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What happens when your cloud service just pulls the plug - Insteon gone
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hans:
Ironically, if the IoT hub has bad security.. it should be 'trivial' to redirect any outgoing cloud requests to a local NAS, and "clone" the hub API functions to get a working system. Especially if all requests are done to somekind of dumb HTTP server or something..
Problem is, the main hub is down.. so how to figure out what kind of response to give. It's all a massive pain. So even though I say "trivial".. anything different  is almost impossible to clone while being honest about time/energy investment. It's still a lot of work and messing around. And all that to avoid a pile of e-waste because of another companies bad design decisions.

Nonetheless, the amount of smart cloud devices you see is insanity (like a doorbell). Imagine if any of those companies go bankrupt, or another narcissist joins the boards of directors.. and then wants to buy the whole company because he/she wants to everything different.
When can we have regulations that forbids IoT products to use the internet for it's daily operations? (only firmware updates allowed, no behaviour tracking, advertising, or core functions) :palm:
NiHaoMike:

--- Quote from: hans on April 19, 2022, 12:56:34 pm ---Ironically, if the IoT hub has bad security.. it should be 'trivial' to redirect any outgoing cloud requests to a local NAS, and "clone" the hub API functions to get a working system. Especially if all requests are done to somekind of dumb HTTP server or something..
Problem is, the main hub is down.. so how to figure out what kind of response to give. It's all a massive pain. So even though I say "trivial".. anything different  is almost impossible to clone while being honest about time/energy investment. It's still a lot of work and messing around. And all that to avoid a pile of e-waste because of another companies bad design decisions.

--- End quote ---
I was thinking reverse engineer it and make an open source firmware for it.
MrMobodies:

--- Quote from: xrunner on April 18, 2022, 12:25:54 pm ---Problem is, using their components, you cannot "bypass" the hub with the type of topology they designed, even though you have an app on your phone, she no work that way captain. I did have all my timers set up and they are still working from the memory in the hub, but they cannot be altered any longer and individual lights cannot be turned on/off remotely. No Insteon server - no worky.

Some guy even drove by the Office in SoCal (Irvine, CA) and verified they all skedaddled off and shut down. 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 ---

They worked fine a decade ago without this "cloud"/managed crap before so why are they set to depend on it.
It's sounds incredibly stupid to me.

I always thought of these sorts of things as a scam waiting to happen.

They can pack up, go and not give you control over the gear that you "brought" what you think you owned which ceases to function and your rights to use it effectively taken away.

If I can't set it up myself, it can't work inhouse and support a set of standards to work other equipment, provided with a means of with the recovery when it fails and for when they no longer exist then they can screw it and this is why I refuse to "buy"/pay for crap like this.

I wonder what would happen if they didn't use the word "cloud" to describe it but one more sensible like "locked down camera" or "non user managed solution".

Sounds to me like disgusting behaviour:

--- Quote ---First investigated by IoT reporter Stacey Higginbotham, Insteon’s community forums appear to be down and a number of its high-profile executives have removed all reference to their Insteon employment from their LinkedIn profiles.
--- End quote ---

I wonder why or is it that they are afraid and want to run away?
xrunner:
Dave now has a video about Insteon up -

ebastler:
Not sure whether it has already been mentioned -- there may be workarounds which can keep your Insteon system going. According to techcentral:


--- Quote ---The main piece of advice for owners of Insteon products is to not factory reset their devices because first-time set-up requires a connection to Insteon servers. Resetting Insteon devices that are already set up could mean the device is rendered unrecoverable if the company doesn’t restore its services.

The easiest solution to move away from the Insteon network appears to be with the open source home automation and device management software Home Assistant. Some users reported being able to use the software and have all their devices aggregated and working again in just a few hours.
--- End quote ---
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