Cisco CEO John Chambers gave a keynote speech last week at the Consumer Electronics Show laying out Cisco’s vision for what he called the Internet of Everything and other people are calling just the Internet of Things. The idea is very simple: put intelligence in every device and connect them all together on the Internet. And the idea behind the idea is even simpler: the everything is what we’ll first have to throw away. Because that’s the only way the Internet of Everything can work.
Throw away your routers, wireless and wired. Throw away your network adapters, wireless and wired. Throw away your modems. Throw away your network extenders. Throw away anything with a radio or an RJ-45 port except maybe your PC, though plenty of those will have to be thrown away, too.
In fact don’t just throw away all the stuff you have now, also throw away every networking gizmo you’ll buy for probably the next year before the real stuff is ready.
The Good Old Days of the record business were when the music companies got us to pay all over again to replace our vinyl records with CDs containing the very same music. The Glory Days of home video were when we trashed our VHS and BetaMax players and bought everything all over again on DVD. Those are the kind of days Cisco sees ahead and Mr. Chambers — and technoid Sarah Silverman of course — is lusting for it.
The idea that we could be talked into throwing everything away is right up there in marketing lore with Arm & Hammer getting us to pour baking soda down our drains.
But of course that’s not what Chambers said last week at CES, was it? Chambers never mentioned having to trash all our equipment to create the networking future that he envisions.
We have to trash all our old stuff in part because IPv6 is required for the Internet of Things to succeed. But much more importantly we’ll have to trash it because that equipment is insecure and in large part its innards are unknown even to the folks who sold it to us.
If Cisco says they can update the firmware on your old Linksys 54GS wireless router and make it work with the Internet of Everything they are at best guessing and at worst lying.
If you don’t start from scratch — completely from scratch — then vulnerabilities will remain that can be exploited by the bad guys. One piece of bad equipment is all it takes for someone somewhere to go all NSA on your network.
It will happen.
So this week I followed my own advice replacing every bit of networking kit at my house. I moved the firewall completely out of the house, opting for a cloud-based service I won’t have to update. The new networking equipment is all Gig-Ethernet and 802.11AC. It’s better, faster, more secure and more reliable but it also cost over $6000 in all. And even then I’m not claiming it can’t be hacked or it won’t be obsolete a year from today.
Every network can be hacked, which is the other reason why it is still the Internet of Crap.
Understand I’m not saying Chambers is wrong. What he describes is inevitable. I’m not even saying it’s unfair that all our old stuff has to go, though it is misleading not to say so up front. What I am saying is that the benefits of the Internet of Everything will cost us all a lot of money.
Start saving up.
ooohhh, Cringe is a first adopter!
you can usually identify first adopters, they are the guys who have to buy everything two or three times as the standardization effort crawls through “yeah, we submitted the standard, you can trust us to be fully implemented,” to “standards match”… to “generally standards compliant,” which means most of the standard doesn’t work on their krep. so it basically doesn’t work unless it connects all the way through to equipment of the same maker and on the same level of software.
but in his case, we should know about all the breaks in connectivity just as quickly as we find out James Lileks had another printer die on him.
Throw everything away? How much does the industry pay you?
Alternative approach. Given that the people who are hoping to dupe us into buying all this new kit are the same ones who screwed up the current stuff, you’d have to be stupid to trust them to get it right next time round. Since we get by with the current crap, let’s keep doing so! Don’t buy the new crap. Show them we are not as stupid as they think we are! …and while we are at it, let’s seek these people out and spit at them as they walk down the street. Anyone who accept this sort of thing is as guilty as the original perpetrators.
So how is WIndows XP treating you? Or are you still on WIndows 95?
I get the feeling that this was a rhetorical question, but since you asked, I might as well interject that I have two laptops: One runs Windows XP, the other still runs Windows 98. On both, one of the first things I did upon receiving the machine was to disable automatic updates. Neither machine has ever received any updates of any kind, and I have never had a security breach or any other kind of OS-related problem with either machine. So it’s working out just fine, thanks.
