Mike Peterson
Smart home hardware and software company Insteon appears to have abruptly gone out of business, shut down their servers, and isn't responding to users, leaving adopters without working home automation systems.
The entire company appears to have been shuttered just before the weekend of April 16, Stacey On IoT reported n Monday. There are a variety of signs that point toward the company disappearing permanently, instead of the lack of service being due to an outage.
For example, the company's servers have been down for days despite the Insteon website claiming that all servers are online. The company support forums are down, and its social media pages have been completely unresponsive.
More than that, Insteon CEO Rob Lilleness appears to have scrubbed any mention of the smart home firm from his LinkedIn page. The same goes for other high-profile executives at the company.
With servers down, the Insteon app is now completely non-functional. Additionally, users have reported that their automations and schedules have stopped working.
Furthermore, troubleshooting steps that users have taken have done further damage. A factory reset of the company's hubs requires a server connection to complete. With the servers down, there is no way for the initial setup after the reset to complete.
Insteon was a company that produced various smart home products, ranging from hubs to thermostats and plugs. Many of its devices were compatible with Apple's own HomeKit system, including the flagship Insteon Hub.
Production of the Insteon Hub ended about five years ago. Practical support from the company for the hub ended about three years ago.
The company is also owned by Smartlabs, and both firms share many of the same executives. Internet of Things reporter Stacey Higginbotham, who runs Stacey on IoT, says that Smartlabs has yet to return her calls or emails.
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19 Comments
Not surprised. Nokia was tweeting like mad about their forthcoming lighting system based on Insteon and then a few months ago they went silent. Not a tweet, email ..nothing. They must have backed off at light speed.
You see this is one of my problems with a Home Automation system connected to the internet. A problem with a server, or in this case with the company, and poof, you have a house full of junk that’s worse than useless. My Honeywell thermostat won’t miss a beat even when the network is down. My old style motion sensor lights are the same. The remotes for the fans, and a few other things, don’t need a remote server to work. They just work. That’s not to mention my Schlage locks always work even if there’s no power. Just put in the key and turn to open.
Not everyone is out of luck. Anyone who has a working Hub Pro is still controlling their Insteon devices using HomeKit and Siri. They don't depend on SmartHome's servers. But they can't add new devices to their hub or to HomeKit.
This is why home automation should be open sourced, all the way. This is not the first time nor it will be the last time.
With open source, we can keep maintain them and support them.
This is bad. I never heard of this brand. I am sticking with well known brand just to be safe.