Don't Pirate Or We'll Mess With Your Connected Thermostats, Warns East Coast ISP (engadget.com) 252
Internet service provider Armstrong Zoom has roughly a million subscribers in the Northeastern part of the U.S. and is keen to punish those it believes are using file-sharing services. According to Engadget, "the ISP's response to allegedly naughty customers is bandwidth throttling, which is when an ISP intentionally slows down your internet service based on what you're doing online. Armstrong Zoom's warning letter openly threatens its suspected file-sharing customers about its ability to use or control their webcams and connected thermostats." From the report: The East Coast company stated: "Please be advised that this may affect other services which you may have connected to your internet service, such as the ability to control your thermostat remotely or video monitoring services." All U.S. states served by Armstrong Zoom will be experiencing temperatures around or under freezing over the weekend and into the near future. Bandwidth throttling for customers in those areas who have connected thermostats could mean the difference between sickness and health, or even life and death. Seems like an extreme punishment for any allegedly downloaded Game of Thrones cam rips.
dont mess with my thermostat (Score:5, Funny)
Re:dont mess with my thermostat (Score:5, Insightful)
Just report them to the authorities.
This threat is no different from "It is a nice house you have here, would be unfortunate if something were to happen to it."
It is illegal as fuck for them to make a statement like this.
They aren't law enforcement. If they have a problem with someones possibly illegal online activities they should report it and let a court determine if the action was a copyright violation or not.
Taking the law in your own hands isn't generally accepted.
Re:dont mess with my thermostat (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree that ISPs shouldn't act as copyright cops, judges and juries, but this one isn't threatening to mess with anybody's thermostat. They're just threatening to throttle bandwidth, which realistically could affect the operation of net-enabled devices if say a bit torrent client is hogging the connection.
Programmable Thermostats need Backup Thermostats! (Score:4, Informative)
Just don't trust ANY programmable thermostat, never mind the Internet-connected ones which are vulnerable to hacking and stuff like this.
Up here in Ottawa, Canada - which is damned cold at the moment, -25C but cools things as fast as if it was -40C with the wind chill - any heating system outage could do serious damage to your home.
You're not worried just about frozen pipes. I've personally seen the water in the bowl of a toilet freeze, split the bowl, and cause the tank to fall over. The fill valve in the toilet then helpfully tried to keep the tank full... tens of thousands of dollars in damage, and, to add insult to injury, a huge water bill.
It could be an asshole ISP, North Korean hackers, or it could be a pair of weak AA batteries while you're away on vacation, but the more complicated something is, the more prone it is to failure. Even a top-quality Honeywell Commercial can't turn on the heat if it's got dead batteries.
When you install a programmable thermostat, keep the old one!
Most central heating systems have thermostat terminals labeled R and W (or W1). When R is connected to W, the furnace will go through its startup rituals and produce heat. As soon as you disconnect them, the furnace will start its shutdown rituals.
Startup/shutdown may take a few seconds before the furnace appears to do anything. Any relatively modern (since 1990 or so) gas or oil furnace will do things like start the drafting fan (blows air up the chimney) and heat the igniters before it turns on the fuel, and once it has the fuel burning, it will wait until the heat exchanger is warm before it turns on the blower that moves the warm air into your home. Likewise, shutdown may take a few seconds, usually with the main blower running until the heat exchanger has given up all its heat.
Mount the old mechanical thermostat someplace where it will ensure the house never gets below about 15C. Connect its R and W (W1) terminals in parallel with the R and W terminals on your new thermostat, so that they work as an OR gate (two switches in parallel).
That way, even if the programmable - or those silly/dangerous Nest things - fails, the old-school mechanical thermostat will click the heat on.
Keep the old thermostat set to a lower temperature than the house should ever normally reach and it won't interfere with the energy-savings provided by the programmable thermostat.
When you're connecting the old thermostat as a failsafe, don't assume that the colors on the wiring mean anything - not all R terminals are connected to the red wire, and not all W terminals are connected to the white wire!