Laugh all you want, I used Win2K until I made the jump to 7.
So did Steve Gibson. Personally, I used Windows 98 until I made the jump to Vista which came with my umpc in 2007. Now, I’ve installed Windows 8 on a 2009 umpc but configured it to look like Windows 98 with the help of third party software. We both managed to avoid the XP decade with it’s numerous service packs!
And as if right on cue
“Vulnerability leaves Cisco small biz routers wide open to attack
Exploit code available, but no patch until end of the month”
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/14/cisco_small_business_router_flaw/
John Chambers is nothing but a marketing whore. Always was. Always will be. A few wall street folks bother to listen to him ramble, but nobody else bothers.
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This silly prediction of his is at best 10 years away. Look how ip home appliances have turned out. A few thermostats and door locks for silly people who like toys, but grown ups don’t want or need this. My 13 year old netgear router is still plenty of power for home use.
You are a RIOT!
$6000 in networking gear just for a family home? Maybe you live in a bit more cutting edge home than I do, but my house with over 35 wired and wireless devices certainly doesn’t need $6000 in network infrastructure. Maybe I’m missing something?
Would you consider sharing what you felt so compelled to fork over $6K for?
Thanks.
I’m pretty sure the $6000 figure included the new Macs he bought and mentioned in a previous post.
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Remember, Bob says everything with a network port has to be replaced. Replacing all the gear in a family home could easily run $6000.
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I also think Bob is right on with his interpretation of the new marketing plan from Cisco. They are at the point of market saturation and really need everyone to replace all their hardware in order to keep the Wall St. types happy. It’s not possible to post 20% year-over-year earning improvements forever.
All modern computer NICs support IPv6, so I don’t think it is fair to assume all modern computers must be replaced.
I don’t think Cringely is counting the new iMacs in the $6000. Professional networking equipment really is orders of magnitude more expensive than consumer and SMB equipment.
Most businesses do need to replace their computers for IPv6. The hardware supports it, but like 1/3 of business computers are still(!*@$!) running Windows XP. The IPv6 support in Windows XP sucks.
But we’re not assuming that Cringely is replacing his Macs. He said that he was doing so in the first paragraph of his previous column, for a total of $5,407.
my outfit just finished the Win7 migration off XP. however, there is a metric buttload of script apps that blow up under IE, so we are forced to lock the browsers to legacy mode… fake IE6. so really, there is no functional migration in the shop. just wondering how much of that nonsense is underway elsewhere…
35 wired or wireless devices …
Exactly what are all these devices? Sure, I have 4 laptops, one desktop, a Kindle, an iPod Touch, a Wii, and a PS2 that I’ve never bothered to connect to the network. Just over a half-dozen, and it seems like a lot.
I’m just curious what takes you to 35. Maybe if you’re a family of 7 and everybody has a mobile phone, a laptop, a TV, a game system, and throw in the odd desktop, networked storage, networked printer, what have you.
Like I said, I’m just curious.
So, the Internet of Things is peaking in the hype cycle. I believe Google buying Nest for $3.2 Billion, http://investor.google.com/releases/2014/0113.html will be the peak.
That price still baffles me. I need to find a good article on why it was a good idea to pay $3b for a company that makes two products.
It is difficult to ascertain how valuable any of this data will be. Google is obviously betting that Nest will yield a lot of valuable data from the internet of AC controls and fire alarms.
Of course, Google’s bet on Motorola seems to have gone horribly wrong, unless they make a lot of money from the patents they retain.
Still, the internet of things will be useful for data that can be mined for public safety purposes, and there is nothing to suggest that this will be anything other than a marginally profitable business model.
Can someone ask the germane question of what profit can be gleaned from the data stream of things? I think the industry is on crack.
There may be enough money sloshing around to support the early adopters. But with our rising unemployment (the government statistics are total nonsense), I think the roll out will have a dubious future.
