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The common useage of the OTA library for this MCU is to have it connect to a network, and to then use a computer on that network to upload firmware across that network. Due to either issues with PlatformIO (my IDE of choice right now) or my router (administrated by my ISP) blocking discovery (mDNS does NOT work here either way, and getting the IP is very hard as a result*), I would like to use the SoftAP class to make an access point that I can connect to directly when uploading firmware.

However, I have attempted this, and it does work IF I specify an IP address. This is a bit more convenient, but it fails if I try using mDNS again (via upload_port = myesp8266.local). (As an aside, this means that OTA over SoftAP does work, at least to this degree. I'm sure some will find this useful.)

Has anyone else confirmed either of these issues? I understand that they may be unrelated (since problem one is (Network || PIO) and the second is (PIO || SoftAP) as the cause), but any information as to why this might fail in both cases would be useful.

So, for the first case, can someone who uses that IDE and has an ESP8266 board test if mDNS works with the IDE? For the second, assuming that mDNS does work with the IDE in the first case (and it's thus the MCU's fault), can anyone determine why the SoftAP class either halts or fails to work with mDNS?

This will really help my abilities to easily get firmware onto the board, and also tell me if I need to get a new router that allows mDNS (if it's not PlatformIO in the first case).

*Since the ISP administrates the router, I am unable to log in and view the IP addresses currently connected. My only option is printing it via UART, which renders this pointless, or attaching a OLED or LCD screen to every single device I build, or get a new router, which is its own issue right now. I've now run the web server test again, and not only does OTA not work with mDNS, but apparently I can't access it at all unless I know its actual IP address.

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  • 1: I'm surprised the router can block mDNS, that's not how mDNS works - 2. PlatformIO works with mDNS 100% in my (Windows 10) experience ... what operating system are you using? Can you ping myesp8266.local - are you sure you have the correct host name for your ESP? 3. I've never attempted OTA using SoftAP
    – Jaromanda X
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 7:29
  • can anyone determine why the SoftAP class either halts or fails to work with mDNS - would've thought mDNS is redundant with SoftAP - since SoftAP means the ESP has a known fixed address, 192.168.4.1 (by default)
    – Jaromanda X
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 7:35
  • that's not how mDNS works - I guess a router could block mDNS if it wanted to, seems like an unlikley scenario though
    – Jaromanda X
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 7:38
  • I had to perform that experiment again, and apparently I remembered wrong -- the web server is also not accessible. I can't even access the esp8266.local address even if I can access its IP directly. That's apparently for any networking feature if it's attached to my home network.
    – user47164
    Commented Feb 28, 2019 at 2:02
  • So you can't access the esp by ip address either?
    – Jaromanda X
    Commented Feb 28, 2019 at 2:08

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