The only reason it won’t send out a Last Weather Call at all would be if the controller detects that it cannot reach the router — in other words, if it can’t reach the router, it thinks that the controller is offline hence will not send any network requests. I am surprised that you can reach the controller while it still thinks it’s offline. I really can’t explain why this is happening.
To tell if it’s in remote controller mode — when you access the controller, it will display a Remote Controller mode banner at the bottom of the homepage. Also, you can check this on the controller itself — if it’s in remote controller mode, there will be an icon displayed on the LCD, looking like a satellite receiver.