I had to explain this to some people yesterday- their modem and router are in the office at one end of the house, their main TV and system are at the far end and their "techy" son set up an Airport Express as a repeater, which resulted in their not being able to use their AppleTV reliably. They have two Roku on TVs in the basement and the one at the far end of the house doesn't get much signal, so I tried a Unify AP to improve the performance at the far end of the house. The AP did nothing to help unless it was within ten feet and in the same room, even though it had been set up and updated properly.

I also explained that hard wired is for performance, WiFi is for convenience. It's sold as "The easy way to get everything to work" but some huge assumptions are being made- that the router is in the center of the house and everything receives great signal but even though the signal strength is strong, the speed may suck.

I think they missed a letter.

The place where I tried the Unify AP recently changed from Time Warner to Spectrum which, on the face of it, looks like a distinction without a difference but the Time Warner DTA (little box that was used to replace a regular box that didn't have a DVR) doesn't work with Spectrum and the new Spectrum boxes don't work with the new channel lineup, so they're pushing the Spectrum app on Roku. They had a wired DTA, but the installer told them they HAD to use Roku. I effing disagree. The Spectrum app is buggy and it doesn't have numbered buttons, which makes it aggravating to easily go from one channel to the next or to return to the previous one- I tried it and stopped using it very quickly.

Spectrum's CS is trying to be equal to ATT and they're coming very close- I spent most of six hours of phone calls on hold last week and they still f&cked it up. I called to have them migrate a customer from T-W to Spectrum so they would get the 200Mbps speed and change from a DTA to a DVR and the "agent" responded to that short request with "OK, so you want to turn the phone off?". Over an hour to get someone to set it up for the replacement and more wasted time to get the effing thing to work. This was a week ago Thursday and the following Sunday night, I received a text at 5PM, telling me that cable wasn't working in the Den. That means Spectrum disabled the Den cable box, rather than the DTA and when I called, they told me that the phone had been turned off, too- they needed to fix that before they could address the cable issue. Another two hour phone call. They got it working (they said) and my customers could watch the Packers lose in living color. FF to the next evening, when I received another text, telling me that the phones didn't work. The next day, I wasted two more hours dealing with their BS.

I'm no longer going to make calls on other peoples' behalf. Screw it.

I do see the issue here. All i am saying is treat these devices like any other 3rd party untested/unsupported item. Time & Material.

You cant put 26" rims on your BMW even thought you paid a lot of money for it. The BMW is a car. Rims fit on cars. So even if it seems like it should work...it doesn't. No matter what you do...you are not getting those rims on your car without paying someone T&M to make them fit.

Same with oddball network crap. Network crap isn't like a lamp. It wont just work wherever you plug it in. LOL Some lamps aren't like lamps these days.

If a client called me and told me his new oven didn't connect to wifi i would say "okay, we can come out on Tuesday to take a look" and treat it like any new project or upgrade. Its not up to me to guarantee that everything with an ethernet port or wifi card can access the network.

100% of the time i follow this up with something like "most cable guys are trained long enough to know when to put their shoe covers on and thats it". I then explain that 99% of their work is in homes where 1 cable box gets connected to 1 TV. "when they see systems like this they get overwhelmed or they get dangerous thinking they know more than they do".

We did a condo like 20 years ago with Phast where we had a cable box at each of the 8 TVs in the house. FFWD like a decade when the client sold the place. The new homeowner calls directv about 1 tv in the kitchen not working. Directv guy comes out, removes the 1X8 and barrel connects the RG6 to the kitchen TV that wasnt working. When directv guy leaves his bad kitchen tv work order now says "tested okay". Customer gets home and finds 7 tvs not working now. I tell that story to customers all the time. And usually after a customer meets me and works with me for a while they dont question anything i tell them.

Your rims analogy would be make sense IF the rim companies were advertising the sh1t out of their product and how it's easy to install, but fails to mention all the caveats that make it not so easy to install in many many circumstances

They need to be told that it is not reasonable for a cheap piece of crap to have all the protection and sophistication required to maintain the security of their $20K system, so you have to install a cheap system that is designed to keep these pieces of crap from opening them up to the entire neighborhood.

It helps to occasionally sigh and say, "yeah, this is really discouraging, but this is the way they're making stuff these days. And did I tell you that some of these things have simple passwords that can't be changed* and that anyone can discover?"

*Is this true? Just a rumor I heard?


Also, maybe say "this stuff just made it easier for people to sell raffle tickets. It's cheap and it says 'internet,' so people thing it's worth having.

He's poking fun at his customer calling it "an Alexa". Its not an Alexa, its a dot, show, etc.

They would fit if the BMW had a lift kit.

And the IOT device would work with additional networking equipment.

I guess i am from a different world. I had no idea that WiFi connected ovens were such a big deal. Ovens are not something i care about. I like rims so i visit a lot of rim sites and see tons of advertising for them. They never mention the many caveats. Getting rims and tires that fit is like a science project most of the time. I got foose legends for my nissan juke and they fit just fine until i bought the exact same tire size from a different manufacturer and now they rub.

Who said you can't put 26-inch rims on a BMW?

[Link: miamiearl.blogspot.com]

Sure, it may work in Miami, but if that car ever spent more than two minutes on Milwaukee streets, it would be a pile of rubble.

It depends on the manufacture and if they are using it as a gimmick. Or as actual useful features.

Imagine putting the pot roast in the oven before you leave in the morning. Then activate the oven remotely 30min before you come home. Dinner ready and hot when you get there. Or the oven sending you a notification that one of the heating elements is out. Automatically setting the clock when power goes out and for DST. Notification the stove top was left on when nothing is detected on top. Etc...

Now washer & dryers: Not much extra you can gain from those being hooked to the internet.

Fridge & freezer: Remote monitoring of temperature and notification when temperature falls outside of the acceptable limits. Diagnostic, compressor failure, etc. Door ajar notifications. bulb out and part#. Control ice production.

Damn, that is just butt ugly and tacky as well. I have no idea why the big wheel trend ever got a foot hold.