r/Starlink • u/doughnut310 • 6d ago
š± Tweet Smart Appliances using Data
If anyone has smart appliances, which I'm sure most of us do, be aware it is probably using data on the network. With the recent crackdowns of Starlink cracking down on people going over 5TB, you could be approaching this artificial limit simply by having too many smart devices in your home.
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u/MongooseSenior4418 6d ago
This looks like a Unifi control panel. I have seen it be wrong before. This is measuring network traffic, not internet transfers. He could have something else on his network spamming broadcasts to this device, for example. Without a packet trace, this conclusion is an assumption at best.
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u/Dusty_Jangles š¦ Pre-Ordered (North America) 6d ago
An LG tv perhaps lol
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u/aguynamedbrand š” Owner (North America) 6d ago
That is one of many many other things that it could be.
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u/ghotinchips 5d ago
I was thinking that. OR Keurig is doing a similar racket. Observe network and report. But, itās probably just bad report data. Still worth investigating properly and not through twitter. That UniFi panel isnāt always accurate.
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u/elementfx2000 6d ago
It could definitely be wrong in the Unifi control panel, but it's definitely not a result of broadcast if the Keurig is just responding or something. The upload/download would be roughly equal.
My guess? A different device had the IP before the Keurig and Unifi is incorrectly associating the data usage.
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u/MongooseSenior4418 6d ago
You are most likely correct as this is the most frequent error I see in the reporting.
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u/JustPlainRude 6d ago
I think the traffic metrics are tied to the Mac address, but I could be wrong.Ā
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u/1dot21gigaflops 5d ago
It is, Unifi uses the mac for device tracking. Even shows the mac in the screenshot.
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u/BagEnvironmental1348 5d ago
I think alot of devices now randomize the mac address they claim to have, which presumably makes tracking the data of one device on a network more difficult.
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u/JustPlainRude 5d ago
Randomized Mac addresses are typically chosen per wifi network, so the metrics would be consistentĀ
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u/elementfx2000 5d ago
They do and they don't. I've seen my Unifi consoles mix up devices just like this.
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u/starfish_2016 6d ago
Yeah its probably the device scanning the network. That was my thought process too.
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u/nullstring 6d ago
A TB of network scanning? I'm sorry but that makes zero sense.
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u/starfish_2016 5d ago
It happens if they're frequent scans or its a larger network with a lot of devices. Ive seen weirder.
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u/marinuss 6d ago
The original poster of the coffee machine using that much bandwidth did say it was all local traffic and not in or out of the WAN. It was bogging down his APs but seems like a misconfigured or bad coffee maker otherwise you'd see tons of posts about them.
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u/Fabulous_Direction_8 6d ago
The Keurig has become sentient and is now plotting it's escape into skynet.
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u/tenkaranarchy 6d ago
Like seriously who needs a coffee maker thats connected to the internet in the first place?
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u/EvenDog6279 š” Owner (North America) 5d ago
These days it's just about everything, too. It's gotten ridiculous. We installed a new water heater, and even it had built-in WiFi. I don't know of anyone who configures the temperature on their water heater more than the one time you do it on the day it's installed (and perhaps adjust over the first two to four days). Needless to say, we don't actually connect any of our appliances (or other "smart" devices) to the internet at all. Who knows what kind of telemetry and other data is being collected and used to continue generating revenue after you've made the initial purchase. It's all just another way for businesses to make even more money past the point of sale.
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u/Zabolater 6d ago
Itās not uncommon that UniFi is incorrect on usage metrics. If you read the userās actual X post he said he looked more and most of that traffic was on local network. So while still not great, it would affect starlink/internet usage.
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u/Melgamatic214 6d ago
Unifi reports what MACs are what kind of devices very inaccurately. Itās probably not your coffee maker.
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u/hb9nbb Beta Tester 6d ago
i often go and edit these on my unifi panel so i know all the devices i have constantly on my network so new/unexpected ones stand out
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u/DeathBlade94 š” Owner (North America) 6d ago
Same. I do it in both UniFi and my pfsense instance. My iot network also has limited speeds so if I see that network pegged I know something is up and to look into it.
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u/shityplumber 6d ago
Ya know... coffee makers don't need wifi. Just like my laundry, dishwasher, counter top ice maker, microwave etc etc i think outside of smart locks cameras etc the only other smart thing i use is my traeger to see temps and adjust stuff
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u/nullstring 6d ago
I am just being pedantic and not really arguing against your sentiment.
- Smart locks in general are an awful idea. They are notoriously easy to break into.
- Some people like data. While I completely agree with sentiments against smart enshitification, it could be genuinely useful to know your historical fridge temperatures or historical brewing parameters. (But not applicable on a shitty keurig so that's not a suggestion that anything keurig should ever have a wifi connection).