The G and the Y terminals control other functions in your furnace, no need to touch them.
R - transformer common, 24V AC
W - call for heat (W1, W2, etc. are for multistage furnaces - use W1)
Y - call for air conditioning - leave it alone
G - call for fan (the fan will start automatically when the furnace is heating or cooling, connecting R-G will cause the fan to run continuously for air flow)
Other terminals can be Googled.
Do the wiring carefully, using proper thermostat/doorbell wire. Put a sticker on your furnace to remind you of where you mounted the backup thermostat. If you're in the least bit unsure of what I'm describing, call a licensed HVAC contractor.
A final warning is that while this COULD be done with baseboards and other line-operated electric heat, it would require suitable thermostats and a licensed electrician to do it - burning your house down to save a flood is counterproductive.
This is a great way to recycle an old mercury-filled thermostat; you've changed it from hazardous waste into a safety device.
Re:dont mess with my thermostat (Score:4, Interesting)
They aren't law enforcement. If they have a problem with someones possibly illegal online activities they should report it and let a court determine if the action was a copyright violation or not.
No you see lacking an FCC ruling we have to use FTC guidance on the matter (see 740 F.3d 623 [2014]). ISPs have the right under FTC rules to secure their network by any means. If they feel a copyright violation "might" happen, they have a right to secure their network and the FTC gives them any means to do that. Now you have recourse in court if you can show that they blocked your "service" and it's important that FTC meaning of "service" means that ISPs can do everything except cut you completely off, without serving you notice. So pretty much as long as you can ping 8.8.8.8 and you're doing something that gives the ISPs a reasonable cause to fear your traffic. They can do whatever the hell they like since the FCC was granted authority over "traffic" in PL104-104 sec 509 and the FCC has indicated that they're not going to stand behind you on this topic.
To anyone thinking they'd like to try their hand in court, by all means, have at it. Let me know how it went, but I can assure you it's not going to go the way you think it should.
This threat is no different from "It is a nice house you have here, would be unfortunate if something were to happen to it."
Yes it is different. A house is physical and network traffic isn't. That's like the big point of why Congress really needs to fucking act on that whole NN thing. Judges don't see IP packets are things that belong to you, and until someone with law making ability says that packets on someone else's network are yours, they aren't yours, the end.
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No you see lacking an FCC ruling we have to use FTC guidance [...]
I can assure you it's not going to go the way you think it should.
The last time I heard someone say that, it went exactly the way I thought it would. And you're not the last Jedi!
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..its ability to use or control their webcams and connected thermostats.
They didn't say they are able to control the webcam or thermostats.
They merely explain that bandwidth measures they take against p2p sharing may affect other services used over the internet.
There is no threat there.
Re: dont mess with my thermostat (Score:2)
As rule without first taking winterizing steps you should not allow a residential building to go below 55 indoors.
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It seems they watched Big Bang Theory where Sheldon messed with Leonard's thermostat.
And it also seems they want to go to jail.
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Tore my internet apart, found a bunch of wires, antennas, electrical doohickeys, NSA cameras, a hidden microphone.....but no tubes.
However, tore apart my 1959 Marshall amp and....
TUBES! lots of tubes! So the internet must be composed of old guitar amps!
Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bandwidth throttling for customers in those areas who have connected thermostats could mean the difference between sickness and health, or even life and death.
If you are needing to adjust your thermostat using the network, that means you aren't at home to do it manually. You are not where the thermostat controls the temperature. I.e., if you freeze to death because you didn't walk across the room to turn the thermostat up, it ain't the ISPs fault.
Yeah, maybe death of your pet fish if you aren't home to turn it up and the tank gets too cold, but "difference between ... life and death" is not something you usually hear with reference to fish.
Or are people facing death from the cold really so lazy that they'd rather freeze than walk across the room?
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If the ISP messes with your thermostat it is their fault. If they do it in the middle of the night when you're asleep, it's their fault. If they do it when you're away and your pipes freeze and flood your house, it's their fault.
