screen from the phone/tablet to a projector or TV (HDMI or VGA through a conector).

I either just display the phone screen (with an app running on it), or I run MS Powerpoint Android and I get Presenter's view on my phone, and full screen display view on the projector/TV.

I don't specifically use Host/Guest, Airplay or Miracast. I keep it simple. All the devices that I use have worked with my EZCast Pro units (which have the latest firmware upgrade 16624000). And all dongles use Direct Link mode.

Problem
What I see sometimes when I am out training or presenting is that on some jobs I just cannot get my smartphone to connect to the EZCast Pro dongle with the EZCast Pro Android app. I can see that the smartphone has connected to the EZCast WiFi SSID. It does this everytime with no problem.
What doesn't happen, sometimes, is that after starting the Android EZCast Pro app on my smartphone it cannot establish a connection with the dongle.

On one job I had a little time to try a few things. I found that this same issue existed on two EZCast Pro dongles and my EZCast 4k, and not one of my three smartphones that I had with me (that all work correctly at other times with those dongles) would connect.

It almost seems like there could be interference at some locations, or something like that. The WiFi SSID as I mentione always checks out correctly.

Yesterday I took some quick screenshots in case they may indicate something. Are there any things I could try? Do you have any ideas what might be happening?

[I cannot seem to upload my screenshots. png or as jpg]
I posted a link to a Google Drive folder yesterday and now it is gone! How can I get screenshots up here to help with working out the problem?

The link again:-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IdB7c ... e0wJbo-7gE

[Charles Cotton]

Disappointed that there has been no acknowledgment or reply from support on this in over a week.

Update
I had another situation of this at a customer job today. Pushing through trying various things, it seems the problem may be related to 'Preferred device' status.
I have a number of the EZCast Pro units, and do change between them from time to time. I found today that when I had a problem with the EZCast Pro not being found, if I forced it to forget the preferred status of the unit that wasn't there (once I got to that screen!), it would eventually connect to the one I was using. This was not an easy process.

I may try removing any 'Preferred status in the meantime.

[MissEZCast]

Sorry for the late reply. When connecting failed, can it be connected after waiting for about two minutes? About the other situation, do you mind recording a short video of the issue for our further checking? Thanks for your help.

[Charles Cotton]

"can it be connected after waiting for about two minutes"

I'm thinking from the above that maybe the units give up on the 'Preferred device' priority after two minutes, and may then fall back to trying to connect to what is actually there. I'll try and see if this is the case.

Realistically, as you can probably imagine, waiting for a number of minutes for something to MAYBE happen when you are trying to get a presentation/training to happen while a customer looks on isn't a situation that leaves you with a lot of time.

Is there a default time out of 2 minutes for 'Preferred devices"?

[Vitaly Klyuev]

Hi everyone,
Let me add more details on this problem because I am experiencing the similar situation.
I use only one EZCAst Pro dongle for lecturing. To connect to it, I use only one Sony SGP712 tablet running Android 7.1.1. A dongle firmware version is the latest as of today: VER.16953000, a version of the EZCast Pro client app is also the freshest: 2.6.1.46.
There are no problems to connect to the dongle if one of the following conditions are in place:
1. Tablet has a WIFI connection to the Internet. The dongle may have or not, it does not matter;
2. The dongle has a WIFI connection to the Internet. About the tablet: it does not matter if it has WIFI to the Internet.

I CANNOT run presentation slides if
1. There is no WIFI connection to the Internet for both dongle and tablet. On the data projector screen (or TV screen), I see the connection mark between my devices (they are connected). The WIFI setup menu on the tablet PC shows a connection between my tablet and dongle without the Internet. On the tablet PC screen, I see a rotating sand glass. The client EZCast Pro does not start because of the rotating sand glass.
2. I am in the environment: Tablet PC has WIFI to the Internet, but my dongle does not. If I exit from the EZCast Pro client app after the successful connection, I cannot reconnect the dongle again to run a slide presentation: My tablet starts running the EZCast Pro client when both tablet and dongle are without WIFI to the Internet. I may see only the rotating sand glass on the tablet screen.

The situation without WIFI to the Internet is usual at the conferences. The presenter needs only connection with his dongle. The presenter fails.
Please fix this issue.

Thanks,
Vitaly

[Johan du Buson]

Hi,

We get the same connection problems.

We have a corporate network and installed the EZCast Pro dongles in some of the boardroom projectors. We have joined the EZCast devices to the corporate WiFi network but they do not have internet access. If I grant the device internet access then the miracast function works fine.

Can you please define which sites they need to access so that I can create firewall rules.

Thanks,
Johan

[MissEZCast]

Hi,

We get the same connection problems.

