In the last couple of days I shared my internet connection with new neighbors. No, I don’t share my connection with strangers. We were friends long before they moved here. The internet providers are slow as **** and were not able to provide their connection on time.
This was the first time I had to deal with two things I normally avoid like the plague: WiFi and “Smart”-devices. This blog entry is close to being a rant – maybe I chose some too extreme words. I’m clearly in a very small minority with my opinion. I hate WiFi and I hate "Smart"-devices. But I have my reasons for this (I will not include everything in detail because it is already long enough).
Part 1: WiFi trouble
The only reason for me to turn on WiFi (for minutes) in the past was to check the eShop with the 3DS because it does not have Ethernet. Setting up a WiFi network so that it worked across the street was a pain and required an outdoor access point and drilling a hole from my bedroom to the outside. Buying this was not a waste – we will continue to use this for sharing network resources, incremental offsite backups (don’t even think about an initial full backup – that would take ages) and the like.
Honestly, I’ve never had such problems when connecting computers to the internet. Even the 56k-Modem in the 1990s never made such a nonsense like this wireless garbage. Sadly I’m not allowed to mount a cable on both roofs and span it across the street. That would work immediately. Whatever we tried with repeaters, antenna positioning according to 100s of contradictory advises it was impossible to bridge 20 meters reliably while both, the indoor access point and the repeater, were positioned at the windows.
After hours of trying… all attempts were in vain. I lost my temper and ordered that outdoor thing. Standing on a ladder, five meters above the ground, to mount that thing to the outer wall was the next funny part. Finally my friends got internet access and we can combine our networks.
Part 2: “Smart”-devices
My personal opinion on this is: Putting a computer into a thing does not make it smart. This is more or less a marketing buzzword. Everything has to be smart nowadays. The local waste disposal company put RFID-chips on every garbage can and send letters to all customers: “Your garbage can is now smart.” Ehh… no! The garbage cans have the electronic equivalent of label with a number on it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I do not want computers in all everyday things around me. Computers I cannot even (really) control, that receive no patches and offer nothing (for me at least; again: personal opinion). I do not need a washing machine that can be controlled from a phone. To fill and empty the machine you still have to walk there. While filling, you stand right before it → No need for remote control via app.
A TV should turn on fast, not boot an operating system. And when the TV is five years old and not supported anymore I still want to use it. Therefore I watch my content with a Raspberry Pi – and no app is ever too old for doing stuff because my content comes form my main PC.
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In my home network I use Pi-Hole for blocking all things I do not want:
Computer used forbidden DNS-query!
But it failed!
Pi-Hole used big blocking list!
It’s super effective!
*************************
And then my friends connected their home network to mine. A day later I opened pi.hole/admin and could not believe my eyes: There were 1000s of blocked DNS queries! Various Facebook domains, Various Alexa related domains, app.measurement.com, settings.crashlytics.com…
I asked them: “What did you do?”
Answer: “Nothing. Logged in the “smart”phones and Alexa-device and went to bed.”
They did not do anything. And their devices tried to connect to all sort of garbage while not in use. Every few minutes. Okay, I should have told them not to try to include an Alexa-thing in my network, but the phones… I seriously did no expect phones which almost everybody uses to do things like that without user interaction. These things are even worse than I thought. Maybe it is possible to configure a “smart”-phone so it does not do garbage like this. I don’t know if this can be done – without root privileges (Wait a moment… Why am I not root on my phone by default?!) and without much work.
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I do not want to study this topic and chose to stay away from “smart”-devices. This gets harder and harder. Often I’m treated like some kind of infectious mad alien because of my refusal to buy such a phone – and it gets harder and harder to use things without such a phone. “You cannot do this without our app.” is what I've heard quite a few times.
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This was the first time I had to deal with two things I normally avoid like the plague: WiFi and “Smart”-devices. This blog entry is close to being a rant – maybe I chose some too extreme words. I’m clearly in a very small minority with my opinion. I hate WiFi and I hate "Smart"-devices. But I have my reasons for this (I will not include everything in detail because it is already long enough).
Part 1: WiFi trouble
The only reason for me to turn on WiFi (for minutes) in the past was to check the eShop with the 3DS because it does not have Ethernet. Setting up a WiFi network so that it worked across the street was a pain and required an outdoor access point and drilling a hole from my bedroom to the outside. Buying this was not a waste – we will continue to use this for sharing network resources, incremental offsite backups (don’t even think about an initial full backup – that would take ages) and the like.
It does not work.
Example #1:
Friend: “Why do you still have wired keyboard and mouse?”
Sinchen: “Because it works. Wireless does not work reliably.”
Friend: “My keyboard never had any problems. I hate cables.”
Sinchen: (tries to use friends keyboard) “Does not work.”
Friend: “What?! Must be the batteries. Or try the sync button!”
Sinchen: “…”
Friend: (inserts new batteries, taps repeatedly on ‘sync’. Five minutes later…) “There you go.”