They have no business messing with your thermostat. They aren't the police, or the FBI. It's not their job to enforce the law.
And if I had the misfortune to be a customer, you can bet I'd be shopping for another ISP right about now.
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of internet-connected thermostat needs a lot of bandwidth anyway? These things should be able to run on a 300bps modem.
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Funny)
One that's been taken over by a botnet and is too busy mining Dogecoins to adjust the temperature.
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Much infection. Such abuse. Wow.
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Really? Cause I doubt anyone on /. is conversant with every aspect of the EULAs they use. Hell, have you even read the /. terms of use?
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They aren't touching the thermostat. They're throttling the internet speed in response to copyright infringement notices. Their terms of use and related documentation likely covers what can happen in regards to copyright infringement. If you don't like that practice, that is a different argument.. one that I would likely side with you on. However, it's up to the customer to understand the policies and what it entails. The ISP isn't targeting smart thermostats or the like, it's only warning the customer of possible issues if their connection is throttled.
While I agree with you, what happens if the infringement claims turn out to be false and as a result of the ISP acting on them someone suffers real harm? The ISP is already aware that their actions could cause the harm, and the were negligent in not ensuring the claims of infringement were valid before taking action. I'm sure their TOS would have them disclaim any liability but it would be interesting to see if it would hold up in court.They should let the copyright owner take action and not get in the midd
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Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Insightful)
They're not "messing with your thermostat." They're messing with your internet connection, which you've connected your thermostat to.
If lack of internet connectivity is going to cause your house to flood, or your granny to die, then you probably need to re-evaluate how you're using these devices.
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Yes, depending on your internet to that extent isn't smart. However, intentionally screwing with it this way is a horrible thing to do. "Nice internet connection you have here. Be a shame if something happened to it."
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Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Insightful)
If the ISP messes with your thermostat it is their fault.
Stand still and think for a minute. If an ISP throttles or shuts off your internet connection for any reason, what effect will that have on your internet-controlled thermostat?
The correct answer is "4". The setting you had in place before the network interruption takes place will continue.
Answers 1-3 are all what could be considered "messing with your thermostat", but only if the ISP actually makes the changes to the settings and not the stupid thermostat changes how it works when it loses a network connection. "Turn all heat off unless there is a constant network connection to some server in China" is a stupid and dangerous operating mode, and you need to blame the thermostat maker for that, not the ISP.
For the person whose grandmother cannot operate a thermostat unless it is internet connected, then I suggest you get her a locally controlled thermostat instead of relying on the external internet. It is quite possible that the external internet will fail during a severe weather event and she'll be dead even if the ISP had nothing to do with it. Even just a local power failure could take out the wireless access point that the thermostat connects to, as well as the internet modem. This is not a case of the ISP turning something into a "matter of life or death", it's a case of poor planning on how to deal with common modes of failure resulting in a "matter of life or death."
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No doubt the ISP was referring to customers' server-like nodes on their home networks, such as home automation stuff (which is possibly against their TOS anyway).
They did not threaten to turn off your furnace during the dead of winter.
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Uhhhhh did you read their actual statement, which is in the summary and copied below? They do not make any threat regarding interfering with your equipment. They merely mention that services you can access remotely over the internet will not work remotely if your internet is throttled due to piracy. They will still work locally.
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Regardless, they are making THREATS regarding interfering with your equipment, essentially saying that they will HACK you.
No, they are not doing that. You just failed your English comprehension final.
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Yea well, if you buy a dumb 'smart' thermostat that allows a temperature extreme like this then that is your fault.
At this point, with the current state of 'the internet of things', just having anything critical on the internet like this is your fault.
- Choose wisely
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If the ISP messes with your thermostat it is their fault. If they do it in the middle of the night when you're asleep, it's their fault. If they do it when you're away and your pipes freeze and flood your house, it's their fault.
They have no business messing with your thermostat. They aren't the police, or the FBI. It's not their job to enforce the law.
