4 ms·

It's more like a business failure as in the decision to discontinue the devices were taken prematurely. But really as pointed out above, any IoT device will ev

It's more like a business failure as in the decision to discontinue the devices were taken prematurely. But really as pointed out above, any IoT device will eventually have a security flaw discovered if updates are stopped. As a consumer the best bet is to switch to a supported device or disconnect the device from the internet.

satyamkapoor 5y ago
True. This is what should be written in bold when you are buying any IoT device specifically those consumer grade lamps from small firms. It's fun to control around from our phones but after 2 years it won't be much fun someone else controlling around
alias_neo 5y ago
As a consumer, this is the reason I have boxes with hundreds of £s worth of routers which I've taking out of commission, because the manufacturer stopped updating them. This really shouldn't have to be a consumer issue, it's wasteful to have to replace something like a router after the short EoL and inevitable vulnerabilities are found. Perhaps we need more modularity, so core components can be swapped out to upgrade them.
- dageshi 5y ago
  Seems like the real answer is, you have to pay for ongoing support or the base cost of the device has to go up a lot or you roll your own with pc hardware and you're responsible for updating and making sure everything still works.
  - alias_neo 5y ago
    Personally, I'm not opposed to any of those plans. PC hardware isn't ideal because you lose the benefits of specialised offload capabilities. I'd be willing to pay a nominal annual fee for devices which are important to get firmware updates; router, WiFi AP, phone, etc. To an extent I've partly achieved the modularity I speak of; after becoming fed up with decommissioning WiFi routers every couple years, I moved to router, switch, AP (Ubiquiti gear).
    - xoa 5y ago
      >PC hardware isn't ideal because you lose the benefits of specialised offload capabilities. Just so you know, this isn't true. Nothing stops hardware offload from being put in a PCIe slot (that's where it tends to have started actually). And indeed that's a fairly standard thing on decent NICs, which don't have to be particularly expensive if you buy used. I've switched to OPNsense for routing functionality at all sites I manage, and have had no issues with hardware offloading for CRC, TCP segmentation and large receive offloading, or VLAN hardware filtering with Intel or Chelsio NICs. Both are very well supported under FreeBSD. I suspect a Linux based solution would have an even wider range of options since it tends to have more hardware support, so something like a Mellanox card could work. At any rate though it works well, and running on a PC opens a vast array of useful options and flexibility, all the standard tools are there, and one can get something enormously more capable then a typical pre-made gateway/router for cheap. >I moved to router, switch, AP (Ubiquiti gear). I did this as well way back, and still run the switch and APs as UniFi for now. But I'd caution against depending on them for routing, it's always been a weak point and they've really, REALLY gone down the tubes on development there long since. UniFi gateway/routing and most network services that they've decided to make dependent on it (DNS, DHCP etc) is frankly complete crap. OPNsense (probably pfsense would work too but I didn't want to go to another proprietary solution with a worrying concentration of asshole at the top), VyOS or the like aren't quite as nice to manage, but it's so nice to have normal capabilities and something kept up to date again.
      - alias_neo 5y ago
        > Just so you know, this isn't true. Given my statement, you're correct, but what I meant to say was; I can't just take a random PC (-like) device and expect hardware offload or other similar capabilities, I still have to buy specialised hardware, a suitable NIC, e.g Intel. I make a point of buying Intel NICs for this purpose. > But I'd caution against depending on them for routing I agree. I've been running Ubiquiti for 5+ years now at home. At the time nobody was recommending against them, quite the opposite in fact. I use EdgeMax/EdgeSwitch/EdgeRouter + UniFi APs. > VyOS or the like aren't quite as nice to manage I'm quite happy with VyOS/Vyatta, I'm not interested in fancy UIs, which made me _less_ interested in UniFi. I've considered getting a PCEngines device because of the open/libre bootloader (uboot), when the EdgeRouter finally kicks it. It's nice and compact like a router, I can stick in my 12u network rack cabinet, and I'll be able to keep it up to date for longer as well as integrate it better with the tools I use.

satyamkapoor 5y ago

True. This is what should be written in bold when you are buying any IoT device specifically those consumer grade lamps from small firms. It's fun to control around from our phones but after 2 years it won't be much fun someone else controlling around

alias_neo 5y ago

As a consumer, this is the reason I have boxes with hundreds of £s worth of routers which I've taking out of commission, because the manufacturer stopped updating them. This really shouldn't have to be a consumer issue, it's wasteful to have to replace something like a router after the short EoL and inevitable vulnerabilities are found. Perhaps we need more modularity, so core components can be swapped out to upgrade them.

dageshi 5y ago
Seems like the real answer is, you have to pay for ongoing support or the base cost of the device has to go up a lot or you roll your own with pc hardware and you're responsible for updating and making sure everything still works.
- alias_neo 5y ago
  Personally, I'm not opposed to any of those plans. PC hardware isn't ideal because you lose the benefits of specialised offload capabilities. I'd be willing to pay a nominal annual fee for devices which are important to get firmware updates; router, WiFi AP, phone, etc. To an extent I've partly achieved the modularity I speak of; after becoming fed up with decommissioning WiFi routers every couple years, I moved to router, switch, AP (Ubiquiti gear).
  - xoa 5y ago
    >PC hardware isn't ideal because you lose the benefits of specialised offload capabilities. Just so you know, this isn't true. Nothing stops hardware offload from being put in a PCIe slot (that's where it tends to have started actually). And indeed that's a fairly standard thing on decent NICs, which don't have to be particularly expensive if you buy used. I've switched to OPNsense for routing functionality at all sites I manage, and have had no issues with hardware offloading for CRC, TCP segmentation and large receive offloading, or VLAN hardware filtering with Intel or Chelsio NICs. Both are very well supported under FreeBSD. I suspect a Linux based solution would have an even wider range of options since it tends to have more hardware support, so something like a Mellanox card could work. At any rate though it works well, and running on a PC opens a vast array of useful options and flexibility, all the standard tools are there, and one can get something enormously more capable then a typical pre-made gateway/router for cheap. >I moved to router, switch, AP (Ubiquiti gear). I did this as well way back, and still run the switch and APs as UniFi for now. But I'd caution against depending on them for routing, it's always been a weak point and they've really, REALLY gone down the tubes on development there long since. UniFi gateway/routing and most network services that they've decided to make dependent on it (DNS, DHCP etc) is frankly complete crap. OPNsense (probably pfsense would work too but I didn't want to go to another proprietary solution with a worrying concentration of asshole at the top), VyOS or the like aren't quite as nice to manage, but it's so nice to have normal capabilities and something kept up to date again.
    - alias_neo 5y ago
      > Just so you know, this isn't true. Given my statement, you're correct, but what I meant to say was; I can't just take a random PC (-like) device and expect hardware offload or other similar capabilities, I still have to buy specialised hardware, a suitable NIC, e.g Intel. I make a point of buying Intel NICs for this purpose. > But I'd caution against depending on them for routing I agree. I've been running Ubiquiti for 5+ years now at home. At the time nobody was recommending against them, quite the opposite in fact. I use EdgeMax/EdgeSwitch/EdgeRouter + UniFi APs. > VyOS or the like aren't quite as nice to manage I'm quite happy with VyOS/Vyatta, I'm not interested in fancy UIs, which made me _less_ interested in UniFi. I've considered getting a PCEngines device because of the open/libre bootloader (uboot), when the EdgeRouter finally kicks it. It's nice and compact like a router, I can stick in my 12u network rack cabinet, and I'll be able to keep it up to date for longer as well as integrate it better with the tools I use.