Smart Home

[Shuffler]

Anyone have their home setup as smart home? My home is getting close to the finish from its complete makeover after hurricane Harvey last year. I have been purchasing smart home gear left and right.

My base for voice command and control is google home. All the kitchen appliances are smart devices. Over cooktop microwave, cooktop, double wall oven, dishwasher, and fridge. All are LG and connect to my smart system with voice control. Fridge has the instaview window. All black stainless.

Master bedroom features tempur-pedic split king with full controls that connect to my smart system.

Lights in all rooms will be voice controlled and most will be 16 mil colors and dimmable. The all white lights will have kelvin/temperature control.

The a/c , heat, and garage have been networked for some time already. I even control my router by voice commanx.

Security system I will not go much in to but it is accessible from anywhere I happen to be. Along with a smart video doorbell.

What do yall have setup?

[Skuzzy]

Not going to happen in my home.  Too many security holes in all those IoT devices.

[Shuffler]

Not going to happen in my home.  Too many security holes in all those IoT devices.

There can be. It is like anything else today, you can't just set it up and be done with it. You have to stay on top of updates and make sure your security settings are not changed in those updates. Keep your ear to the ground for any known security issues.

LOL you deal with all that at work with the servers. I do too to some extent.

I am the Redneck Geek. 
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[APDrone]

I cannot fathom how anybody would be willing to hook up their house to the internet.

[MiloMorai]

There was something I read a little while ago about a person who bought a 'smart home'. The old owner still had access to the home.

[Shuffler]

There was something I read a little while ago about a person who bought a 'smart home'. The old owner still had access to the home.

That is what happens when someone blindly goes into a smart home. I would not even start this if I did not have some knowledge of what I was doing.

Would you buy a home that already had a network installed and simply sign on to it? Even common sense would tell you that just ain't right.

[Shuffler]

I cannot fathom how anybody would be willing to hook up their house to the internet.

(Image removed from quote.)

You do realize that we do not have any self driving cars yet.... don't you? Many people think we do. They are wrong.

As for locking your home with electronic locks, they are pretty secure. Not those of old. Check out Schlage offerings.

[Meatwad]

A lot of that smart stuff has hidden warnings in the manuals that specifically say to not say anything sensitive around them due to the fact that it may be received by unwanted persons

[Wiley]

Would you buy a home that already had a network installed and simply sign on to it? Even common sense would tell you that just ain't right.

A helluva lot of people would, yes.  Common sense ain't that common.

The security related products may do better, they may not, but I am definitely skeptical that a toaster manufacturer is going to keep their firmware up to date on a regular enough basis to be secure.

Wiley.

[pembquist]

I don't know, my first response to the whole IOT thing is "no." I usually think of it as my juicer spying on me. On the other hand I lost the remote for a few minutes to my TV and I felt greatly inconvenienced at the prospect of having to change the volume by getting up and crossing 10 feet of floor to press a button.

I'm curious where does the voice decoding occur? is it in house or is it in the cloud on some google server? I think the thing that gives me the most pause is not so much that someone will hack my house and set the microwave to kill as much as the idea that there is a microphone listening to me all day.

[Shuffler]

A lot of that smart stuff has hidden warnings in the manuals that specifically say to not say anything sensitive around them due to the fact that it may be received by unwanted persons

Yes any voice item has that.... even your phone.

[Shuffler]

A helluva lot of people would, yes.  Common sense ain't that common.

The security related products may do better, they may not, but I am definitely skeptical that a toaster manufacturer is going to keep their firmware up to date on a regular enough basis to be secure.

Wiley.

Generally the toaster manufacturer does nothing. They either connect to your network or through to a larger network. My a/c connects through my network to it's own base. Access to it is secured by that company. I access it through my phone and can do  anything you can do standing at the thermostat. Change temp, flip a/c to heat, turn fans on and off, set schedules, raise or lower humidity. My garage is the same way.

[Shuffler]

I don't know, my first response to the whole IOT thing is "no." I usually think of it as my juicer spying on me. On the other hand I lost the remote for a few minutes to my TV and I felt greatly inconvenienced at the prospect of having to change the volume by getting up and crossing 10 feet of floor to press a button.

I'm curious where does the voice decoding occur? is it in house or is it in the cloud on some google server? I think the thing that gives me the most pause is not so much that someone will hack my house and set the microwave to kill as much as the idea that there is a microphone listening to me all day.

Mics on the devices listen but do nothing till they hear the correct phrase. For google home it is "OK Google" or "Hey Google". Then it will take that phrase through its voice recognition, which is at google.  This is the same for all voice recognition devices. Even voice remotes do this off premise.

By default it listens for command or question for a very short time then reacts. You can set it so it listens after reacting for a continued conversation... another question or command.

You can have them react to every voice in your family differently. When I talk to it, any list, timers, meetings, or calls are stored on my Note 8 phone. When my wife talks it stores her items on her phone.

At any time you can go online to your private settings on google and see anything you have conversed with google home. From there you can clear it all or keep it. The purpose of this is so you can see exactly what it picks up day to day.

[pembquist]

Do you find that you use voice command a lot, a little? I know I'd like to be able to check that my garage door is closed from my phone, and I have had to borrow my spare key from the neighbors at least 3 times this past year. I am not super paranoid but I don't think I would be capable of assuring my own security with these kind of systems, they would have to pretty much work without me having to know anything beyond basic rules about passwords or such. Do you think they will ever get to that level or will it always be the case that you would have to know a lot more than how to "program a VCR."?

[JOACH1M]

All highschool we had a smart phone. It has its ups and downs. Downs were parents knew everytime I was home when I shouldn’t be lol. Ups were being able to cronrol anything electric inside the house while not being home.