Considering purchasing a few Kasa switches during the holiday sales season but am reluctant as it appears the newer switches require a cloud account to even configure them.
A few years ago I purchased a couple of Kasa dimmers and Kasa plugs and was able to configure using the Kasa python utility without setting up a Kasa account.
It now appears from a cursory look that the new switches require the Kasa account.
Is there any workaround?
Are there any older Kasa (switches, dimmers, 3-ways and plugs) still available that do not require their draconian cloud account to configure the device?
I have a number of different types of Kasa devices. The last I bought was about 1 year ago. I do have to use the Kasa app to configure them. The App does require me to have a Kasa account. That said my FW blocks all communications from my IOT devices out to the internet. The app finds and configures the devices. Since the devices can’t connect to the internet they show as local configuration in the app. I don’t know if anything has changed over the last year.
Curious to know if you block the Kasa device before or after setup?
Any issues since blocking at FW?
I was under the impression that devices require Kasa account password when being addressed by HA. Meaning that some mothership interaction is taking place.
I have a few Insteon devices so it is a mixed environment. Have used OpenHab with Hue Emulation to control devices via Alexa and would like to do something similar with Home Assistant.
I just ran a test to verify. I had a KASA KP-410 outdoor plug I had not configured as of yet. I set an IP address in the FW based on the MAC address on the device. The IP address was in my IOT block, so the only traffic allowed out to the internet was port 53(DNS) and 123(NTP). It is possible that KASA could illegally use these ports to sent information to the mothership, but I don’t believe they do. I plugged the device in and connected with the KASA app. When configuring the device with the app it has some statement telling me I’ll need to go into the device settings to allow access to the internet. The device comes up and works fine. The ports 53 and 123 are open because one of my set of IOT devices would not work without having the ability to set the time, which makes sense if it wants to use an encrypted channel like ssl.
I don’t use Alexa or Google as I really don’t want the man to know every time I do something in my house. I can’t offer anything there. Lots of people use those voice devices. The easiest way to get them connected is with NubuCasa, however it isn’t required. Some people are happy with the open source voice capabilities available through HA. I’ve tried it and find it to be less than satisfactory. I use an app on my garmin for easy access to commonly used HA devices, and my phone for other interaction. Both on with me most of the time and work faster than voice access. My enviornment is pretty mixed with Kasa, shelly, sonoff and then home built devices based on esp32 processors. I’ve written topics with a lot of information on my setup that might be useful.
HA is a good product and works well. I suspect if you’ve used OpenHab you’ll find HA is a great alternative.
Illegally? Did you read the terms that you agreed to when you installed the software? And, what information could possibly be sent to the mothership? You turned a light on at 3:00 PM?
It amazes me that people think they are so important to “China” that they are being spied upon. They are not that stupid. Why risk overt spying on a relative nobody when the relative nobody freely shares all kinds of personal information online?
Hmm, you have a problem with china? I’m pretty sure it’s google and amazon that collect all the information about you. The marketing opportunities that come into play when google/amazon have this additional information is not a small thing. Just one more type of behavior data to add into the model they’ve built about you. I’m not into my activities being tracked 24/7, it’s fine if it doesn’t bother you.
And the reality is if they set up a covert channel to send information out via DNS or NTP, the skys the limit. Thus a good reason to have your IOT setup on a separate network. Just good security practices. Restricting information outflow, security 101.
It’s probably also worth mentioning that opportunistic attacks can result in targeting the infrastructure owner, but in a majority of cases they are used by the attacker to build their attack surface. So not taking security seriously could result in your smart home being used as someone else as a hacking/attack tool. Here’s just one article on the subject.
So you are using the Kasa app which is connected to the internet and the Kasa cloud.
Without the Kasa cloud account would you have been able to configure using the python utility???
Also I have read numerous post about HA needing Kasa credentials for the devices / TP LINK / Kasa integration to function. And that the process needs to be performed periodically.
I have the kasa app, but I don’t do anything with the kasa cloud. Once I configured the device with the app it just showed up on HA as a discoverd device. I’ve never added any kasa credentials to HA. I just use the HA TP-link integration and all is good.
It’s not so much the spying but rather the fact that the physical light switch purchased is now not really owned by me but rather leased and subject to being decommissioned or altered at any given time.
Furthermore one could have need of a smart home even if that home is off grid and disconnected from the internet. Having to authenticate Kasa devices makes them unusable in that scenario.
And take a look at the python Kasa utility page note the Kasa authentication requirement for some of the devices. It seems like newer models and older models with updated firmware require authentication.
I started out using the Kasa devices, then shifted over to using shelly devices. The shelly devices are nice as you just use them with your existing switches and plugs. The sonoff switches with ESPhome give you a lot of flexibility for implementing multiple functions off a single switch. If the new Kasa device require clould authentication I’d definitely move on from them.