Maybe I’m just a dumb Apple user, but my latest-model Airport Base station, my new Macs, and new iPads, and new iPhones are already IPv6-capable right now. Is Bob saying that IPv6-capable ≠ IPv6 *secure*? And that their tiny built-in software firewalls are no good and can’t be made to perform securely? Is Bob saying the telecom companies will simply provide us a wide-open bridge-type connection, and all our tender little private bits will soon be naked and exposed to the fiery digital flames of the Mongolian hordes??? This feels like about a 1/3 of an article – please continue, Bob. Why would Cisco sell us new IPv6 network boxes with no security possible for the devices we’ll be connecting through them? How would Apple change our current iPhones to make them IPv6 secure wherever we go, if they aren’t already? Inquiring minds want to know!
Man, I’m so frustrated with Apple not taking the opportunities for themselves and away from others. The news that Google bought NEST is utterly depressing. What an opportunity lost. I have always hoped that Apple would buy NEST and roll it into a ‘home’ division which I talked about last week during my post about connecting wearable and mobile devices to your ‘home’. Nest was a perfect opportunity for Apple to tie Nest into the home controlling server or as I call it, the Apple TV device (server).
Google truely does have a long term vision which Apple seems to have lost when Steve Jobs passed on. I’m formally offering my services to Apple if they want to get back on track again. 🙂
Anyway, all kidding aside, a key building block for Apple’s future has been taken away by Google.
I think that Nest is a more natural match for what Google is doing and where Google is going – think automation, Android @Home, etc. While I agree it would be ‘nice’ for Apple to be working on this kind of thing, I don’t see how it fits with Apple’s strategy at the moment. And that doesn’t mean it lacks long-term vision.
Google bought Tony Fadell and his design team. Apple is well-stocked in that area.
Let me see … put your firewall in the cloud and it’s still a firewall? To me it sounds just a little bit better than putting up a big sign saying “PLEASE don’t try to get in here (ok the keys are under the mat)”.
I think the Internet of Things will turn out even worse than imagined.
The tardiness of the IPv6 rollout, and the NSA interference with IPsec, have meant that devices need to be built on the Internet of today. That means, generally, IPv4 addresses shared across multiple layers of NAT. They’re kludging connectivity by proxying through “cloud” servers. They’re frequently not installing any form of encryption or authentication on their Internet communications. Security problems galore.
For example, the LG television that phones home everything it sees.
As for the WRT54GS, starting with version 5.0, it just doesn’t have enough flash memory to install IPv6. I guess a clever person could write an IPv6 stack that fits, but that clever person will have to contend with a closed-source OS and closed-source drivers. I don’t like the firmware on most routers.
If you’re really worried about security, you should join an open-source router project, like OpenWRT; and all the paranoia options do take a lot of space. Like about 8MB for a basic router with IPv6 and DNSSEC. Even more space if you want IPsec or 802.1x.
I attended an M2M (Machine to Machine) event at Freescale Semiconductors in East Kilbride where they talked about The Internet Of Things. It was the most pointless day I’ve ever had. Low point was the guy from British Waterways show us canal pictures.
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There was one chap from Oracle who was interesting because he got the problem of M2M. Lots of small bits of information arriving and what do you do with it? He was talking about how you react to that information, analysing it in to something that a human could understand and act upon.
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Although you’ve also got to watch what that information is and why you’d need it. An example is always given that your freezer could be connected to the Internet Of Things and notify you if the power failed. Well, if the power failed so would my network! But I’ve had to replace my networking hardware much more often than my freezer so would I then have to replace my freezer as often as my network? There’s also little I could do for my freezer if the power did go out.
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The Internet Of Things really is an idea looking for an application.
The Internet Of Things really is an idea looking for an application.
Well said Sir!
Why, exactly would I want my lightbulbs to blog about the exact shade of blue I’ve programmed them to use? Do I really want my central heating to let my energy supplier know that it is in ‘holiday’ mode until next week just so the people who they sell that information to can leak it to the local housebreakers?
And I’m sure many people were wondering why they would want to network their computers 100% of the time.
