Technology

This particular homeowner is baffled that anyone would buy a washing machine that needs an internet connection. I'm all for smart appliances, but a smart washing machine is a solution in search of a problem.

This is an old article and iirc this was a reporting issue with their router. The wash machine was not using that much data.

This nonsense keeps getting reposted, when it was discovered previously it was a router reporting error

Why the fuck does my appliance need wifi? It's not ordering refills for consumables when low at a great discount nor is it going to schedule it's own maintenance as it passes lifetime milestones or detects errors.

I don't want my fucking washer/dryer to text me when the load is done and I definitely don't want my fridge to alert me I'm low on milk or bread, or the door is open. That's such a huge backdoor for anyone looking to maliciously gather data and peer into my life, definitely without my consent.

Glad I bought a non-smart washer and dryer. I've yet to encounter any situation in life where I thought, "too bad my appliance doesn't have Internet". Not once ever.

Botnet node? 3GB sounds excessive even for a company that's notoriously invasive.

When your washing machine tries to download Baldurs Gate 3 because it’s bored too

Data laundry.

I find the idea of "downloading new wash programs" to be absurd.

Now the Chinese government knows exactly how many socks have gone missing, but no it won't tell you where they all went.

If you put any of these things on your wifi add them to your parental control settings that most routers have. Restrict what it can access and what times it allowed to connect to the internet.

I dunno, isn't the homeowner an idiot for putting a smart washer on WiFi in the first place? We don't need smart devices, they aren't making our lives better.

You already have a phone in your hand just put an alarm on there. There are you eliminated the supposed use of internet on a washer.

Solution in search of a problem.

I guess a mobile alert that lets you know the cycle is finished could be handy? Ability to schedule a load to start later? Maybe a maintenance or problem alert? Depleted detergent and fabric softener reservoir?

Possibly an energy usage chart for the nerds out there who like that kind of thing?

But damn, all of that shouldn't need more than a few kb a day max.

Homeowner should be baffled at why he was

1. Stupid enough to waste money on a fucking internet connected washing machine
2. Stupid enough to connect it to the fucking internet
3. Stupid enough to be surprised at it doing shady shit.

If you think the useless appliances are bad, just take a look at more critical connected devices.

I needed some POE security cameras, found some foscam ones on the cheap. Plug them up, go to IP, "install our app"... was pleased to find it allowed a local account without the need for an email, but found that half of my network traffic was comprised of requests to their "ivyIOT AI detection". I didnt measure what data was going through before sectioning them behind a firewall zone.

My fault for not having looked further into other brands, they were still a bargain and work without issue with my setup, but annoying

I have a supposedly smart washing machine that came with the apartment. Setting it up in my locked down appliances network, it didn't work with home-assistant, required cloud access and wanted me to open up ports in the firewall. Nope. No network connection for you. You are a regular dumb old washing machine.

I would imagine that someone might have compromised the washing machine and used it as part of a botnet to attack another system. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that washing machine companies might not be the most-proactive at pushing security updates.