Smart Home Networking

Homebridge is an open source project that was designed to fill the gap for HomeKit enthusiasts while device makers got up to speed. As it happens, this has not only taken longer than hoped, but continues to be a limitation even where manufacturers have provided HomeKit support.

While smart homes have actually been around for quite some time, the advent of digital assistants and smart speakers has brought them much more into the mainstream, at least as a concept. But is turning something on with a voice command really smarter than using a finger?

The Mirai worm is arguably the most well known as the source of massive attacks in the past. Things have been quiet on that front in the recent past, but research from Palo Alto networks has uncovered a new variant of both the Mirai and Gafgyt worm families that expand their attack profile.

App Developer Sunya Limited addresses the question of Bluetooth troubleshooting by providing a handy Bluetooth scanner app called HomeScan. HomeScan is designed to quickly and easily identify your bluetooth devices, and provide a portable and data driven means of determining signal issues.

Assuming you have adequate WiFi and Bluetooth coverage for your devices, HomeKit users have had smooth sailing for a year. However, with the release of iOS 12, multiple users have reported a plethora of issues, most notably with Bluetooth devices.

A UK based survey of home router owners provides an eye-watering view of general user ignorance and lack of awareness of basic security requirements. 

Keeping track of device vulnerabilities that may impact you is a major headache. There is hope though, with a couple of free online tools that can give some peace of mind that your internet connection is not leaking like a seive.

Do you have an established Z-Wave smart home. Wish you could use those fancy digital assistants to tell your stuff what to do? Well, this may be what you've been looking for.

Bluetooth usage is on the rise for wireless smart home devices, particularly sensors. The limitations of Bluetooth range can be problematic for reliability though, particularly in HomeKit installations with a single home hub.

After reading up on the various tech coverage of the last couple of weeks, things have settled down somewhat. We've gone through the usual phases of "ZOMG everything is broken!", through "It's bad, but not as bad as we thought" and now we've landed on "OK, we can work with this".

The FingBox, a handy little network security gadget and troubleshooting toolkit for the home. If you've ever wondered how to keep an eye on your network, this new crowdsourced appliance may be of interest.

Ubiquitous WiFi access in our homes means less and less reliance on wired connectivity. It's imperative that we keep uninvited guests off our network while we're beaming it into the air. What is really needed to be secure, without being burdensome?

When device makers are unable, or unwilling, to put the effort into the security of consumer networking products, innocent people are left exposed to the very real threat of personal and financial damage. See how D-Link is doing things wrong.

Analysis of U-Verse modem firmware has revealed a slew of major vulnerabilities in what can only be called a security house of horrors for AT&T customers. The exposure is glaring and complete that all AT&T customers need to take action immediately. Read on to see just how bad things are.

As the number of connected devices in homes grow, and the paradigm of home computing moves to a more mobile base, Wifi connectivity has become increasingly important to a lot of people. Let's take a look a three of the better options available.

Fing is billed as a 'super-fast network scanner', and that's pretty much what it does, at least originally. Fing itself offers network scanning of the local subnet, device port scanning, and connectivity testing to local or remote addresses.