Tom's guide HE review

How many households nowadays have that setup. IMHO just households with above average techies.

Why big companies made the effort on R&D to develop such apps? Do you believe that they don't have anywhere else to spend their R&D dollars?

One last point.
As a number of users here have mentioned, and as the Reviewer mentioned, the process of adding devices could certainly be improved.
I mentioned in a much earlier post, that instead of having to look at the logs to see if a device has been excluded, that info should also be put on the "discover devices" page.
Furthermore, my suggestion to the Designers/Management/Support of HE is to look at the way Vera (Mios) does the process of adding/excluding devices. It's easy to use and intuitive. There is no shame in copying something good that works.

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If HE is comping these reviewers with free hubs to test, I suggest HE print out recent review critique threads here in the forums and ship it with the hub. We cover a lot of points and features -positives & negatives- pretty well.

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I would make one other critical point. Most of the reviewers are also looking for a basic wireless capability of the hub.
I hope that it won't violate some privacy policy to put a wireless adapter inside future iterations of the hub.

No immediate plans to add wifi, but for those needing wifi to ethernet, devices like this https://www.amazon.com/IOGEAR-Ethernet-2-WiFi-Universal-Wireless-GWU637/dp/B018YPWORE exist that get the job done.

However, for anything mission critical in my house, video streaming, home automation, security, etc. I'd never trust it to wifi when I could do ethernet.

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Patrick,
When I need to bring the Hub close to the device (e.g. pairing a door lock), what I do is I use a wifi extender that I have, that has an ethernet port. I certainly don't need this.
However, it seems to be something that "Reviewers" are looking for (see the latest SmartThings review, out today).
Furthermore, if the major competitors (e.g. ST, Vera, a RPI running HA, etc.) have such a thing, it behooves you to at least consider matching their hardware.

The list of things Hubitat should improve is not exactly short.. but WiFi? So that a Reviewer, who's going to get really important things wrong, like why any HA hub should be Local, can say "oh, and it has WiFi..."

Embrace your inner sheep is the 'best reason' for adding WiFi?? The reasons for no WiFi is tangible at least :slight_smile: Hubitat says they want to make the best Home Automation Hub in the land.. I certainly extrapolate 'best' to include reliability, speed, and functionality. WiFi has limits on how many clients it can manage on a shared (radio) resource. Those limits are invisible in comparison to a wired switch, with X open ports.

It certainly would not bother me if there was WiFi, because of course, I wouldn't use it. :smiley: But it sure would impact Support@Hubitat.com, I imagine. :slight_smile:

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There valid arguments for and against wifi.

One issue it solves is most people don't know what Ethernet is.

Wifi they get, but it adds complexity to the hub to set it up, especially if not connected first via Ethernet.

On top of it, wifi isn't 100% reliable, so it becomes another source of troubleshooting.

But with recent consumer wifi devices segmenting or even double NATing people from Ethernet devices, there is a reason for wifi.

Anyway, alternatives exist for bridging WiFi to the hub or powerline or MOCA adapters to get Ethernet to the hub.

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Could you elaborate on this? I honestly have never heard of it and would like to understand the situation...

Several brands, Google WiFi, eero, etc set up a second firewall via Network Address Translation (NAT) and create their own DHCP range.

This creates obvious problems if your Ethernet devices are on the other side. They would be visible potentially to wifi devices but they can't see or discover other wifi devices.

You can disable this by enabling bridge mode on these wifi access points and that typically solves the issue.

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I use powerline, MOCA 2.0, and some ethernet to wifi adapters in my house. :slight_smile: They each have their place and use.

When I have needed to lug my hub around to pair things like z-wave locks I would use a powerline adapter. Quick and easier than a 50' ethernet cable.