Google's OnHub Is First WiFi Router To Support IFTTT (theverge.com) 49
An anonymous reader writes: The first router to feature IFTTT support is Google OnHub. IFTTT is an abbreviation of "If This Then That," a free web-based service that can allow users to create "recipes," which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, etc. OnHub's smart features can now connect to the 300-plus programs and apps supported by IFTTT. Google provides some examples in its blog post. For example, you can automatically prioritize Wi-Fi to your Chromecast when it connects to your OnHub network after you plug it in to start binge watching your favorite TV show, or to your Nest Cam when it senses motion or sound after you've exhausted yourself from said binge watching and passed-out on your couch. There's a friendly little video Google put together to explain the feature in detail.
promised ? (Score:2)
A promised update to support IPv6
it has bluetooth but thats not enabled...
they really need to focus on actual networking...
Re:promised ? (Score:4, Informative)
Actual networking can't be monetized. Selling your QoS decisions to third parties, however, reveals what services you use.
IPv6? Really? This is 2016: I've had dirt-cheap routers with IPv6 support since forever.
Re: (Score:3)
IPv6? Really? This is 2016: I've had dirt-cheap routers with IPv6 support since forever.
And has actually been used in the home router market since practically never. I would guess that 99.9% of the router buyers out there wouldn't know IPv6 it it bit 'em in the butt. For the remaining .1%, they're not buying this router anyway.
Re: (Score:1)
Comcast enabled IPv6 a while back. Apple hardware, including routers (Airport), enables IPv6 by default. That means a lot of Apple owners in Comcast territory are doing IPv6 and don't even know it.
And Cox enabled it in December.
Funny story: Apple routers crash hard when using Dual Stack mode. Guess what method Cox used to enable IPv6 on their network?
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Comcast enabled IPv6 a while back. Apple hardware, including routers (Airport), enables IPv6 by default. That means a lot of Apple owners in Comcast territory are doing IPv6 and don't even know it.
And Cox enabled it in December.
Funny story: Apple routers crash hard when using Dual Stack mode. Guess what method Cox used to enable IPv6 on their network?
Perhaps it is actually Cox that has the issue; since they are the only carrier that has this problem.
Having said that, it appears that the best solution for users of Airport routers on Cox networks (at least for now) is to set the IPv6 configuration to "Link Local Only", which will disable IPv6 for external connections, but still allow OS X (and iOS?) to use IPv6 for intranet traffic (which apparently it does).
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IPv6? Really? This is 2016: I've had dirt-cheap routers with IPv6 support since forever.
Maybe that's what I've done wrong then.
I've been using a high-end Asus router which only got proper IPv6 support sometime last fall. I'm now using pfSense, which only has limited IPv6 support.
Useless? (Score:5, Insightful)
automatically prioritize Wi-Fi to your Chromecast when it connects to your OnHub network after you plug it in
Or you could just leave it always-prioritized, and still have the same end result. Unplugged devices don't use much bandwidth.
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automatically prioritize Wi-Fi to your Chromecast when it connects to your OnHub network after you plug it in
Or you could just leave it always-prioritized, and still have the same end result. Unplugged devices don't use much bandwidth.
Maybe you want to automatically prioritize a different device when the Chromecast isn't connected.
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Highest priority: Chromecast
Second highest priority: Different device
IFTTT is a messy, bloated way of doing the simplest of simple things. It's not surprising that Google's networking device uses it instead of regular, tried-and-true QoS and other features.
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Highest priority: Chromecast
Second highest priority: Different device
IFTTT is a messy, bloated way of doing the simplest of simple things. It's not surprising that Google's networking device uses it instead of regular, tried-and-true QoS and other features.
Possibly, but it allows people who wouldn't normally be programming to create solutions based on various services.
Re:Useless? (Score:4, Interesting)
And this probably explains why this whole idea was probably dreamed up by an intern who was at Google but didn't know how to program (and full of himself because he was at Google). Google campus is all about having people with no domain knowledge come up with wacky ideas that make no sense to the experts (technical term for this is "disruption").
