Smart Home Primer

As you begin to explore Smart Home products and the Internet of Things industry, one common theme you will encounter is the emphasis on digital security. We’re big proponents of this careful approach and we commend those that are vigil and further the effort to protect the public from becoming victims or unwitting participants in wide scale attacks like the Mirai Botnet, a malware that was discovered running on thousands of video cameras and routers that had not been secured with a strong password. The malware allowed devices to combine computing power to deliver a Distributed Denial of Service attack on Dyn, a popular Domain Name Service provider for many large companies on October 21, 2016. While damage was temporary, 73 big names brands like Amazon, Netflix, PayPal and Visa were forced offline for several hours by the attack. Not at all insignificant in scale.

Tell us something new

If at this point in our article, you’re already wondering how this affects your smart home or you’ve convinced yourself that is doesn’t because you only buy from reputable companies or you’ve invested in all Apple HomeKit products, you may be mistaken. If you are not using highly randomized passwords for your devices and smart home apps or if you have duplicated any passwords on any of the devices or services you use, you are at risk.

Rules are rules

The same password rules that apply to typical online behavior, also apply where the smart home is concerned.

Always use highly randomized passwords
Never duplicate passwords on any service or device
Never store your passwords in an insecure manor such as an unencrypted plain text file on your computer, phone or tablet

Begin as you mean to go on...

A simple fact is, if you’re going to add IoT devices to your home and use apps on your smart devices, you’re going to need to provide an email address and password for every single one one of them, so begin as you mean to go on. Use a secure means of automatically generating and storing passwords. Do it from here forward.

Our favorite is the very popular LastPass, where you only need to remember a single complex password, and it takes care of the rest. Automatically generating highly randomized and unique passwords, LastPass then securely stores them in the cloud where they cannot be lost, and will never be of value for theft, because they are encrypted until the moment you view or copy them on your own device.

Be a part of the solution

Using secure password generation is a major step in securing the Internet of Things; One that is unfortunately left entirely up to the end consumer at this point, rather than in partnership with experts like LastPass or 1Password. For example, where in-app automatic generation, storage and autofill password are all possible from within iOS, we're not aware of any consumer Smart Home apps that currently support the feature aside from IFTTT. Look for the keyhole icon as shown in the password field of the IFTTT login screen for iOS below. This indicates that the app supports autofill from LastPass, so tapping the icon will automatically launch your LastPass app, allow you to login, and it will then fill-in the username and password fields for you and sign you into the app. If the app does not have this icon, you must manually enter the email address in the app, switch to LastPass, search for the account, copy the password, return to the app, paste it into the password field and sign in.

So the next time you buy a new smart home device, follow one of our How-to: articles, or use a new app that needs a user login, instead of allowing your activity to be tracked by Facebook, Twitter or Google with an OAuth login which may not be as secure as you are lead to believe, we recommend you use a free email account created just for smart home services, and then generate a random password with your password manager app. Do it for that extra email account and do it for every app that needs a unique password, which is all of them.

Important to note

LastPass has been evaluated and is trusted by security experts, plus it’s now free on all devices, so there’s no excuse not to use it.

To maintain privacy, prevent unwanted advertising and for possible home resale, we recommend you register your smart home devices and apps with a free email account from companies like Google that place strong emphasis on security of their user account and personal information.

Keep passwords long and random with special characters whenever allowed. The more complex the password, the more difficult it will be for software to reverse the protection put in place against such efforts. Since apps like LastPass store your passwords securely, you only need to copy and paste the password into the app when logging in.

Some devices and apps do not allow passwords to contain certain characters or exceed a certain length, but unfortunately the manufacturer will not always specify this and while the password may be accepted, you sometimes won’t be able log back in. We’ve also encounter situations where copy and paste of the password caused the account log-in to fail. Some of these situations are rare, and if you discover a limitation, we encourage you to reach out to the product or service support team to help them update their software to improve security and ease of use.

Have a comment or question? Please gives us your feedback in the comments sections and do join us in the discussion on Twitter @smarthomeprimer where you'll find us posting about the latest news in IoT and smart home innovations.

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Something that's really lacking in the young consumer IoT industry is a coherent vision that consumers can relate to. We alluded to this in our previous post "How to Choose DIY Smart Home Products". That issue is further complicated by inconsistencies in product form and function.

A particular issue consumers face today when attempting to retrofit their homes with modern smart bulbs, is the reality that they must have constant power and are incompatible with dimmer switches. Turn off the light at the switch, and your "smart" bulb becomes nothing more than an expensive LED that you can no longer control.

