In a follow-up post a day after his initial Tweet, Johnie noted “inaccuracy in the ASUS router tool,” with regard to Apple iMessage data use. Other LG smart washing machine users showed device data use from their router UIs. It turns out that these appliances more typically use less than 1MB per day.

the writer knew that the stats were bunk, yet wrote the article anyway. the site knew this, too, tacked-on the clickbait headline and published it. toms really has gone to shit the last few years--at least under the current ownership (last changed hands 2018).

Thanks for saving me the click.

I'd connect it to wifi maybe. I wouldn't connect it to the Internet.

When it comes to home automation I'm generally onboard, but it's local control or nothing.

I dunno about you, but I would love to get a notification on my watch when the machine has finished it's cycle. The stupid high pinched repeated beeping noise sucks... especially when it's the next door neighbour's washing machine and they're not even home, so it goes on and on for fucking hours. And I'd like to see proper error descriptions on my phone, instead of just "UE" on the timer LCD. WTF is a "UE" error?

If we're going to get really fancy... I'd love to be able to load the machine in the morning, but tell it to actually start running several hours later while I'm at work. I obviously don't want clean wet clothes going mouldy in the washing machine all day... but I don't really want to run the washing machine when I'm home either, because it's noisy.

Remote activation would also be better for the environment and also better for my clothes - I'd use the the slow gentle economy cycle every time if I could remotely trigger it at 3pm on a weekday. I'm definitely not going to use that on the evenings (when I'll be asleep in 3 hours) or on weekends (when I don't know if I'll be home in 3 hours time).

A wifi connected washing machine sounds like a great feature to me, and I'd happily pay for it (with dollars, not with an invasion of privacy). I guess that means I won't be buying an LG.

As an appliance repair man if 20 years don't ever connect your application to the wifi.

Knowing what part of the cycle your washing machine is in at all times is useless information.

Anybody in his right minds wouldn't connect buy a washing machine to with WiFi in the first place.

Ftfy

Said this elsewhere recently, family had a washing machine for 30 years, from when I was little to in my 30's. Just fixed as needed. Could've still fixed it when they replaced it, just felt it was time.

I've never had dirty clothes come out of a washing machine, using cold water and powder soap. Not sure why people think an agitator needs all this nonsense attached.

I still buy my machines used off Craigslist. Current one (apartment style) is 20 years old, I've had it for 5 if them. Cost me less than $200. Replaced a spring for $20 so far.

There are no IoT/smart devices in my house (well, damn TV, but I'm workin on that).

Why would anyone need a Wi-Fi enabled washing machine. You put clothes in it, and then use the same setting you use every single time you use it, why do you need a complicated interface with a smartphone app for that?

It's mainly done for smart bome feature. People want fully automated homes, and right now more than 90% of all "smart devices are basically botnets. Zigbee ftw.

It’s smart not to connect “smart” devices

But then anybody can connect to its default broadcast. Better to pair it to something you can control.

Why not?

My washing machine has wi-fi. I didn't buy it for that reason, but it just happens to. Using the app, I have some programme options that aren't possible to select using the hardware dials. I can do things like change the detergent dosage and the number of additional rinse cycles. It has some "special" programmes for various specific fabrics. And it has things like maintenance diagnostics and the ability to run a specific self-cleaning cycle.

That's all pretty useful.

And what's the actual danger of connecting it to wi-fi? Will Big Data know how often I wash my towels? Do I need to worry about the government spying on my fabric softener usage? Will hackers seize control of my machine and ransom my ability to get clean underwear?

I just can't see the big downside here (other than the fact that the machine is more complicated than it needs to be, but that ship has already sailed seeing as I already own it).

Yes, socks can turn into a lot of data really fast, especially if they are multithreaded. Which is why I only use single threaded socks to protect my dataplan.

SOCKS

Given that one sperm has 27.5 MB of data (which means each orgasm has over 7 petabytes of information!) I think we can safely assume which socks his washer is transmitting.

