Controlling your Vera system: Users & Account Info menu
The "Users & Account Info" menu allows you to edit your account details, change your user password, create new users on the Vera controller and grant them specific permissions, customize notifications preferences, browse through the list of alerts and much more.
This guide will teach you how to:
- Edit your account and Vera controller information
- Setup and use system notifications
- Navigate through the list of system alerts
- Create new users on the controller and give them permissions
- Secure your Vera controller
Security tab
This menu allows you to activate 3 security options:
- Secure my Vera (disabled by default) - by enabling it, you won't be able to access it locally, through its IP, only through the relay and using the HTTPS protocol.
- Enable potentially unsafe Lua code, like Wget and RunLua (enabled by default)
- Enable UPnP (enabled by default) - it means that your Vera controller is "discoverable" and can be controlled by other UPnP devices.
Account Info
The Account represents your login information for accessing Vera either via the web browser or through a mobile application. One Account can access one or multiple Controllers located in different places, for instance, there might be one system configured at home and another at the office. This is the reason why after logging in with your Account information you are presented a list of Controllers you can connect to.
The "Account Info" screen displays the billing address information: First Name, Last Name, Address (cannot contain special characters), City, State and Zip Code.
This information is only for the account or the owner of the gateway, not for the user himself/herself. A good example would be the one of a family: the controller belongs to all the family members and is paid by all of them but the account contains different users with different permissions. Each user has a separate email address and phone number that are accessible via the "Other Users" section.
User Info
This screen helps you to define how will you be notified by the Vera system:
- receiving a text message on your phone - in case you enable the "Send a text message to my mobile phone" option and you haven't validated your phone number, you will receive a 4-digit code on your mobile phone.
- receiving push notifications - by checking the "Send me push notifications" option, you will be informed of critical updates for the controller, new products and services and important new features.
- via e-mail - on case you haven't already validated your email during registration or the Setup Wizard, you will have to do this after enabling the "Send me an email" option, otherwise you won't receive notifications.
Notifications Limits/Notifications Settings
The two menus allow you to modify the number of notifications sent by email and Email2sms services, to enable/disable specific events that trigger system notifications. For more details, please refer to the article Notifications with Vera.
Change Password
The new password falls under the same restrictions as for the registration process i.e. it must be alphanumerical and must contain at least 8 characters, at least one digit, one special character, and one capital letter.
Alerts tab
The "Alerts" screen displays the full history of alerts generated by the system. They are used to track all users activity and automated events on the controller assigned to the account and they are not at user-level, but at an account level. For more details, please refer to the article Getting to know your Vera alerts.
Other Users
A User is a person who is authorized to use the Vera system, for instance, members of the household. From the "Other Users" screen you can change the notifications settings and permissions of existing users with access to your controller and create new ones.
Create a New User
In order to associate a new user to the current account, click on "+ Add User". Next, set a username and a password and enter the email address the user will receive notifications to.
The next step is to assign one of the 4 predefined permission types:
- Account Administrator - is the user who has full control over the entire account and who can define the permissions that other users have on each system. Moreover, an Account Administrator can edit the account information and change the way the system operates. Since this is the highest level of control on the Vera account, it is automatically assigned to the person who sets the system up.
- Advanced User - is the second highest level of control and grants permission to almost everything an Account Administrator can do except for 2 things: an advanced user cannot create new users nor change the status of the existing ones. As a general recommendation, the Advanced User permission should be granted to users who need to change device settings, create, modify or configure Scenes and Modes. Also, this permission can be granted only by an Account Administrator.
- Basic User - this is usually the level assigned to most family members, household help or employees of a small business and it means that the user can use the system but (s)he cannot make any changes to account settings or on the system setup. Also, a basic user cannot create new users nor change the accounts of the existing ones.
- Notifications-Only Recipient - this is the lowest level of permissions granted and it means the user will only receive notifications by text and/or email when there are events such as security breaches, temperature extremes or other security occurrences.
Finally, select the controller the new user should have access to and hit "Add User".
If successful, the new user will appear in the list of "Current Users" along with the corresponding access level.
Edit User
The edit screen allows an account administrator:
- to change other users' permissions scheme and notifications settings and limits
- validate other users' phone number and email address for the cases when the options "Send a text message to user mobile phone" and "Send an email to the user" are enabled, which both are by default.
Once you are done, don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Save Changes".
Unit Settings
The "Unit Settings" screen allows to configure:
- Date / Time parameters:
- Date format: MM-DD-YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD
- Time format: 12 hours (AM/PM) or 24 hours
- Timezone
- Weather parameters:
- Country
- Region
- City
- Temperature format - Celsius or Fahrenheit (default)
You can also choose to load the user interface in another language or change the display name of your controller
and set the cost per KWH of electricity. Finally, the MAC address and a serial number of your Vera controller, as well as the version of the firmware installed on it are displayed in the "Device Information" section.
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