[Update] - The landscape is beginning to change with the introduction of Sengled's Element Plus and Element Touch, the first ever dimmer compatible smart bulbs.

Don't turn that switch off!

One of our favorite workarounds to this problem is the Lutron Connected Bulb Remote, a ZigBee connected remote that gives you a choice of mounting into a North American standard wall plate with the addition of a Lutron Pico Wallplate Bracket (PICO-WBX-ADAPT), stick it to the wall with the included adhesive or use it as a handheld remote, enabling the average consumer a tremendous amount of customized wireless light control, with little hassle and no need for an electrician.

If you're competent to safely remove the old wired switch and change the wiring to the light socket so it is always energized, you can completely eliminate the issue of having to have the light switch always on or worrying that you won't be able to control the light if the internet or WiFi is down. This is a very cost effect solution too, versus hiring a licensed electrician to install a dimmer switch connected it to a particular socket in your home, not to mention that it's then just a light on a dimmer. Unless you put in a connected dimmer, a standard dimmer switch offers no remote control from your smartphone, no timers and no voice control with Amazon Echo, Google Home or Siri via HomeKit. If you're renting, swapping out installed wall switches is not something we recommend and it may not even be an option for many.

A match made in Holland

The Lutron Connected Bulb Remote solves this particular problem by communicating wirelessly via ZigBee radio, directly with a single or multiple bulbs. Take a Philips Hue White A-19 Bulb, pair it with a Lutron Connected Bulb Remote, and even though Philips support staff might tell you otherwise (because they have their own remote they want you to buy), the pairing with Lutron's Connected Bulb Remote works really well, no hub or internet required. The two together give you a smoothly dimming bulb with a pleasing warm light. Admittedly this combination is more expensive than the Hue Wireless Dimming Kit, but we think the look of the Philips remote clashes too much with the standard North American wall switches and find the design bulky and unappealing. It's even possible to use a Lutron Connected Bulb Remote in combination with the Philips Hue Bridge for control of your Hue White bulbs. Click here to find out how to trick the Philips Hue Bridge into accepting a Lutron Connected Bulb Remote, so the two don't fight over who gets to pair with the bulbs.

Where this mix falls short is when you press the top button on a Lutron Connected Bulb Remote to turn the light on. With a Hue remote switch and a Philips Hue Bridge, you can configure the ON button to activate a "Scene", turning the light on to any level available. Not so with the Lutron Connected Bulb Remote, sending blinding light to your eye's in the middle of the night if you forget. So you have to learn to press the up arrow instead and then you're able to gradually increase the light to your liking. But, it won't stay that way when you turn the light off. If you press the top button, you'll again get 100% light from the bulb. One work around is to pair the bulb and remote with a Wink hub and then use the remote with Wink Shortcuts instead of as a bulb remote. The only problem is you then loose the ability to dim and are instead left with four preset levels. So while it is possible today to have an inexpensive solution for controlling multiple connected LED bulbs with a single remote or multiple remotes, it's not yet accomplished in a perfect way.

Smart buttons are family friendly

Here's a trick we really like. If you have a Wink hub, a Lutron Connected Bulb Remote can actually serve as a four button remote to trigger any single or multiple actions that are compatible with a Wink hub. For example, you can easily configure the remote to operate an automated window shade instead of lights or control your smart lock without walking up to the door or having to open an app on your phone.

We should mention that we really like Insteon's similar approach to this issue, and they're able to address these scenarios with remotes, switches and keypads, but the cost to do so is higher and the options are limited to what Insteon can control. That means no ZigBee lightbulbs.

Things are shaping up with smart bulb design

When it comes down to design of the smart bulbs themselves, the industry is almost there in terms of usability, but physical design is still trailing far behind. We're fond of the offering from Cree, called the Cree Connect LED Bulb.

Just a few dollars more than the Hue White bulbs and its clever design addresses both the LED cooling and light distribution issues, while maintaining the standard bulb shape and appearance when covered by a shade or installed in a translucent fixture that does not show the bulb. Unfortunately the warm white doesn't match standard incandescent bulbs or LED lights that fall close to that color temperature, and they do not dim smoothly from the Lutron Connected Bulb Remote (a pairing which is actually suggested on Lutron's packaging for the product).