You wouldn't download a sock

I'm too lazy to Photoshop it into a real image

I'm sure they're being downloaded to Russia and then sold back to the west to finance the war!

Modem = Materializer and De-Materializer

I can think of a very valid reason. I very often forget that I ran the washing machine, I'm already investigating how to send a notification to my phone or computer after it is done. Right now I am checking how much electricity it consumes and when it stops doing it. But a API would be nicer.

I tried it with our dish washer, just to see what it's about. Turns out it's all about nothing. It's absolutely void of any useful functionality.

Yeah, I don't get it. I guess I can see the appeal of some "Internet Of Things" connected appliances, like smart fridges suggesting recipes and keeping track of stock and auto-populating shopping lists for you. I don't need that personally, but I can see why it could appeal to some people.

But things like washing machines and dishwashers? You need to be there in person to fill them up just before they're ready to go on, and to empty them when they're done. And when they're not turned on, they're sat there doing nothing. What "smart" functions can they even offer?

Because it's advertised. That's why.

A remarkable (and actually concerning) percentage of people completely lack the critical thinking skills to question whether that's a good idea. The box says it has WiFi, WiFi is good, so I connect it to WiFi. Simple as that.

Thanks for pointing out the location service thing. I just killed that shit.

The LG app also checks SafetyNet/Play Integrity so you can't use it with root. They probably fear that you can then unleash how much more of a privacy nightmare it is.

I just use a timer on my phone .... average wash cycle I use is about 30 minutes ... just set a timer on your phone ... KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid

They probably want to see at which aisle your washing machine spends the most time on its grocery trip.

Just looked at the app's permission settings on my phone... set to only allow location while being used.

Like you I don't see much use for the app, though the notifications can be handy if you want to know when a load us finished and you can't hear it's beeps. I work out of my basement with my washer upstairs so that can be the case with me. But still rare that I ever use it.

I'm too lazy to come up with a witty money laundering joke.

You should explain this to your plants so they show the appropriate level of gratitude.

Will wifi switches locked down to home network only still function?

I can understand wanting it on your local network. Being able to check remotely how much time is remaining. Getting alerts if it needs maintenance. In a big house with multiple family members all doing laundry, just checking to see if the machine is in use before hauling all your stuff down could be nice. But, that info doesn't need to leave the house. I don't know why you'd want that information leaving the house.

It's starts with a sales pitch (not just to you, it's sales pitches all the way down) about how the washer can send the user status, maybe let them schedule, etc. They probably have an app to pair with it to keep it all in-house. One thing leads to another, every appliance gets wifi and sends a ton of data to a totally undoubtedly secure and anonymous centralized server full of harmless data for the sake of saving the customer 15 steps.

Big Brother didn't ride in on the back of a commie tank, he was invited in for the slightest increase of convenience.

My smart appliances serve as nodes for Pied Piper’s new decentralized internet.

It tells them when the cycle is done. Which apparently a beep can't do.

The 'S' in IoT stands for security

Internet of Targets

When it can you should still setup a private network just for them to communicate

Some people have hourly electric pricing, in their case it's worth scheduling stuff based on predicted pricing. How that should work is that you'd have a home server which controls your IoT stuff (so the gadgets themselves can be firewalled from the internet and controlled only by you) and then your server would fetch pricing data and pause stuff that doesn't need to run when prices are high and run stuff like washing when it's cheap

Turning your fridge off for an hour will not cause your food to spoil. You probably won't even notice a difference since they are well insulated. Turning off the compressor during the hour where most of everyone gets home and turns on their AC can have a noticeable effect on grid stability if done widely enough. I do this with a smart switch connected to my HA server instead of using cloud based connections, but the effect is the same and I've never had my food spoil because of it.

Because now manufacturers are tying the last year of their warranty to having the devices connected to their stupid information harvesting apps.

The only reason I used my range's WiFi is to preheat it from downstairs or the store lol

As a guy with some tendencies to worry if I turned my stove off Everytime I leave the house, this feature seems right up my list of needs

It was busy uploading a sock.