There are some low-hanging fruits for the Internet of Things. My organization just, last year, moved into a new mid-sized building. The building committee was stupidly insular, and so the new building had no effective oversight of the contractors, and was built with major deficiencies. My favorite problem is the main meeting hall, which has 3 separate thermostats and no way to turn them off when nobody is in the hall, or even to keep them from fighting each other for temperature control.
The fridge that texts you when it’s unplugged is sort of useless. The fridge that texts you if the door is ajar or if the compressor drops below some efficiency threshold, could save you a lot of money.
I’d like it if more of my devices talked to each other. If I’m by myself and sitting at a big-screen TV, why should I squint at my tiny phone and tap its annoying keyboard? It’s possible to get extremely capable hardware, but we need better software experiences.
R, it sounds like a problem with whoever it was that built your building! If the thermostats were connected to the Internet Of Things the arguments between each controller would be quicker but not eliminated! It’s a very good example of human stupidity.
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I’m not saying that the Internet Of Things is bad, but the seminar on them certainly was. What I’m am trying to say is that it’s an idea awaiting it’s killer application. And when that happens the amount of tiny bits of information that will provide would swamp a human so it would have to be collated and presented in a better form to a human to act upon it.
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An example I’ve just thought of. Having a temperature sensor built in to every cateye on the roads. The amount of information that would be generated is massive, but each part tiny. Analysed and presented to a human they can direct gritters to where the roads are icy thereby saving on salt costs, and improving road safety.
No, the contractors were even more malicious/stupid. The secondary meeting hall has two thermostats, but they are connected by some proprietary communications protocol. One thermostat is the master, and the other is the slave. The slave cannot have a setting in opposition to the master. The thermostats aren’t connected to anything else, but at least they don’t fight.
And then the rest of the rooms are smaller work rooms, with 2 to 6 rooms sharing a single thermostat. It’s especially fun when the room with the thermostat has a giant south-facing window (in the Northern Hemisphere; the architect is in love with giant south-facing windows), while the other is effectively underground. So… cold…
I don’t like how the Internet of Things sends data to various third-party data collectors. I have computers because computers compute data. Even my router is a powerful computer, with over 10 million bytes of free space right now and the ability to attach an external hard drive. I shouldn’t need to give my data away so somebody else could compute it.
I haven’t seen the IoT seminars, but I have watched Vint Cerf’s presentation about his wine cellar. That’s fine for him. The temperature swings of the wine cellar are a low security risk. The thermostat is a strong signal about when you’re home. If a savvy burglar has been using the thermostat to plan your home burglary, and the thermostat gets a command to turn back on while the burglary is in progress, then that’s a signal that you’re coming home out of schedule and the burglar should leave.
You don’t have to buy a new, “smart” freezer whose firmware will be obsolete before you exit the store’s door and will never be upgraded. A smart power plug would suffice to tell you when the power has failed.
Cloud-based firewall? How does that work?
Is a firewall that can be configured remotely really a firewall?
Rupe
I’d also be interested in some more details about a cloud-based firewall. If that’s not being hosted by your ISP, how could that even work?
Even if the Internet of Things flops, there are going to be a lot of devices sold that can connect to the internet, have sensors and have some storage . . .
The security is a problem . . . because I’d want to run some Big Data queries over those devices, and who knows what can be found there ? What if everyone had an internet connected outdoor thermometer ? What would that do for weather forecasting and environmental monitoring?
You could probably predict ambient outdoor temperature from indoor temperature and energy expenditure (heating or cooling) and I wonder if you can query a NEST for that data?
Does raw data beat analysis every time ? Does look look ahead always trump in chess ?
Let’s find out.
the HDTV (probably a 2001 model) has a nice little Ethernet jack on the side panel. anybody thinks I am going to plug a software-orphan dumb device with no config into the Wild Wild Wackypoo and let it sit there as somebody’s bot is just freaking batwing insane. and the same for the next can opener, lightbulb, door lock, etc.