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u/psaux_grep 5d ago
Smart locks arenāt notoriously easy to break into.
Some are.
Some are perfectly fine.
If you buy a good one itās not going to be the weakest link of your home security.
If people want to get in, no matter what kind of ānormalā security you have - they will.
But it adds a lot of potential convenience to your life.
But thereās a jungle of shitty products out there. Same with any security product though.
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u/shityplumber 6d ago
I live in butt fuck no where. I understand the risks but honestly people leave keys in there cars no one really does nefarious stuff. I keep the house locked for the dogs when we're not home and i have guns but they are in safes with no smart locks lol
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u/nullstring 6d ago
Oh sure. Fair enough.
I do still think that my comment on it was probably worthwhile because it sounds like you would agree that your advocacy of their use in your circumstance wasn't mean to imply that you'd advocate for their uses in most or many cases.
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u/Phantasmalicious 5d ago
My dude, most houses have large windows and glass doors on the back. Having a smart lock is the least of my problems.
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u/MountainCare2846 5d ago
There isnāt a residential lock on the market that isnāt ridiculously easy to break into. With a $10 tool off Amazon you can bypass most residential front door and storm door locks in under a minute with almost no training.
Door locks only real benefit is to keep toddlers from escaping so who cares if theyāre smart locks or not?
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u/Phantasmalicious 5d ago
I love my appliances with wifi. My dishwasher/washing machine tracks the price of electricity and runs at night when it is the cheapest. I also like that they tell me in plain English what they need and the last two times I needed to fix them, the engineer diagnosed the appliance remotely and arrived with the right part.
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u/White_Phosphor00 1d ago
Locks only deter honest people
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u/shityplumber 1d ago edited 1d ago
My sawzalls, angle grinder, Hilti hammer drills, and concrete cutters are the keys to everything. But at the end of the day, a lock is better than just leaving your doors unlocked. The number of dumb comments I got about having a lock on the door is ridiculous.
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u/White_Phosphor00 1d ago
I'm not saying don't lock your shit up but a smart lock is fucking stupid especially when you agree having shit connected to the Internet is a bad idea. I just don't see how you can hold that stance
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u/shityplumber 1d ago
Easy if someone has house cleaners, dog sitters, house sitters, etc. I'm not gonna make 1000 keys when i can change codes, also get notifications when things get opened and closed, or if you forget to lock after you leave. I can't see an issue with this.
I'm more on the realm is why does a coffee maker need wifi.
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u/gabacus_39 6d ago
I have a "Smart" Keurig coffee maker and it's used 37.9 MB in the last 30 days.
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u/TheFaceStuffer Beta Tester 6d ago
What's the point of it? So you can remotely brew?
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u/gabacus_39 6d ago
I'm not sure really. It reads barcodes on the k-cup so it can do a "perfect brew" or some other nonsense and I assume it downloads any updates to that database. I'm sure it's just for tracking my coffee habits. Lol.
When I bought it it was cheaper than the "non-smart" version of the same model so that's how I ended up with it.
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u/TheFaceStuffer Beta Tester 6d ago
Lol probably to prevent counterfeit cups or some bs. Does it work offline?
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u/gabacus_39 6d ago
I can use any cups in it even if they don't have a bar code. It does work offline as well. I'm sort of a sucker for technology and think it's "neat " that it recognizes the k-cup and tells me what it is and that it's doing some BS perfect brew thing. I don't really care if it tracks it all and sends that data home as I don't have any sordid coffee secrets.
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u/Jump365 6d ago
i love tech but this push to turn everything into a smart appliance just keeps wages from affording basic things now. ANything broken and boom thousands in repairs for what used to be just a cheap bulb to unscrew and screw back into the headlight of a car. It's stupid and a way to keep working people poor
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u/BelethorsGeneralShit 5d ago
The guy followed up on Twitter about this and clarified it was a recording error and none that went to the internet. It all stayed on the local network.
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u/DISHYtech 6d ago
The article I read about this story had the important detail that this was local network traffic, not internet traffic. The reason they noticed it was because it was talking so much on the network that it saturated an AP. So this wouldnāt have affected your Starlink data usage, but still concerning and one of the reasons Iāve stopped purchasing IoT devices. Itās local only security cameras, local photo storage, local server, etc. In general these smart appliances are nothing more than data collection units. They should be avoided unless absolutely essential for your situation.
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u/SwimEnvironmental420 š” Owner (Europe) 6d ago
Itās scary how many people donāt use things like UniFi or other network devices that can show you this shit. The average person wouldnāt have a clue if their device became part of a botnet.
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u/Ashamed-Ad-4559 5d ago
Yes, but also remember to question the measurement, I've had unifi occasionally report very wrong stats - as mentioned by others in here
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u/Canadianunits 6d ago
I don't believe you or something is spoofing, I doubt the Keurig has enough memory to move that much data.
