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What happens when your cloud service just pulls the plug - Insteon gone
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NiHaoMike:

--- Quote from: xrunner on April 18, 2022, 12:25:54 pm ---I think there might be some hacky ways around it but my plan now is to go with another system and move on. A system that does not depend on the cloud of course.

--- End quote ---
Tear down that hub and let's see if the community can figure out an easy hack to make it useful again.
CatalinaWOW:
It is going to be fun when the clouds with much larger market penetration (Alexis, Google Home and a couple others) do the same thing.  Particularly for the folks whose door locks are under those controls.
daqq:
Today on why "IoT is a Bad Idea in its current form, episode #34109"...
xrunner:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on April 19, 2022, 03:49:59 am ---Tear down that hub and let's see if the community can figure out an easy hack to make it useful again.

--- End quote ---

I can open it up and post pics if you want a cheap thrill. Here's a pic of the little bugger as it sits now, red light still glowing, still controlling the lights via my programmed schedule that cannot be altered. But as I said I want to move on to another system. I don't want to mess with it until I get something else, I've got a few alternatives in mind. Perhaps in a few days I'll have decided on a new direction & starter kit to swap out and get me going with another system. Whatever it is will be able to be controlled from the cloud but not dependent on it in any other way.


Here's a few more links of the news, for anyone here or guests that might come across this thread searching for reasons why -



--- Quote ---The smart home company Insteon has vanished.

The entire company seems to have abruptly shut down just before the weekend, breaking users' cloud-dependent smart-home setups without warning. Users say the service has been down for three days now despite the company status page saying, "All Services Online." The company forums are down, and no one is replying to users on social media.

As Internet of Things reporter Stacey Higginbotham points out, high-ranking Insteon executives, including CEO Rob Lilleness, have scrubbed the company from their LinkedIn accounts. In the time it took to write this article, Lilleness also removed his name and picture from his LinkedIn profile. It seems like that is the most communication longtime Insteon customers are going to get.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/shameful-insteon-looks-dead-just-like-its-users-smart-homes/
--- End quote ---

Oh yea and if you are unsuspecting and factory reset the little bugger read this  :wtf: -


--- Quote ---Furthermore, troubleshooting steps that users have taken have done further damage. A factory reset of the company's hubs requires a server connection to complete. With the servers down, there is no way for the initial setup after the reset to complete.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/04/18/smarthome-firm-and-early-homekit-partner-insteon-is-dead-with-no-warning-to-customers
--- End quote ---



--- Quote ---It seems that Insteon’s leadership is ignoring the situation. Or, at the very least, avoiding backlash from angry customers. The Insteon “leadership bios” page now shows a 404 error, and as Stacey on IOT notes, Insteon CEO Rob Lilleness no longer lists the company in his LinkedIn profile. Other higher-ups at the company list that their job ended in April of 2022. (I should note that Rob Lilleness bought Insteon and Smartlabs in 2019, promising big things for the smart home brands.)

Insteon also appears to have shut down its forum and terminated its phone service. Smartlabs and Smarthome.com, which are associated with Insteon, are similarly unreachable. Additionally, Reddit users in Irvine say that the Insteon offices are closed, though the closure hasn’t been confirmed.

https://www.reviewgeek.com/115308/insteon-may-have-joined-the-list-of-failed-smart-home-companies/
--- End quote ---
dbctronic:
Current and future legislation around the world will no doubt tackle this issue by forcing manufacturers to at least provide for a minimum period of minimal service when they go belly up. This could create a market for companies that take over cloud services, and could also, in some cases, force companies to remain in business as zombie corporations to at least provide the service.
Who wants to depend on such service? Remember Radio Shack? The government forced it to become a zombie corporation so they could pay off creditors. They were a treat to deal with...

Either way, contract legacy service or zombie service, you just know you'll be in excellent hands.  :bullshit:
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