And if I had the misfortune to be a customer, you can bet I'd be shopping for another ISP right about now.
Please re-read that clusterfuck of a summary to help avoid misinterpretation. They are NOT controlling or messing with your thermostat. They are merely stating that bandwidth throttling may interfere with an owners ability to remotely control their own thermostat.
And quite honesty, if a homeowner has spent the money to buy and install a smart thermostat and yet fail to have it programmed to automatically avoid the ridiculous speculations of freezing pipes or freezing humans, then they are stupid enough to
Re: Hyperbole much? (Score:2)
For crying out loud, the isp isn't adjusting anyone's thermostat, they may make it harder for customers to REMOTELY adjust their thermostat.
Just another completely click-baity /. Headline.
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, maybe death of your pet fish if you aren't home to turn it up and the tank gets too cold
When I was a little kid and my older brother went away to Boy Scout camp for the weekend, leaving me in care of his fish tank, I felt sorry for the fish having to swim around in such cold water. So I turned the tank heater all the way up so that they would be warm.
He was not the least bit happy when he came home to a bunch of dead exotic fish floating on the surface with their eyeballs popped out.
I am not qualified to be an ISP, either.
Pet fish should be fine (Score:2)
If you have species that are that sensitive to the cold, not to mention the gradual change given the heavy moderation of all the water in a fish tank, you'll have an automatic heater in there.
But yes, any "internet connected" thermostat should still have a minimum allowed temperature (mine is 55F) that you can program in, and the worst case is that it is a bit chilly when you get home and turn it up manually.
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Funny)
Granny should have thought of that before she pirated The Girlfriend Experience.
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:4, Insightful)
i taken my mother in as a house guest
Then it is YOUR responsibility to manage the thermostat, and if you set it at a level where she will freeze to death it will be your responsbility, not the ISPs. If you leave her alone in the house and set it so she will freeze, and then depend on being able to get in from the external internet to turn it back up so she doesn't (ha ha granny, feel how cold it is? where's my inheritance? Put me back in the will. Ok, now you get heat again!) then don't blame the ISP when your plot is foiled by a network outage.
Maybe just leave the thermostat set at a livable temperature and you won't have to worry about network failures from any source or reason.
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If the thermostat is in the cooling setting
And just whose fault is it that the thermostat is set to "cool" in the middle of winter? I don't know anyplace on the planet where things change so fast that you have to cool one day and then heat to keep from freezing to death the next. And if you live in such a place, you better have a thermostat that can switch by itself.
Sounds like she needs to be in a nursing home, or have live in family or room mate to take care of her.
I think setting the thermostat so it maintains a livable temperature is something the host would do when taking granny in as a houseguest. At least I think that would be a reasonable tas
Re: Hyperbole much? (Score:2)
What about the elderly? Are you setious? So you think an ISP, throttling your internet connection (which runs from the San connector on your router to their year-end equipment) somehow will prevent a an elderly customer, sitting in their living room, trying to control the temperature in the thermostat on their wal!? How? Because the app on their iPhone reaches out over the phones cellular connection, passes they the UPS network, into their home, and then as a Wi-Fi signal to their thermostat? That sounds a
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How about the situation where the internet is being used by a vulnerable customer to signal for assistance?
What about where it is being used to monitor an elderly relative to ensure they haven't fallen / died?
What about the people who rely on internet cameras/security devices?
People who have heart monitor/drug delivery/other medical devices....?
And ALL the replies I have seen so far assume the person IS pirating... Even the courts in the USA (who are often represented here as technologically illiterate) se
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Funny)
It's the perfect crime
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Re: Hyperbole much? (Score:2)
They also lived in places with fireplaces and chimneys, didnâ(TM)t have to worry about pipes freezing and bursting behind the walls or in the ceiling, and maybe even had a smaller volume/area to keep warm or doors and walls that isolated separate areas unlike modern open plan living spaces.