Oddly enough I just started clearing out a lot of old “junk” at home and have been making about two trips a week to the recyclers to drop off old PC’s, monitors, modems and other junk that I once saved because it was useful at the time – I’d guess that (conservatively) I’ve dumped about $20,000 of gear in terms of original costs so far but I’m still hanging on to my old IMSAI, VAX and PDP for sentimental reasons. Even given that there’s some stuff I want to keep, I’d guess that I will not be done with this clean out for another couple of months.
Yes, all of the consumer grade firewalls, servers, tablets, PCs and TV’s will all be junk in 5-8 years – and for exactly the same reasons that your original iPads, MP3 players (think the Rio) are no longer usable – same as that POTS telephone that used to sit on the kitchen wall.
So where does all this old stuff go? I drop it off at the recycler but I’ll admit I haven’t a clue what they do with it – will someone open up a Rhodium and Iridium mine at the local trash dump?
If you did indeed replace all of your networking infrastructure and spend over $6,000 to do so, I can say with certainty that it will *not* be obsolete in one year. Three to five, maybe, but not one.
With “new networking equipment,” you had my curiosity. With the $6,000 price tag, now you have my attention!
I’m curious, what kind of networking gear does Bob Cringely buy for his home for $6,000?
I’ve never used one, but from what I’ve seen, a Cloud Based Firewall works by having a VPN between your house and the firewall software which is running in a VM somewhere.
OK, first things first. Can anyone give me a COMPELLING reason my toaster oven needs to be connected to the Internet?
No doubt things will begin to appear with internet connectivity, but I see no reason to deliberately replace anything simply to get it. As they break and get replaced normally, OK fine. But the first step once they’re in my house would be to turn off/disable that connectivity.
you outsourced your FIREWALL to the cloud???
And all your new gear will have bufferbloat…
Maybe I just lack vision, but the “cloud firewall” idea sounds 100% backwards to me vs using a trusted open source product such as openwrt or pfsense or m0n0wall.
As for the “internet of things” it still seems equally likely that devices (at least within a home, which I admit is only part of the picture) may be chatting via some non-IP wireless protocol (zwave etc) to some gateway device. That gateway is where the intelligence should reside, because the only thing we can trust the consumer device manufacturers to do is to screw up their own implementation, never fix any bugs, and abandon it after a year.
Security is about balancing your risks versus realistic attack scenarios.
OpenWRT/pfSense/m0n0wall are fine for people like us, who can configure our own routers.
They’re not so good for a non-techie like Cringely. Non-techies want the router to be a set-and-forget type of thing. OpenWRT seems to be especially prone to security failures, due to its large collection of packages that are dubiously configured and never updated, so you really should stay on top of it. And then the latest stable version, 12.09, doesn’t actually support the popular old Broadcom-chipset routers with 4MB flash, 16MB RAM. If you have one of those, you should replace it. (DD-WRT seems way less concerned about being up-to-date.)
I can see the cloud being better for Cringely. He’s basically outsourcing the firewall administration, so dedicated professionals can be maintaining it. An on-premise firewall is limited by the processing power of the device, but a cloud firewall is limited only by what they can fit in their data center. And he’s paying them, so he’s the customer, not the product, unlike most of Google’s initiatives. For a non-techie, the alternative is trusting the firewall configured by the morons at Belkin (or Motorola or D-Link or whoever) several years ago (because they rarely get updated), and this seems way better.
‘Non-Techie like Cringely’?
Right, professional cloud services from the NSA. They know what they’re doing.
how much cisco stock does bob own?
If he owns any, it’s too much. What a dog.
Bob:
…..and there may also be a sizable proportion of the population who will DISCONNECT from the internet of crap….because they a) don’t want unknown people hacking their crap and b) don’t want known and unknown people using the traffic to build a “big data” picture of their possessions and their life.