Sinchen (Uses computer for some minutes.) “Keyboard does not work – again.”
Friend: “It never did anything like that!!”
Example #2:
I forgot to turn off the WiFi after using it for the 3DS. The laptop does know the WPA2-PSK (I had to test the WiFi card when I got the computer) and I was wanted to copy a huge amount of data to my main computer. Signal strength nearly 100%, WiFi type “n” – up to 300MBit/s. Laziness won and I did not stand up to get the Ethernet cable. Actual transfer rate: below 50 Mbit/s.
Laziness lost! I stood up and grabbed the cable. Actual transfer rate: about 1GBit/s.
Example #3:
Tried to use the Wii U Gamepad without TV in the next room: Forget it. Direct line of sight and don’t dare to put a piece of paper in between. I’m surprised Wii remotes work pretty good in the same room as the console.
Example #1:
Friend: “Why do you still have wired keyboard and mouse?”
Sinchen: “Because it works. Wireless does not work reliably.”
Friend: “My keyboard never had any problems. I hate cables.”
Sinchen: (tries to use friends keyboard) “Does not work.”
Friend: “What?! Must be the batteries. Or try the sync button!”
Sinchen: “…”
Friend: (inserts new batteries, taps repeatedly on ‘sync’. Five minutes later…) “There you go.”
Sinchen (Uses computer for some minutes.) “Keyboard does not work – again.”
Friend: “It never did anything like that!!”
Example #2:
I forgot to turn off the WiFi after using it for the 3DS. The laptop does know the WPA2-PSK (I had to test the WiFi card when I got the computer) and I was wanted to copy a huge amount of data to my main computer. Signal strength nearly 100%, WiFi type “n” – up to 300MBit/s. Laziness won and I did not stand up to get the Ethernet cable. Actual transfer rate: below 50 Mbit/s.
Laziness lost! I stood up and grabbed the cable. Actual transfer rate: about 1GBit/s.
Example #3:
Tried to use the Wii U Gamepad without TV in the next room: Forget it. Direct line of sight and don’t dare to put a piece of paper in between. I’m surprised Wii remotes work pretty good in the same room as the console.
Honestly, I’ve never had such problems when connecting computers to the internet. Even the 56k-Modem in the 1990s never made such a nonsense like this wireless garbage. Sadly I’m not allowed to mount a cable on both roofs and span it across the street. That would work immediately. Whatever we tried with repeaters, antenna positioning according to 100s of contradictory advises it was impossible to bridge 20 meters reliably while both, the indoor access point and the repeater, were positioned at the windows.
After hours of trying… all attempts were in vain. I lost my temper and ordered that outdoor thing. Standing on a ladder, five meters above the ground, to mount that thing to the outer wall was the next funny part. Finally my friends got internet access and we can combine our networks.
Part 2: “Smart”-devices
My personal opinion on this is: Putting a computer into a thing does not make it smart. This is more or less a marketing buzzword. Everything has to be smart nowadays. The local waste disposal company put RFID-chips on every garbage can and send letters to all customers: “Your garbage can is now smart.” Ehh… no! The garbage cans have the electronic equivalent of label with a number on it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I do not want computers in all everyday things around me. Computers I cannot even (really) control, that receive no patches and offer nothing (for me at least; again: personal opinion). I do not need a washing machine that can be controlled from a phone. To fill and empty the machine you still have to walk there. While filling, you stand right before it → No need for remote control via app.
A TV should turn on fast, not boot an operating system. And when the TV is five years old and not supported anymore I still want to use it. Therefore I watch my content with a Raspberry Pi – and no app is ever too old for doing stuff because my content comes form my main PC.
*************************
In my home network I use Pi-Hole for blocking all things I do not want:
- Known malware domains
- Trackers
- Porn
- Windows telemetry
- Google services
Computer used forbidden DNS-query!
But it failed!
Pi-Hole used big blocking list!
It’s super effective!
*************************
And then my friends connected their home network to mine. A day later I opened pi.hole/admin and could not believe my eyes: There were 1000s of blocked DNS queries! Various Facebook domains, Various Alexa related domains, app.measurement.com, settings.crashlytics.com…
I asked them: “What did you do?”
Answer: “Nothing. Logged in the “smart”phones and Alexa-device and went to bed.”
They did not do anything. And their devices tried to connect to all sort of garbage while not in use. Every few minutes. Okay, I should have told them not to try to include an Alexa-thing in my network, but the phones… I seriously did no expect phones which almost everybody uses to do things like that without user interaction. These things are even worse than I thought. Maybe it is possible to configure a “smart”-phone so it does not do garbage like this. I don’t know if this can be done – without root privileges (Wait a moment… Why am I not root on my phone by default?!) and without much work.
==================
I do not want to study this topic and chose to stay away from “smart”-devices. This gets harder and harder. Often I’m treated like some kind of infectious mad alien because of my refusal to buy such a phone – and it gets harder and harder to use things without such a phone. “You cannot do this without our app.” is what I've heard quite a few times.
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