A warning around purchasing an Alkatronic 2nd hand

revhtree

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beating a dead horse wtf GIF
 

Boomski

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Right guys … we have now had an eMail from the original owner and this is sorted … for those of you who couldn’t get their head around what was happening .. think about buying an apple phone and the person did not reset it … do you think you can go into an apple shop and ask them to reset it for you ?
Of course not … well the AT works the same way, hence the “unlink” button on the app…
So maybe think before you get on your high horses and become keyboard warriors in the future please !!!

What a poor response to this. This isn't customer service, this is just an angry man child.

Amazing.
 
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Karen00

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You got it backwards. You can Relink the nest to a new account you just need physical access to it. Which is the right way to handle things.

Also really don’t like the everything in the cloud way we are going. What ever happened to locally hosted interfaces (ie log in via the ip from a web browser). Company goes under you still have all your features.
When I got my security cameras I made sure it was not cloud dependent. (It has features with it but I can do everything local or even offline with no apps)
Whew. I'm glad to read that about the nest relink. Cloud/Internet stuff is a double edged sword. The convenience is great until something goes wrong. For example, Google Chromecast won't work without an active internet connection so let's say your internet goes down because of problems at your provider... well you're out of luck using your Chromecast to stream movies/shows to your tv from a local library. It ceases to work until your internet comes back. And if you don't have all that cloud connected stuff secured (like cameras) you might find your life exposed to everyone. I agree about having the ability to run everything locally.
 

MnFish1

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You got it backwards. You can Relink the nest to a new account you just need physical access to it. Which is the right way to handle things.

Also really don’t like the everything in the cloud way we are going. What ever happened to locally hosted interfaces (ie log in via the ip from a web browser). Company goes under you still have all your features.
When I got my security cameras I made sure it was not cloud dependent. (It has features with it but I can do everything local or even offline with no apps)
The most important lesson here - is when you sell something to someone - make sure all your personal data is erased - to protect YOUR privacy (and make it easier for the new owner)

Off topic slightly - how can you see your cameras when you are away? Do you have port forwarding, etc - which many people say is more of a security nightmare than the cloud. Just curious
 

a.t.t.r

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The most important lesson here - is when you sell something to someone - make sure all your personal data is erased - to protect YOUR privacy (and make it easier for the new owner)

Off topic slightly - how can you see your cameras when you are away? Do you have port forwarding, etc - which many people say is more of a security nightmare than the cloud. Just curious
Yes portforward which is virtually 0 security risk when done right. I also still can use its cloud features as well. I just have options which is nice. I have two networks in the home one for things and one for humans. Which is a good idea anyways since most routers die out at about 10 devices.
 

Karen00

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The most important lesson here - is when you sell something to someone - make sure all your personal data is erased - to protect YOUR privacy (and make it easier for the new owner)

Off topic slightly - how can you see your cameras when you are away? Do you have port forwarding, etc - which many people say is more of a security nightmare than the cloud. Just curious
I have not looked into the cameras in detail but from what I read about a lot of apps/devices that allow access from the internet the setup process often opens ports on the router and p/or firewall apps on the laptop, etc. People don't realize this has happened and they've now left themselves exposed. I just purchased my first outdoor security camera because of a situation with my pond last summer so now I have to do a deep dive into what (if anything) might have been altered in my network because everything was previously locked up tight. It's possible a new way of doing it is via the cloud account and the app and the device all communicating directly so no changes are made to the network/firewall. This is the deep dive I have to do to see what the setup process for my camera has done.
 

MnFish1

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Yes portforward which is virtually 0 security risk when done right. I also still can use its cloud features as well. I just have options which is nice. I have two networks in the home one for things and one for humans. Which is a good idea anyways since most routers die out at about 10 devices.
Key - (IMHO) - Most people do not do it correctly - nor do they have the knowledge as to whether they did it correctly or not.
 

bevo5

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Right guys … we have now had an eMail from the original owner and this is sorted … for those of you who couldn’t get their head around what was happening .. think about buying an apple phone and the person did not reset it … do you think you can go into an apple shop and ask them to reset it for you ?
Of course not … well the AT works the same way, hence the “unlink” button on the app…
So maybe think before you get on your high horses and become keyboard warriors in the future please !!!

wait. I’m late to this thread - but is this a real reply from you???? Holy cow what a disaster of a professional response. The op was so desperate to get help that he posted on the forum after y’all ghosted him for weeks. Then, because the thread is heating up with backlash, you come out of the shadows and sort it??? As Chris rock would say - you don’t get credit for doing what you should just be doing.