I can think of a few smart functionalities of a washer that'd be nice. None of these would be motivation enough to buy one though, unless it was open source, which I'd guess isn't a thing.

The smart people don’t connect these “smart” devices to the network

I think the largest group by far isn't listed: people who bought an appliance and didn't care at all that it had WiFi and never connected it their network.

The article gets into what actually happened.

Dude’s Asus router was incorrectly reporting bandwidth usage.

If (Status != Prev_Status) {Send_All_User_Data();}

No they don't. Most send updates every 5 seconds, every minute etc.

A washimg machine isnt a micro frontend, the machine should do all the calculations on cpu and not report every time the drum spins or whatever.

At least regarding the last point: maybe because there was no other option.

If you need specific features or have certain space constraints, you may end up with only two or three devices.

As an example: try to find a TV (not a monitor, a real TV with tuner, etc) without WiFi. Almost impossible.

I'll have a go!

• A: It was the best reviewed washer and dryer on Cordcutter when I needed to replace ours.
• B: Because getting a notification on your phone that your clothes are done is cool, and being able to start a load from your phone from anywhere is cool.
• C: It doesn't need to be connected. As a matter of fact, they stopped connecting to WiFi after about a year, and now they just work like a normal washer and dryer set. I miss the notifications, but not enough to try and figure out how to get them back online.

A: Why would a washing machine have internet access?

They can download customized wash cycles if you're into that sort of thing. They can also communicate through an app to do things like tell you when a load of laundry is finished, when it's time to run it through a self-cleaning cycle, and give specific details when it encounters problems (e.g., mine once notified me the hot water line was giving it cold water). They also allow you to start a cycle remotely, but tend to require enabling that manually via button press for some reason, so that feature's basically useless.

So that they can call it "smart" and charge more for it.

Reporting when it finishes, allowing remote start, collecting statistics, downloading improved firmware to name few. None of these are essentials though.

Edit: uploading -> downloading

So you can manually put your laundry inside it, go to your bed and tell the machine to wash it like you didn't had to get up to put your laundry inside it.

The article mentions that his router is probably to blame.

deleted

His router fucked up reporting stats.

What do you think it's sending?

deleted

Sure they have, put down the bong and stop hallucinating. Phones counting, backwards even, and making noises lol sure thing, Cheech.

I love that my phone still can only do one timer. So if I need to keep track of two things I have to use my watch and my phone. Like a primitive savage

"Wash my clothes"

"No..."

If you have anything where internet is an add-on to what it does normally, especially BS like a washing machine, then it's phoning home. That's the reason they add such nonsense, and sell it as a feature to the buyer.

They have to run a backend for this stuff which eats into the profit of selling it...

That said, Wireshark is a common tool to monitor packets. I haven't done it for a while. There's also probably a package you can run on RPi just for this kind of thing. Using PiHole I can see how often and where devices are connecting. I've blocked a lot of domains - I'm currently blocking about 30% of all domain requests (most of that is from the TV and windows 10) and everything works fine.

The software would need to be on the router itself so that it can intercept all traffic that is originating from the LAN (Local Area Network) and is directed at the WAN (Wide Area Network, the Internet), some higher end (home) routers have this feature, or you could see if your router supports a third-party firmware and flash that, which most likely supports it.

The other (more complex) way is to put a device in between your router's LAN port (usually called the Default Gateway in software terms) and the rest of your devices on the network so that it intercepts all the traffic and then forwards it to the router. This is a technique known as "Man in the Middle".

If you want to simply know if devices are "phoning home", and potentially blocking those requests, you can use a service like NextDNS or PiHole (on a Raspberry Pi, or in Docker) to block the attempt. This happens because the device doesn't know where to send the info.

When you want to let someone else in?

I'd like to have a door lock that did not allow wireless unlock, but does allow locking and checking status to see if you forgot to do so (plus automations tied to the door state).

With automations, you can also do stuff like locking the door under certain conditions (say it's late at night and it's been left unlocked for X hours), sending alerts or updating other devices depending on the lock state. You could have it strobe your bedroom light if stuff is left unlocked late too etc etc