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That's why we had a plain old non-intelligent thermostat installed in our house. K.I.S.S.
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It sounds like you should have kept the old 1960's era dial turn thermostat for grammy, so she actually knew how to use the damn thing without relying on a tablet.
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Or her wifi password has been compromised.
Re: Hyperbole much? (Score:2)
You also have to be pirating content from your remote, unoccupied, 2nd home.
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And I wouldn't use an internet service that said they might mess with thermostats.
Any ISP that tells you that termination of your internet service would NOT affect your ability to remotely control your internet-controlled thermostat would be LYING TO YOU.
You wouldn't use an ISP that is honest enough to tell you up-front that termination of your service would affect how you use IoT devices?
Well, isn't it nice that this ISP did not tell anyone they would mess with anyone's thermostats, huh?
And if they did, and someone dies, I would want them to go to jail for murder.
If you've created an environment where an internet outage results in someone dying, then that's Y
This is why we need bet neutrality (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, personally, I am strongly against connecting any devices (other than computers) in my home to the outside facing network, but that's beside the point.
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ISPs don't want to cancel your service for infringement. It's a monetary loss to them. They do want to cancel your service if you're a high-bandwidth user.
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Or... you could develop the skill of reading beyond the scare tactic hype (by both the ISP and Engadget) and understand that both sides are pumping out nothing but FUD.
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Hooray! (dupe) (Score:5, Informative)
Hooray! I remember reading the exact same story on /. a few days ago.
Let me google it, "connected thermostat site:slashdot.org". Here we go:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
Maybe editor should do the same and Google it before posting dupes ;-)
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So conflicted right now. On the one side if I don't pirate I have heating in my house. On the other side if I pirate I may no longer have to endure dupes!
I checked into it... (Score:2)
Lol. You are all funny (Score:3)
They aren't messing with anything other than saying if you pirate we'll nuke your internet so you won't be able to use all the internet things you like to use. All of this is likely covered in the TOS.
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Exactly. Stupid clickbait.
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Their Internet Policy Are Ridiculous....!! (Score:2)
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Pretty bad. If grandma forwards a stupid email to more than 10 people she could be cut off. If you ask them to install an Ethernet card, they can't guarantee they won't lose all your data on your computer. They may change your provided email address without notice. They poison DNS lookup failures. Tiny 200GB data cap on their lowest tier. Hijacking HTTP requests when near your bandwidth limit.
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Thanks, Ajit. (Score:2)
How much bandwidth are they thinking.... (Score:3)
In practice temperatures change slowly enough that even getting a single packet every half hour would probably be adequate for keeping a temperature entirely livable.
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Exactly. Both sides (Engadget and the ISP) are doing nothing but spreading the FUD thick and wide.
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In practice temperatures change slowly enough that even getting a single packet every half hour would probably be adequate for keeping a temperature entirely livable.
I don't have an internet-connected thermostat because I see no need for it. However, I do have a "thermostat". The job of a thermostat is to turn heating devices (or cooling devices) on and off in a way that it maintains the temperature that it is instructed to maintain.
As the outside temperature goes down, the heat flux increases outwards and the heating devices need to remain on longer to keep the same temperature. (I.e., pump heat INTO the house so it balances the heat flow going out.)
At the point whe
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I've got this great idea (Score:3, Insightful)
You wouldn't have to worry about your ability to turn it up remotely if you didn't turn it down to start with before you left home.
It's a pretty well know fact that it takes [i]more[/i] energy to change the temperature in a home than to maintain a set temperature. If you're only in the house every other season that's one thing, but it's these people who insist on micromanaging their heating and cooling on an hourly basis who are missing the point.
And as for those people who are worried about pipes freezing -- they shouldn't be turning their furnace completely off to start with. Leave the thermostat at 50 degrees at least. Leave the cabinets open to allow the pipes better circulation with the warm air in the house (it's not like you're home anyway to be bothered by those doors), get pipe warmers and just hook them up and leave them plugged in. Heck. I bet you could set up a smarthome system that would turn them on and off for you using local temperature sensors (no internet needed). But instead, you buy a three hundred dollar thermostat and pay for internet service for an empty house for months you're not there, and you call this "saving money".
