Letting The World See Your Stoker

We showed you how to set up your router so that you could access the Stoker Wifi from outside your home network. Well, if you can do it, so can anyone else in the world if they know your IP address. No one is going to guess your IP address, but you might wish to publish it in order to allow others to view your Stoker. This of course subjects you to the risk that someone might think it's funny to play with the parameters and let you cook your pork butt until it reaches 600 degrees. So, to prevent this, the Stoker Wife does have a "read only" mode such that web access only allows you to view settings, not alter them. To do this, you can access a special web page from your browswer called "ro.html". Here is what you get:

Just tick the "Read-only" box and set a password and the Stoker Wifi cannot be altered from a web page. To restore the ability to change settings, you just untick the box and enter your password. If you forget your password, you can reset things at the Stoker by clearing its data base.

We would like to see a addition to this feature that would allow you to lock down the Stoker, but still allow you make changes if you enter the password. That way you could open it up to the world, and still make changes without risk of mischief from anyone. As it is, if you wanted to make changes, you'd have to unlock the Stoker, make your changes and then relock it. During that window, someone could of course, make their own changes.

Sending Updates Via Twitter

Another feature new since we reviewed the original Stoker is the ability to send status updates to your Twitter account. You can access the "twitter.html" web page on your Stoker to enable the function and set some parameters. You also need to use a third party website at www.supertweet.net. More information is located on the Stoker web site under the documentation area. Here's what the Twitter web page looks like on the Stoker:

Notes About Wifi Operation

We did some playing around with the wifi function of the Stoker Wifi and will point out the following things:

• Wifi Range: Of course this depends an awful lot upon your wireless router's range as well as the Stoker's range, but here's what we did. The router is in the house up against an external wall. We hooked our Stoker up to a 12 volt battery using the 12 volt to 5 volt accessory and started walking down the street. Every so often we put the battery down and turned on the Stoker. Essentially we were able to connect from up to 400 feet away.

• No Signal strength Meter: There is no signal strength meter on the Stoker Wifi (no bars), so if you are on the border of being able to make a connection, you won't be able to monitor your signal strength. However, if the Stoker will initially connect, there is a good chance you won't lose your connection since neither the Stoker nor your router should be moving around very much.

• No Connection Indication After Bootup: Once the Stoker has booted up and connected, there is no indicator that you have lost your connection, if indeed you do. However, if for example you turned off your router, turning the router back on will allow the Stoker to re-establish the connection without having to power it off and back on.

• Failure to Connect on Boot Up Is Permanent: If the Stoker can't establish the wireless connection on boot up, it will display "Wifi failed Ethernet On" and you will not be able to connect via wifi without turning the unit off and on when there is a signal available.

• Wifi Takes Precedence Over Cable: If you have Wifi enabled and a Cat 5 (ethernet) cable plugged in, the Wifi takes precedence over the cable.

• Operating in 802.11b Mode: The Stoker Wifi operates in 802.11b mode. This means your router must support 802.11b mode. This is an old wireless standard which operates at relatively slow speeds. In order to use the Stoker Wifi on your network, you must make sure your router supports 802.11b and is set to operate in "Mixed" mode. Also, when using your Stoker Wifi on your home network, the presence of this 802.11b device requires that the router slow down all traffic to this slower speed. Once you remove the Stoker Wifi from your network, your router should restore speeds to whatever mode it was operating in previously.

Updating The Software

You can update the software on your Stoker if there is ever an update made available. We tested several levels of the software during our original review and updating it was easy. You will find software updates and detailed instructions on the Stoker website at www.rocksbarbque.com. Once you update the software, any fixes or new features will now be available for use in your Stoker.

Third Party Software

There is still one third party software package available for controlling your Stoker remotely, Stokerlog. You can download it from the Stoker web site (see below) or you can download Stokerlog from our web site. It is provided as is and we have no connection to this software and cannot answer questions about it.

• Stokerlog: Stokerlog adds many features including incredible ease of use capabilities, letting you fully manage and control your stoker from multiple PCs and other devices such as your phone. Stokerlog also has a simulation mode so you can download and play with it even without owning a Stoker. This software seems to be documented mainly on The Virtual Weber Bullet website.

Summary

The original Stoker offered a new alternative in the field of barbecue temperature control with new features and capabilities like the ability to control multiple cookers from a single unit and the ability to control The Stoker from an internet connection. Since then, new features have been added and of course, now the Wifi version of the Stoker have made it an even better product. No more need for a bridge or gaming adapter outside to make your Stoker wireless (and the necessary tinkering to get it all to work.) We found the new wifi features of the Stoker easy peasy to set up (again, our only challenge was trying to figure out what certain features were called in our router). Even if you can't figure it out, if you have a friend who is somewhat familiar with home networking, they will find it easy peasy too. So, all in all, the original Stoker was a great product, and now the Stoker Wifi is even better.

Contact Information

If you are interested in The Stoker, you can contact Rock's Bar-B-Que as follows:

Rock's Bar-B-Que
35367 Fircrest St. Unit I
Newark, CA 94560

Tel: 510-792-7700
Fax: 510-792-7701
email: rock@rocksbarbque.com
web: www.rocksbarbque.com