Your Smarthome Setup Might Break, and There's Nothing You Can Do About It
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Your Smarthome Setup Might Break, and There's Nothing You Can Do About It
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Smarthome hubs
Your smarthome devices might be running smoothly now, but at any time, a
forced update or a change by the manufacturer could potentially break your
device,
either temporarily or permanently. And there's nothing you can do about it.
Most mainstream smarthome devices on the market rely on cloud connectivity,
which means they need to be connected to the Internet and maintain contact
with the manufacturer's servers to receive updates and support. This is both
a blessing and a curse, but mostly a curse.
It Starts with the Occasional Server Hiccups
You go to adjust your smart thermostat from your phone and get shown a nice
little "server is down" message in place of all the controls that you'd
normally
see. This gives you a little taste into what I'm talking about.
Server down message
You tell yourself that you're connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your
smart thermostat, so you should be able to communicate locally with the
thermostat
from your phone. Unfortunately, that's not how it works, and it's a great
example of why cloud-based smarthome products can be frustrating.
Even if you could communicate locally with your device and the hardware and
software is there for it, you still have to have an outside connection to
the
manufacturer's servers. And if that connection is broken for whatever
reason, then wave goodbye to remote access.
Updates & Patches Could Brick Your Devices
Smart thermostat unresponsive
While some devices let you download updates on your own time, other devices
do it automatically whether you're okay with it or not. And it's not
uncommon
for a forced update to cause unexpected issues, either for a select few or
for every user of the service.
This happened recently with Logitech's Harmony Hub, where Logitech
automatically updated the firmware
of the hubs to fix security vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, this broke API
access, which meant all sorts of integrations that people had set up with
the
Hub no longer worked.
Logitech had the sense to come up with a way for users to
re-enable API access on the local end , but it all ended up being a huge
headache for Harmony Hub users.
This can happen to any cloud-based smarthome device that you own. And what
makes it worse is when it happens on a device that you heavily rely on, like
a video doorbell or smart lights.
Companies Can Shut Down and Render Their Products Useless
Iris smarthome by Lowe's
When you buy and set up a smarthome product that relies on the cloud and
needs to be connected to the manufacturer's servers, you're basically at the
mercy
of that company.
In other words, a company can decide that keeping one of their products
alive isn't viable for their business strategy. They decide to discontinue
and
no longer support the product, screwing the customer by leaving them with a
paperweight instead of a product for which they paid good money.
It's happened with Lighthouse and their security cameras
, as well as the
Nest-owned Revolv hub . Most recently, Lowe's officially
shut down its Iris smarthome platform for good , most likely due to fading
interest and low sales. This meant that users with an Iris system at home
were
pretty much screwed and left with hubs that no longer worked (although the
devices and sensors can still work with other hubs). Luckily, Lowe's is
offering
refunds for Iris customers, but not all companies that shut down products
are as gracious.
So What Am I Supposed to Do?
While there's nothing you can do to prevent any of this from happening,
there are things you can do to at least mitigate the chances of it
happening.
For starters, stick with manufacturers and brands that have been around a
while, are at least somewhat popular, and have a solid reputation. This
isn't
100% foolproof, of course, but most companies that shut down a smarthome
device or service are doing so because it's not popular with the public,
thus
not generating enough revenue to keep it viable.
Nest Hello video doorbell
Smarthome brands like Nest, Ring, Ecobee, Philips Hue, Arlo, and WeMo are
all really popular brands with a huge userbase. These brands have a
reputation
to uphold, and to have any of them shut down in the near future would be
highly unlikely.
RELATED: You Don't Need a Smart Thermostat
Of course, there's a saying that every dynasty will eventually fall, so it's
possible for any one of the above brands to shutter somewhere down the road.
It's up to you whether or not to take that risk.
Secondly, what most die-hard smarthome enthusiasts recommend doing is to
simply not buy or use any smarthome product that relies on the cloud. The
downside
is that most of those kinds of products aren't as easy to set up, and pretty
much anyone who's a novice in this category likely won't bother.
However, several companies (like HomeSeer and Hubitat
) are trying their best to make it easier for end users to set up a
locally-based smart home. Unfortunately, it's still more tempting to buy and
set up
products like a Nest Thermostat, a Ring Doorbell, some Hue lights, and a
Wi-Fi cam.
article end
Source:
https://www.howtogeek.com/400112/your-smarthome-setup-might-break-and-theres
-nothing-you-can-do-about-it/