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SeaFox writes
> It's a pretty well known fact that it takes [i]more[/i] energy to change the temperature in a home than to maintain a set temperature.
Not according to Max Sherman, a "senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory overseeing research for residential energy efficiency." According to http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sc-cons-1113-karpspend-20141107-column.html:
"Another common refrain is that it's cheaper to keep your home at a constant temperature, even when you're not ho
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It's a pretty well know fact that it takes [i]more[/i] energy to change the temperature in a home than to maintain a set temperature.
Wait, what? It's a pretty well-known fact that the rate of thermal transfer is based on the difference in temperatures between the hot and cold objects. If you permit your house to cool down while you're gone, and then warm it up in time for you to get there, you will definitely save energy as compared to keeping it hot the whole time.
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Wait, what? It's a pretty well-known fact that the rate of thermal transfer is based on the difference in temperatures between the hot and cold objects. If you permit your house to cool down while you're gone, and then warm it up in time for you to get there, you will definitely save energy as compared to keeping it hot the whole time.
Depends on technology. If heat is from electricity or combustion then yes there will be a slight reduction in consumption by turning down stat for a significant percentage of a day.
If on the other hand you have a heat pump the most energy efficient configuration is to set a temperature and leave it be for multiple reasons. The most salient being resistive heating is much less efficient than any possible gains from temporarily reducing temperature.
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If on the other hand you have a heat pump the most energy efficient configuration is to set a temperature and leave it be for multiple reasons. The most salient being resistive heating is much less efficient than any possible gains from temporarily reducing temperature.
The difference is not between heat pump and heater. The difference is between well-insulated and not, unless it's so cold that a heat pump won't actually work.
Make The Threat Hurt (Score:2)
Oh no they won't! (Score:2)
Everyone knows only the man of the house touches the thermostat
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Internet service provider Armstrong Zoom os (Score:2)
Just my 2 cents
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They are praying on the ignorance of any customer unforunately forced to use them as an ISP. This Company is poison and extremely unethical to scare their customers that do not understand current tech!
I see you didn't read the letter that the summary linked to. Here's the relevant part, copied by hand since the link was an image:
This is a pretty straight-forward statement that if they turn your internet off due to TOS violations (and this letter is pretty clear that this is not the first contact about the problem
You guys are being stupid (Score:2)
When your connection gets throttled it throttles everything. That also might affect your VoIP service and everything else connected to your internet.
IoT Bad (Score:2)
An excellent argument (as if we needed another) of why the "Internet of Things" is and was a terrible idea. Because even if the ISP never carries out such a threat, any network failure could just as easily cripple everybody's Echos and Nests. My computer and smartphones connect to the Internet; my fridge, stove, thermostat and other appliances don't need to.
And never will.
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An excellent argument (as if we needed another) of why the "Internet of Things" is and was a terrible idea.
It is not a generic argument against IoT devices, only stupidly programmed life-critical devices. If your IoT thermostat does the sensible thing of "maintain current settings" when losing internet connectivity, then losing internet connectivity won't result in anyone freezing to death. Only if your IoT thermostat dumps all settings and reverts to "off" when it cannot communicate with a remote server would it be an excellent argument against IoT.
any network failure could just as easily cripple everybody's Echos and Nests.
Echos require internet to send your audio back for voice recogn
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A couple of years ago, an Amazon Echo user had programmed all of his light switches to be voice-controlled. He regretted that about 2AM one night when he lost internet connectivity and all the lights turned on and the Echo devices started sounding an alarm tone. I don't have an Echo; I even refused one when Amazon offered me a free one for being a good customer. (When I refused the Echo, they offered the equivalent in Amazon credit, which I was delighted to accept.) So I can't really speak to whether t
Bandwidth required to adjust a Thermostat? (Score:2)
"Bandwidth throttling for customers in those areas who have connected thermostats could mean the difference between sickness and health, or even life and death."