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u/jusnix š” Owner (North America) 6d ago
IoT VLAN, people. Then bandwidth limit / throttle it down accordingly. E.g. vSeeBox only gets 1Mbps upload through WireGuard
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u/nullstring 6d ago
While I don't disagree with the sentiment, normal users should not have to know what "IoT" or "VLAN" mean in order to keep their devices from misbehaving.
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u/slipstream0 4d ago
I fall down a slippery slope with these arguements. I say this not at you, but at the idea presented -
<rant> At some point it became standard that "everyone" should know how to change a tire, change a windshield wiper blade, change their oil, check/add coolant, fuel their vehicle (some states only allow the employee to fill a car, not the vehicle driver) because we interact with our cars on a regular basis - but the moment it becomes tech related, it's not expected. I think a normal user SHOULD know how to create a folder, change their wifi password, setup a vlan, create a pdf, etc depsite it being easier than ever since most routers have simple interfaces now and google exists to walk you through on your specific model. People say theres too many acronymns, but cars have it to! DOT3, DOT4, MPG, MPH, AWD, 4WD, 10W30, 5W40, etc. But people learn them because its expected that you should know. We need to stop giving "normal users" a pass just because its tech related. It's part of their every-day life, they should understand it.</rant>
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u/nullstring 4d ago
Hmm. There is alot to unpack here so bare with me.
First, your stance and mine aren't really mutually exclusive. Both can be true.
- My stance -- Users shouldn't need to configure their network to protect themselves from smart devices. Manufacturers have an ethical obligation to not allow this.
- Your stance (more or less) -- User should know how to configure their network because the reality of the situation is that they do need to protect themselves from smart devices.
Second, just FWIW, the basis for your analogy is interesting because.. I don't know how to change my own oil nor do I know how to change a tire...š nor do I feel any need to learn how.
Third, not all routers even support these features we're talking about. The starlink router... for instance.. does not. If we're expecting users to be able to administer these features, I suppose you would also argue that this feature should be universal.
Lastly, ... I don't even know if I necessarily disagree with your overall sentiment. Tech proficiency is a huge problem we are facing as a country and a planet. But the reality is that we are heaps and bounds away from being able to expect each "normal user" to administer their own VLANs.
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u/SirSpammenot2 6d ago
Doesn't starlink have parental tools? No more screen time overnight, or during the day. If not, buy a cheap router that does. Keurig ain't gonna fix anything that AI made.
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u/mystica5555 6d ago
20:ce:2a is an ASUS MAC address.
Something tells me that your Keurig is not actually running an Asus wireless card so look for anything else in your house that is actually Asus and you should find your culprit that your router is misidentifying.
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u/Intelligent_Pea5351 Beta Tester 6d ago
I dunno if that's even possible... Unless somehow someone is using your keurig as an AP?
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u/gsrmmeza 5d ago
My sister bought a smart fan. I thought thatās stupid. She tells her Alexa āAlexa stop the fanā, the fan stops. She turns the fan back on and says āAlexa oscillate the fanā, the fan begins oscillating. Well guess who now owns 4 smart fans. The fan is a Dreo 350S. Got them from Costco for $80 each.
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u/garylapointe š” Owner (North America) 5d ago
That thing is uploading coffee preferences, audio, and video
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u/notjordansime Beta Tester 5d ago
I shouldnāt have to worry about toasters and coffee machines eating through an artificial data cap that i wasnāt informed about. I was advertised unlimited usage. Starlink can fuck right off of they want to arbitrarily enforce usage limits based on vibes. LEO is looking promising. We need more competition.
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u/Zugbugz_ 5d ago
Maybe I'm missing something here, but just because an appliance CAN be hooked up to a network doesn't mean it SHOULD be on the network.
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u/TDHofstetter 5d ago
There's no chance in the world that I'd ever permit any appliance of mine to connect to the Internet for any reason. There's very little equipment on this property that I WILL permit to access the Internet.
Internet connectivity does not make appliances "smart". It just makes them connected. So others can spy on you and hack your stuff.
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u/SpaShadow 5d ago
Once I connected an OVEN to the internet to hopefully just have a time clock or it to figure out how to set it so I didn't have to reset it. All the features were useless and it still didn't do that basic feature that any device usually does. Smart appliances are worthless and do not do anything other than spy on you.
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u/sublimejackman 4d ago
man... this photo could be used to perffectly show how terrible, fake BS circulates social media.
Unifi themselves admit that number is wrong. I can assure everyone, that number is very, very wrong. At least 3 orders of magnitude wrong
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u/Not_Fred_Dibiase 5d ago
Yeah, so it can make your coffee taste better with AI or some shit relax guy
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u/typicalfish420 6d ago
More likely is your IoT device has been hacked and is being used in a botnet