We have a corporate network and installed the EZCast Pro dongles in some of the boardroom projectors. We have joined the EZCast devices to the corporate WiFi network but they do not have internet access. If I grant the device internet access then the miracast function works fine.

Can you please define which sites they need to access so that I can create firewall rules.

Thanks,
Johan

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Abour more setting details, please refer to our website and choose your problem: https://www.ezcast.com/support/faq/pro

If you need customer service, please contact us by email to support@ezcast.com

[Charles Cotton]

The situation described below (which is described well) is still an issue.
When neither the dongle or tablet/smartphone is connected to the internet, the tablet/smartphone regularly will not connect to the dongle.

For presentations away from your home location (or lectures as in Vitali's case below) there is often no WiFi to connect to. And it shouldn't be required - just another thing to set up.

It appears the dongle does not work correctly in this situation. Please confirm that a connection to the internet IS NOT required for this sort of application. Because the way the unit is failing to work in this situation, it appears that it does need that connection.

Charles

Hi everyone,
Let me add more details on this problem because I am experiencing the similar situation.
I use only one EZCAst Pro dongle for lecturing. To connect to it, I use only one Sony SGP712 tablet running Android 7.1.1. A dongle firmware version is the latest as of today: VER.16953000, a version of the EZCast Pro client app is also the freshest: 2.6.1.46.
There are no problems to connect to the dongle if one of the following conditions are in place:
1. Tablet has a WIFI connection to the Internet. The dongle may have or not, it does not matter;
2. The dongle has a WIFI connection to the Internet. About the tablet: it does not matter if it has WIFI to the Internet.

I CANNOT run presentation slides if
1. There is no WIFI connection to the Internet for both dongle and tablet. On the data projector screen (or TV screen), I see the connection mark between my devices (they are connected). The WIFI setup menu on the tablet PC shows a connection between my tablet and dongle without the Internet. On the tablet PC screen, I see a rotating sand glass. The client EZCast Pro does not start because of the rotating sand glass.
2. I am in the environment: Tablet PC has WIFI to the Internet, but my dongle does not. If I exit from the EZCast Pro client app after the successful connection, I cannot reconnect the dongle again to run a slide presentation: My tablet starts running the EZCast Pro client when both tablet and dongle are without WIFI to the Internet. I may see only the rotating sand glass on the tablet screen.

The situation without WIFI to the Internet is usual at the conferences. The presenter needs only connection with his dongle. The presenter fails.
Please fix this issue.

Thanks,
Vitaly

[Charles Cotton]

This issue us still not resolved or explained. It happens on the new EZCast Pro 2 as well, which is very disappointing. To try and make an answer as simple as possible, the first step would be confirmation of something that was asked before.

Does the EZCast Pro require an Internet connection to work?

From what I have experienced, and from what Vitaly has detailed in this post, it seems that it does. This was a serious limitation in the Chromecast. I thought the EZCast overcame this limitation.
When it is being used for training in off site client training rooms, it is usual not to have an Internet connection.
Please confirm the above question.
Thank you.


Example
I've just powered up an EZCast Pro 2 in a motel room. My Pixel 2 XL has been connected to this device before, so it knows the password, and connects via WiFi. The connection shows 'Connected, no Internet', which is correct.
When trying to connect a device via the EZCast Pro app (under Direct connection), and selecting the device, a spinning circle appears saying 'loading'. A short time later, a message says 'Disconnected by projector' and we're back at the start again. This repeats each time a connection is attempted.

What is happening? And why won't it just connect?

[MissEZCast]

This issue us still not resolved or explained. It happens on the new EZCast Pro 2 as well, which is very disappointing. To try and make an answer as simple as possible, the first step would be confirmation of something that was asked before.

Does the EZCast Pro require an Internet connection to work?

From what I have experienced, and from what Vitaly has detailed in this post, it seems that it does. This was a serious limitation in the Chromecast. I thought the EZCast overcame this limitation.
When it is being used for training in off site client training rooms, it is usual not to have an Internet connection.
Please confirm the above question.
Thank you.


Example
I've just powered up an EZCast Pro 2 in a motel room. My Pixel 2 XL has been connected to this device before, so it knows the password, and connects via WiFi. The connection shows 'Connected, no Internet', which is correct.
When trying to connect a device via the EZCast Pro app (under Direct connection), and selecting the device, a spinning circle appears saying 'loading'. A short time later, a message says 'Disconnected by projector' and we're back at the start again. This repeats each time a connection is attempted.

What is happening? And why won't it just connect?

EZCast Pro II has soft Ap you could direct search and connect to EZCast Pro II by Wi-Fi.
Another way you could do Miracast to connect to EZCast Pro II.
More details please contact us by email to support@ezcast.com