Complete bullshit, how much bandwidth is required to adjust a thermostat?
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Use a quality VPN (Score:3)
Keep your home and its needed networks away from the open internet.
Use the ISP internet with a VPN.
Find other ways to secure the CCTV so CCTV keeps working.
Is this the news for nerds site ? (Score:2)
Because quite a bunch of you have no idea what a Thermostat is, or why it's even "Internet enabled" to begin with if you think is even remotely close to being an issue. How can you call yourselves nerds and not even have a smidgen of a clue of how a Thermostat operates and what it is used for ?
The heck do Internet thermostats even have to do with this story ? ISP throttles you if they catch you infringing copyright. That's it. That doesn't impact your Thermostat at all.
Even my freaking Grand mother know
ISPs Common Carrier? (Score:2)
Media trolling/whoring for attention can be deadly (Score:2)
What happens when there is a real story about something important and people dismiss it as more senseless noise by know nothing trolls?
I suspect the answer is probably nothing...
ISP shut off my Internet service for non-payment (Score:2)
And now I can't turn on my furnace from my mobile phone... itttt'ssss cccooolllddd in here. I can't get up to turn it on because the floor is covered with ice after pipes froze and burst after the power company also shut off my power for non-payment. I fall down every time I try to stand.
To make matters worse my phone will only let me dial 911 and the Internet does not work. I tried calling 911 and explained to them not having Internet access is an emergency but the rude person on the other end says I'll
What they will do if snowstorm tear off the wires? (Score:2)
People that buy thermostat, which depends on external server for proper operation deserve to be frozen to death.
What they'll do if not the evil will of ISP, but natural force would cut them off internet?
For instance if snowstorm would uproot couple of poles and break the wires?
(Really the electricity would also be cut, so you'll need to keep a gasoline generator in the basement if your heating depend on electricity).
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I've helped four members of our management setup nest thermostats and security cameras. Three of them have around 750 kbps DSL (supposed to be up to 1.5 Mbps, but Frontier around here sucks), and the cameras worked just fine. Even the spec page:
https://nest.com/support/article/Are-there-any-issues-with-streaming-Nest-Cam-over-a-mobile-Wi-Fi-hotspot [nest.com]
Says "It requires 200kb/s (0.2Mbps) of bandwidth on average, but can reach up to as much as 500kb/s" The thermostat should be a tiny fraction of that.
Re: (Score:2)
>> This is like buying a car and the dealership says they are not going to fix your engine under warranty because you are using the car to...
Then don;t ever buy a Tesla.
http://mashable.com/2016/02/03... [mashable.com]
https://www.reddit.com/r/tesla... [reddit.com]
Re: (Score:3)
ISPs want to be a monopoly with the protections of a common carrier public utility, but also want to be able to control content. You can't have it both ways.
If they want to control and police your content, then they should be the ones liable when they let illegal content through.
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If they break the law it is up to the authorities to punish them NOT the ISP.
The ISP is not enforcing any law. They are deciding not to sell someone a service that they have reason to believe (due to complaints from other people) is being used outside the terms of service. Laws are irrelevant. This is also after multiple attempts at contact with the customer have failed to get a response.
If your automobile warranty had a clause that it became invalid if the vehicle is used for illegal purposes, then the dealership is within their rights for refusing to honor the warranty when the i
Re: Easy... (Score:2)
Neither of which is Armstong Zoom, so what is your problem?
Re: Cool story (Score:2)
So you need an internet connection to control your heater? If true, you are a moron... I'm sorry, that's just stupid. What if your ISP goes down during a snowstorm?
Re: (Score:2)
Back then, loading a web page didn't take 3 minutes (literally) on a 56k connection like it does now. Remember that all of these "smart" devices today are also busy harvesting all sorts of personal goodies unlike your environmental control systems.