I was just recently being given a Hubitit hub by my friend when I moved here to America. I had Ikea smart devices before and they worked well. I am about to start making my new house here smart with various devices and am wondering about a few things -
is it possible to connect the hub to my wifi ? I am renting a house and cant make ethernet lines.
I am away on business often. How can I log into my house controller ?
are there any known security holes that I have to be concerned with ?
Yes. You can either VPN into your house network (you will have to set up the VPN on equipment other than your hub), or you can subscribe to the Hubitat Remote Admin service and administer the hub from there. Or, without a subscription, you can create Dashboards that allow you to turn devices on and off from the WAN using a link that you copy when you create the Dashboards.
Well, you can always shoot yourself in the foot. Hubitat has been pretty good about clamping down on such exposure of the hub to the internet. A recent firmware update prevents connecting to the hub from external IP addresses except through (1) a VPN (which you must set up, not a part of Hubitat) that has an endpoint on your LAN, or (2) the Hubitat Remote Admin subscription service.
Thank you for the quick reply. I can set up a VPN on a PI or similar I guess. What is the subscription service ? I always try not to get involved in any system where there is a monthly/annual payment !!
It is what it is. If you can set up a VPN, then you don't need the Remote Admin service. It's just a turnkey VPN that is only for administering your hub when you are away from your house. You can do pretty much everything using Remote Admin that you would be able to do if you were connected directly on your LAN.
Hubitat has two subscription services. One of them, called "Hub Protect" is an annual hub warranty service. The other, "Remote Admin", lets you remotely administer your hub. Neither of these services are required; they are both opt-in. And as @672southmain has pointed out, many users choose to setup their own VPN to securely connect to their home network and administer their Hubitat hubs (if/when necessary).
Personally, I have no need for Remote Admin, but I do subscribe to the warranty service for the peace of mind it offers.
Also to be clear you can connect remotely to turn things on and off without anything special you only need to subscribe or setup a VPN if you want to change the configuration while you are away.