Smart switches vs smart bulbs and remotes

Insteon and the Lutron Caséta approach to a connected light switch we think are near perfect, albeit more expensive than a ZigBee lightbulb and remote.
Insteon switches are able to not only control the lights they're physically wired to, but the switches can be programmed through either setup at the switch or via the Insteon app and hub to act as controller of other Insteon switches, as in a virtual 3-way or 4-way lighting scenario. They hold all their settings until reprogrammed, even remembering the last dim level, as well as how fast or slow a light should turn on and off. Like the Lutron Connected Bulb Remote they can operate with or without a hub and internet connection, making them a more familiar lighting experience that will always pass the babysitter test. Connected switches really shine with their very responsive and reliable designs, but the disadvantages are in hardware cost, skilled installation is required and they need a neutral wire to operate which leaves owners of older homes little choice beyond an even more expensive installation or special connected switches that can only operate with incandescent bulbs.

A brighter future

There's a lot of room for further innovation in the connected lighting space, companies like BeOnhome are proving that, but the ideas are trapped in such tall silos that innovation is only trickling to the market, one design generation at a time.

[Update] - The landscape is beginning to change with the introduction of Sengled's Element and Element Touch, the first ever dimmer compatible smart bulbs. We're pleased that someone has taken the first step toward addressing this retrofit issue and look forward to the idea catching on with a larger variety of bulb designs and manufactures.

Please leave us your comments or questions and do join us in the discussion on Twitter @smarthomeprimer where you'll find us posting about the latest news in IoT and smart home innovations.

2 comments

We really like the second generation Nest Protect.

Despite their early mistakes, they have now produced a really good product to help protect you from harm and property from damage. No other detector available to consumers can detect both slow and fast burning fires, plus CO, plus talk to you and wirelessly interconnect. There are eight other significant features, but this is not a second generation Nest Protect review; instead, we're focusing on one particular feature.

The Nest Protect has a very special feature; in the event of a smoke or carbon monoxide emergency, it can communicate via Nest Thread protocol to the Nest Thermostat and turn off your heating/cooling system to help limit danger from smoke or CO leaks spreading throughout your home. This is a big deal and we're not aware of any other smoke and CO alarm available today with this capability. But what if you decided a Nest Thermostat isn’t right for you, and instead prefer the Ecobee 3? Don't hold your breath for Ecobee to join the “Works with Nest” program, but don't despair, there's a mediator that can easily make these competitors cooperate in perfect Harmony.

Enter the Logitech Harmony Hub.

If you’re even slightly interested in home automation and you don’t have one of these, it is an invaluable intermediate hub that allows a large list of connected home products that would otherwise be isolated to connect with one another, as we wrote in a previous post.

Alright, so now that you have a second generation Nest Protect, a Logitech Harmony Hub, and an Ecobee 3, follow these simple instructions to make them work together in the event of an emergency.

1. If you’ve had your Harmony Hub for a while and it’s not running the latest firmware, you should update it first. This is done from the app on your smartphone or tablet. Click here for an easy to follow guide on how to update the firmware on your Harmony Hub.

2. In the Harmony app under “Devices”, add the Nest Protect and Ecobee.

3. Create a new activity and call it “Emergency HVAC Off”.

4. Edit the “Start Sequence” and select the name you assigned to your Ecobee Thermostat from the list of devices and click the next arrow.

5. Now select your thermostat again on the next screen and set the “Mode” to OFF and “Hold” to ON, then click the x in the upper right to close the window. You should keep the field “When to Adjust” set to Always. Now click the next arrow.

6. Leave the “End Sequence” unchanged. If you have an emergency, you will resume schedule on your thermostat manually once you are sure there is no danger.

7. Select “Sensor Triggers” and choose the name you assigned to your Nest Protect. On the next screen tap CO, then “Emergency”, then “Save”. Do the same for a smoke emergency.

8. Tap the next arrow, then once again and you’re done.

Now if there’s a CO or smoke emergency detected by your Nest Protect, it will talk to the Logitech Harmony Hub, which in turn will communicate with the Ecobee to automatically disable the HVAC system. If you have connected lights such as Insteon, Philips Hue, SmartThings, or LIFX, you can also set them to turn on if there’s a CO or smoke emergency. Similarly, you can do the same thing with a Wink Hub using “Robots”, since it also supports both Nest Protect and Ecobee.

NOTE: This method of deactivating and activating devices in the event of a CO or smoke emergency requires WiFi and Internet access. If either is disrupted it will not work. This is not true of Nest Protect to Nest Thermostat, which use Nest Thread to communicate and therefor do not require internet access to disable an HVAC system the Nest Thermostat is wired to.

Do you like this simple "hack"? Please send us a tweet @smarthomeprimer and let us know! If you have ideas of how you would or have bridged a smart home connection with the Harmony Hub, we'd love to hear about it.

1 comments

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