Re: Experts (Score:1)
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The prioritization doesn't really seem like the best example for this new functionality. It appears that the most useful trigger is the "on connect" or "on disconnect" notifications of personal devices, and it's really only handy if you already have a crapload of IoT devices hooked up in your home as well that can serve as command targets. Take for instance, an electronic front door lock (what could possibly go wrong there?)... You can have your door automatically unlock when you get home, and lock when
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Prediction: the primary use for this service will be to turn off or close all digital pornography when the girlfriend's cell joins the AP because she pulled up in the driveway.
And of *course* it's cloud based with no need to be. There'd be no way to sell the metadata to marketers otherwise.
Re: Useless? (Score:2)
So put it at second priority and you'll get exactly that. The Chromecast bandwidth still won't be getting used if it's unplugged.
Re: (Score:2)
So put it at second priority and you'll get exactly that. The Chromecast bandwidth still won't be getting used if it's unplugged.
OnHub doesn't have ranked priorities.
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What AC said. That's about the most useless sounding form of QoS I've ever heard of. Ranking is very important.
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"Maybe you want to automatically prioritize a different device when the Chromecast isn't connected."
Too stupid to know what QoS is, eh?
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Right before they abandon it as no longer interesting to the company while leaving everyone with a worthless product because it's cloud dependent, i.e. cannot function without the cloud.
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Very few people will find a WiFi router useful that doesn't have network access. I don't know of any hardware sold by Google, rendered useless by their shuttering of services, do you?
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Revolv http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]
There are others, you are perfectly capable of finding them. Don't be a fool. Google abandons products all the time, at least one major product every year that people have depended on.
Security concerns? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've seen occasional questions about IFTTT security issues (link [stackexchange.com], link [quora.com], link [jirasekonsecurity.com]), but nothing that isn't theoretical or speculative. Seems like there are a lot of avenues for compromising your network security and privacy. I'd love to see some hard facts about IFTTT security.
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I'm sure the company will be absolutely happy to comply.
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If This Then Assholes (Score:3, Informative)
This is the same IFTTT that was a total dick to Pinboard.
https://blog.pinboard.in/2016/03/my_heroic_and_lazy_stand_against_ifttt/ [pinboard.in]
Covered on Slashdot back on May 29 [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Covered on Slashdot back on May 29 [slashdot.org]
Do you mean it will be covered tomorrow, or did you mean March 29?
Dat May in April feeling.
What can go wrong?! (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure, let's give more programming power to non-programmers. As if the regular router config options are not already complicated enough for an average person to completely screw things up if they don't know what they are doing. Now you can shoot yourself in the foot in one line or less! Also, I can't wait for IFTTT worms.
Re: (Score:2)
"Google, make my router prioritize my chromecast above everything else. "
"Hey, why did all the lights in the neighborhood go out?"
Not in a million years (Score:2)
Oh hell no.
Happy to listen this (Score:1)
Stiching together all these nice, walled gardens (Score:3)
Shitty spyware router adds support for (Score:2)
shitty online service.
Who cares?
IFTTT rarely actually does what its supposed to, its a joke at best, obnoxious shit at worst. Stop acting like this is impressive.
minor technical troubles to major life troubles (Score:3)
When he leaves, the door locks behind him -- because he disconnects. Unless his router has a range of a mile, like many around here. Oh, and so when his phone disconnects from the network, his front door deadbolts -- even if it's wide open, in the middle of a party, when he turns off his phone, or has a connectivity blip.
If this then that. "this". In real life, "this" is a multi-faceted, intelligence-driven scenario. A recipe uses ingredients to create a product. "this" is a scenario during which to take action. A "scenario" is as complicated as, oh I don't know, every legal agreement that's ever been used to define anything.
That's what legal agreements are -- A pays B N dollars is the easy part, but when? Ten pages of scenario descriptions and exceptions and how to observe said scenarios.
If Bob's phone disconnects from the network, when the front door is closed, and no one else is connected, and the lights aren't on, and Bob's phone first connected to the tiny network at the end of the driveway, and Bob isn't gardening today -- I guess his garden spade isn't connected to the network, or is connected to the network in the shed...
FIguring out if Bob is still home, when "being home" includes the garden, and the garage, but not the neighbour's house, and not the road hockey game, ain't as simple as a network connection. And it's certainly not as simple as a spotty network connection.
I sure home Bob's party doesn't run out of ice, forcing him to run out to the store to buy a bag, and wind up locking his party guests in his house. Sounds like false imprisonment to me.