I’m one of those people who will abstain big time….in order to attempt some sort of privacy. My plan is to have two networks at home — a private network with no internet connection…..and a separate wireless network with an internet connection used only for a very few laptops or tablets. The two networks will be separated by an air gap. Bluetooth (or similar) will be only allowed on an exception basis. No cloud services. Vehicles with services like On-Star will not make the short list for my next purchase….and so on.
You may tell me that the privacy attempt is futile…..but doing nothing is a recipe for bad actors knowing too much about me (knowing stuff they have no right to know), and potentially for those bad actors controlling my “internet crap”.
People who don’t want to be “Big Data-ed” can always go live in cabin in the woods – but even then, drones will find you, analyze you, and enumerate you.
Even this man is on the web: http://tinyurl.com/c6x645l
He’s being “Big Data-ed” as we speak.
Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin a year ago. They got out of the consumer and small business market and are just focusing on larger organizations and service providers.
The internet of things will start out with the low hanging fruit of collecting and analyzing information that businesses, schools, and governments can use to make money, save money, or become more more operationally efficient.
Adding wireless sensors to lots of things will require better networks, sure. Here is a limit to what can be connected to electricity. After that it goes to battery powered devices. But the part I don’t understand is how all these billions of battery powered sensors will be recharged.
Bob has an enterprise grade router.
Yes- it does cost that much- period!
The rest can be ignored unless you want real life example of why Bob needs this pricey piece of equipment for his home with three other (maybe 4) tech savvy independent users.
His needs may include secure reliable high speed communication between various electronic devices with different needs.
If he has any type of quality home automation system (or even if he just has several different components) integrating music/audio servers, video servers, secure work internet, lighting automation, home security/camera systems etc.. he needs a commercial grade router.
This is not just for high sped Wifi but include wired CAT 5 or Cat 6 connection to any of these devices a GB speed (think 4K TV screen playing DVD via Request or Kaleidoscope video server) to master bedroom or home theater.
My home router (Crestron home automation system) must accurately deliver signals from internet, home automation subsystems (lighting/HVAC/Security/Shading/landscaping), home entertainment (Request Audio-Video server and Matrix server for individual TVs), etc.. 24/7 while filtering out “noisy devices” such iPads/iMacs/Apple TV etc…
Belkin- no way!
My basic home networking router, including basic switches, cost about $5K, not including installation.
This does not include any other expenses/equipment!
1 Multi-Vlan Router to separate traffic 2 Wifi access points capable of multiple Vlans 1 Expected Network switches Mbed, Kids 1&2, Rack
1 Patch panels for Cat5 terminations.
Entire system ~$100K
You need an enterprise router at a minimum along with additional networking equipment costing 80-100k for a 3000 sq ft home.
(DOES NOT include your TVs, speakers, subwoofers, PS4’s, Xbox’s and Wii U’s]
DYI need not apply.
Want to integrate motorized shading, security cameras with DVR recording, programmable lighting, multi zone HVAC, landscape lighting/watering with moisture/wind sensors, multi zone audio & video streaming with ability to burn all audio & DVD uncompressed (Request or Kaleidoscope) on multi TB NAS system and keep you home WiFI network secure (as possible)?
Want to listen to orignal non-compressed WAV recorded CDs over integrated whole house AV system with truly hi fi speakers instead of 128 or 256kbps iTunes songs?
I have a collection of 2000 CDs and 200+ DVDs archived that are mine “forever”?
Time Warner, ATT 7 google are all starting to scratch at individual components of home automation.
Want to see you home on the iPhone/ android/internet? Your telcos and cable providers now offer that.
Want an elegant programmable thermostat that you don’t have to program? Nest really cool!
The question is what price point they can deliver a good enough whole house solution that is so idiot proof a Bel Air Princess can use it from any touch screen device without having to tunnel more than 3 layers.
Even if this price point is 10 fold less [~10K] this is still too expensive for mass market adoption.
Can count number of companies that can do this in high end home market on your finger (Crestron, Control 4, Savant- Mac based,plus a few others-maybe). If money is not an issue there is only one Company to consider.