Seems to me you guys could have sent the original owner an email right away instead of pushing the op to the literal edge by stonewalling.

I work in pr - the correct response from you should be “Sorry op, but we have sorted it and you’re good to go.” Instead you went with the keyboard warriors tactic.

eh…to each his own. But blasting users of your very niche product - on the largest forum for the very niche product’s use is a bold strategy.
 

Viva'sReef

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Right guys … we have now had an eMail from the original owner and this is sorted … for those of you who couldn’t get their head around what was happening .. think about buying an apple phone and the person did not reset it … do you think you can go into an apple shop and ask them to reset it for you ?
Of course not … well the AT works the same way, hence the “unlink” button on the app…
So maybe think before you get on your high horses and become keyboard warriors in the future please !!!
You should, at a minimum, take a youtube lesson on Customer Service. While you helped him resolve his issue, you commenting on high horses and keyboard warriors only makes you look bad. it;s a shame because the thread was turning into a postive post but you just ruined it with that comment.
 

Karen00

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Key - (IMHO) - Most people do not do it correctly - nor do they have the knowledge as to whether they did it correctly or not.
This is the problem. Most people don't even know what the app has done during the setup process and if you mention checking the firewall and router and their eyes glaze over. :) I was forever having to check my father's setup and now I have to check mine because I don't know what the software has done. It was also an interesting process where I had to point the security camera at a qr code that popped up on my phone during setup. What the heck that qr code did is something I also have to investigate. Back doors might be wide open. Haha
 

a.t.t.r

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I have not looked into the cameras in detail but from what I read about a lot of apps/devices that allow access from the internet the setup process often opens ports on the router and p/or firewall apps on the laptop, etc. People don't realize this has happened and they've now left themselves exposed. I just purchased my first outdoor security camera because of a situation with my pond last summer so now I have to do a deep dive into what (if anything) might have been altered in my network because everything was previously locked up tight. It's possible a new way of doing it is via the cloud account and the app and the device all communicating directly so no changes are made to the network/firewall. This is the deep dive I have to do to see what the setup process for my camera has done.
If you did not manually log into the router to make changes then no additional ports have been open. The device alone is not capable of opening a port.
 

a.t.t.r

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This is the problem. Most people don't even know what the app has done during the setup process and if you mention checking the firewall and router and their eyes glaze over. :) I was forever having to check my father's setup and now I have to check mine because I don't know what the software has done. It was also an interesting process where I had to point the security camera at a qr code that popped up on my phone during setup. What the heck that qr code did is something I also have to investigate. Back doors might be wide open. Haha
Most likely letting your camera know the account info for an outbound connection. No changes would have been made to your router. NOW out side of your control if someone was able to take over the place the outbound connection is going to (nest lets say) they could in theory access your device and then hop off if it now being already inside your network bypassing your router entirely since two way communication would do whats called a holepunch and allow a temp open port (all software does this pretty much)
 

Eagle_Steve

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If you did not manually log into the router to make changes then no additional ports have been open. The device alone is not capable of opening a port.
Most home camera systems use existing open ports on routers, encrypt the data (nut much, but it is encrypted), and then feed that to the cloud. The issue becomes if the cloud gets hacked, they can see your feeds and possibly IP scheme (most omes are 192.168.xxx.xxx anyways, so who cares). The real issue, that I deal with everyday in IT, is when someone is in your home, able to access the wifi from the camera, port inject it (very simple to do with linux and some free programs), fake a secure handshake and then wreak havoc. Most home users will never experience this, as most home users do not process transactions of 1000s of dollars and all kinds of customer info.

Then there is the fact if Wyse or someone gets hacked and they use the exisitng connection between the camera and the cloud as a port to do things. Again, not very common in residential or very common for most respectable camera/cloud companies.

But in any sense, most home routers from LECs suck for security. Most home wifi from those routers is weak to begin with. Do not get me wrong, there are instances where someone drives around a neighborhood and wifi scans to try and steal someones identity, but it is not super common or we would all have crfedit cards opened in our names without our approval.
 

A Young Reefer

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Also who in his right mind would break into someone’s house and steal a used alkatronic. If you are going to jail go big or go home.
(Obviously joking)
 

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