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from the internet-of-things-that-shouldn't-need-internet dept.
Shameful: Insteon looks dead—just like its users' smart homes
The app and servers are dead. The CEO scrubbed his LinkedIn page. No one is responding.
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.
[....] Insteon is (or, more likely, "was") a smart home company that produced a variety of Internet-connected lights, thermostats, plugs, sensors, and of course, the Insteon Hub. At the core of the company was Insteon's propriety networking protocol, which was a competitor to more popular and licensable alternatives like Z-Wave and Zigbee.
[....] With its servers down, the Insteon app appears worthless, and users' automations and schedules have stopped working. Many of Insteon's wall switches were actual electrical switches, so the worst that will ever happen is that they become dumb switches.
Every dark internet cloud has a cat 6 lining. This isn't as bad as cloud connected pet feed fooders no longer working. Or cloud connected exercise machines not working or restricting features with new pay walls. Or Smart TVs spying on you and displaying ads during a live sporting event.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday April 20 2022, @02:47PM
tasmota for the win.
I have over 10 'smart' power switches that I reflashed with tasmota and its 100% open. very good fw and has not failed in the 2 years I've been using them.
there used to be a hack where you could air-root the thing with a rasp pi and a hacked server that fools it into taking new fw ota.
not sure if that is patched or not. if patched, you then have to open the units to serial flash them, but its not hard.
anything ESP based can be controlled with tasmota, even wemos d1 mini modules, then diy it from there.
no need for a 'hub' when everything is native 2.4g wifi. and nothing goes outside your lan with tasmota.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."