Only one company can do this for commercial size outfits (Crestron).
If you have a Sports Bar with 25 large screen TV’s capable of playing 25 different channels simultaneously that can be controlled from a single remote (requires 32×32 matrix server) there is only one company capable of effectively providing this hardware (~80k). Programming not included.
Will Google, ATT, Apple, TWC et… all agree to common standards for all home devices and play together making my big investment obsolete in the next 3-5 years.
I don’t know but don’t want to share my home “experience’ and preferences from the big providers-
“What time do I set Master Bedroom Mood lighting when both the Mrs. and I are home?-
I don’t want to be receiving text messages for boner pills and testosterone replacement Saturday nights.
I philosophically hate “sharing my chit” with those who don’t ask permission.
I bet against this when building.
Hopefully you sprang for the oxygen-free-copper CAT6 cables. The regular stuff just really kills the high-end above 30kHz.
Unfortunately no CAT 6!
Cat 5 still OK as cable runs relatively short.
Prewire installer adamantly said no to Cat6 in 20019-2010 even though I suggested it.
“You will never need all that capacity”
New at this at time- lesson learned (pricey).
Crestron referred shop cleaned up mess.
30Khz san O2 copper- Are we playing for mice, bats and cats?
Concert piano most dynamic acoustic instrument [27.5- 4186.00 Hz]. Who would have guessed.
[https://www.tnt-audio.com/topics/frequency_e.html]
Unfortunately no CAT 6!
Cat 5 still OK as cable runs relatively short.
Prewire installer adamantly said no to Cat6 in 20019-2010 even though I suggested it.
“You will never need all that capacity”
New at this at time- lesson learned (pricey).
Crestron referred shop cleaned up mess.
30Khz san O2 copper- Are we playing for mice, bats and cats?
Concert piano most dynamic acoustic instrument [27.5- 4186.00 Hz]. Who would have guessed.
[https://www.tnt-audio.com/topics/frequency_e.html]
30kHz sounds low compared to the frequency response required for gigabit data.
Do I –
“Want to listen to orignal non-compressed WAV recorded CDs over integrated whole house AV system with truly hi fi speakers instead of 128 or 256kbps iTunes songs?”
Not really. Perhaps my ears aren’t as hi-fi as yours?
My 2800sq.ft. custom home manages quite nicely with Insteon switchgear & sensors driven by Indigo software running on an old minimac. No cable or satellite, just netflix (and bizarrely, youtube – lots of good british tv if you look carefully) through an appletv to a modest 40″ lcd tv. Airplay from assorted apple boxes to assorted speakers. I suspect there total for all that is less than your router!
I hope you get $100k worth of pleasure from your installation; truly, no sarcasm intended at all. I’d prefer to spend that amount on the structure of the house and so I built a timber framed super-insulated place of my own design. Horses for courses, of course.
Even devices not “wired” to the internet can find a way to get there:
N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
http://tinyurl.com/mfk3kdf
A couple years ago we had a lightning strike near our home and its electrical pulse damaged most of the appliances in our home. All of our appliances with mechanical timers, mechanical thermostats, etc were undamaged. Most of the appliances with electronic controls were fried. In dealing with the damaged I learned something scary. You often can not get electronic devices fixed. I found out my computer monitors, dvd players, and TV’s were made in batches. When the factory ran out of parts they discontinued the model and started a new model with different parts. The parts needed to fix my appliances did not exist. This is true with many consumer electronics devices. My kids cell phone was recently dropped. I found out there were only a few parts available for its repair. One of the parts needed for his phone is no longer available. His phone is only 15 months old.
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The actual support for consumer electronics devices is actually very short, usually 2 years or less. We have many devices and I checked the dates of the firmware updates. After about 2 years, there were no updates. To the manufacturer those devices are far out of sight and out of mind.
