Malformed mDNS packet causing reboot

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This is a fresh topic spun off of a problem noted at the end of Starting over questions - #14 by overeasy

The TP-Link Kasa App is sending malformed mDNS packets.

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Which appears to cause the IoTaWatt to restart.
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(I do have more datapoints, just one shown)

I cannot confirm that this is indeed the packet killing the IoTaWatt as watching the uptime statistics counter stopping to stop the packet capture is not the most accurate way of doing things, especially if the restart isn’t immediate. I do know that just opening the Kasa app is enough to cause repeated restarts.

I can say that some research shows other ESP8266 projects are having odd problems with the Kasa App on the same network.

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Thank you very much @PimpMyPC for testing & researching this issue. I’ve been away from home for a couple of weeks & hoping to find that my IoTaWatt has had a period of uninterrupted calm!

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I second that. I’ll look into what has been done to mitigate this problem on the ESP8266. There are two versions of MDNS and maybe I’ve got the wrong one.

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I’ll see if I can isolate the rogue packet and make a script to trigger this on demand.

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Update: My IoTaWatt has been rock solid, Running Time & WiFi, for over 14.5 days whilst we’ve been away. We generally don’t use the Kasa app as we have Amazon Echo voice control & I’m starting to introduce Home Assistant.

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My IoTaWatt, system & WiFi, had remained rock solid for over 31 days until last night when my wife used the TP-Link Android version of the TPL Kasa Smart app to switch on a couple of lights. This crashed the IoTaWatt.

I’m an iPhone user and I’d spotted a couple of weeks back, in the App Store, an update to the Kasa Smart app. Wanting to check that IoTaWatt could remain stable for a bit longer I didn’t update Kasa until this morning.

Before updating I used Kasa Smart to switch on a light which did crash IoTaWatt.

After updating the iOS app to v2.37.0 (1008) I’m pleased to report that it no longer crashes IoTaWatt.

Returning to my wife’s Android phone I asked her to use the Kasa app to turn on a light. ‘Unfortunately’ it didn’t crash IoTaWatt on this occasion so I need to continue keeping an eye on IoTaWatt. An Android update to the Kasa app is available but my wife’s phone doesn’t have sufficient memory to carry out the update until she gets a new phone in the coming weeks. This delay is probably useful as it might continue to prove there’s still an issue with the Android version of the Kasa app.

I’ll keep an eye out & report back again with any further updates.

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