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One would think if they bought a major brand name like GE, or Magnavox, or … you’d have the support of a large company behind it. Wrong! If you look closer these products are no longer part of the named company. The “brand name” has been sold to others. The appliances are designed and made by a third party. Some of GE’s products are actually Walmart’s. Walmart has a third party make them and put the GE name on them for sale in Walmart stores. Neither Walmart or GE can fix or support the product.
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If you haven’t noticed yet, there is probably a back door to pretty much every network connected device you’ve bought in the last 10 years. The bad guys know how to bypass the devices security. It is only a matter of time until they start attacking our home networks on a large scale. We will need firmware updates to close the back doors. The only problem is there is no one supporting the products. The updates we need will probably not be developed. We’re screwed.
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Wait, it gets worse. Windows/XP support ends soon! The security updates for it and Microsoft Security Essentials will stop. In a matter of months those millions of Windows/XP systems will be vulnerable. With our PC’s we’ve been fortunate. Microsoft has become very responsible about security and fixing problems. Unfortunately that support for Windows/XP is coming to an end. We’re screwed. If you liked the Windows/XP interface, you’re going to hate the Windows 8 interface. The upgrade is not very clean either. Things work differently and some things work a LOT differently.
Re: “hate the Windows 8 interface”. I do too, so I decided to use Windows 8 with a Windows 7 interface. All it takes is $8 for Start8 and ModernMix from Stardock. Their start menu is more customizable than any of the previous menus built into Windows.
backdoors are for surveillance, not attack. Why on earth would the government want to “attack” your electronic home? To “disrupt” your gaming or movie watching sessions ? Prevent your HVAC from enriching uranium, maybe ? I lived half of my life in a former police state and I can tell you that it was NOT pretty.
There are now hotels offering packages where you are required to leave all devices at the desk so you can enjoy a trip free of electronic contact. Watch for it: there will also be appliance makers who can make a nice living advertising that their products are *not* on the internet.
If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap! Maybe what we need is a Scottish internet.
All the pictures will be of wee Scottish Fold kitties…
According to Craig Ferguson, if it’s his own show, “it’s crap”.
What can you use the Internet of Things for? You can use it to send out junk mail. Seriously a fridge of all things has been found to be sending out junk mail!
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See the BBC news story here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25780908
As a networking professional, I don’t see the need to replace all your crappity crap. It only lasts a few years anyway, and IP4 to IP6 translation is well understood.
But what I want to know:
Is it wrong to lust after Sarah Silverman?
I mean she was f@#$ing Matt Damon 😉
Check out: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25780908
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This is the great danger of this idea for some to make a lot of money. I am sorry but giving everything in my house access to the Internet just isn’t going to happen. Businesses, hospitals, and organizations need to seriously think about this too. Do you need every point of sale terminal, every ATM, ever smart device to have access to the Internet?
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Seriously people, we need to stop and seriously think about this. Wasn’t Target enough of a wake up scare? There is too much crap, crime, malware, trouble floating around the Internet. It is unlikely it will stop anytime in the next several years. Why would you give these evil doer’s access to your home? What is the benefit? Is it worth the huge risk?
https://www.latinpost.com/articles/6101/20140118/internet-of-things-refrigerator-hacked-the-more-we-connect-the-more-we-must-protect.htm
….and the HACKING of the internet of things has already started.
ha ha, already hacked. Your fridge is spying on you (well, it will be soon)… https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25780908
No thanks. I don’t want my refridgerator sending spam and malware and participating in ddos attacks. Why does everything need to be connected to the internet? Who thought this was a good idea? Who benefits?
[…] X. Cringely predicting the Internet of Crap – why vulnerabilities will make us throw away and replace all of our current networking equipment […]
I’m waiting for the “smart” pencil.
I just want to know who the woman with the thick legs is.
Honeywell self-powered millivolt gas valve on the boiler. Honeywell mercury-bulb millivolt thermostat. Installed in 1961 along with the boiler. Works like a charm. Had heat for the ten days when Hurricane Sandy turned off the lights. Have stockpiled a replacement for each, so if something fails we’re good for another 50 years.
John Chambers can shove his smart things up his you-know-what.