Linking HA green to Alexa Echo on University network?

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Hello everyone,

I am currently experimenting with a smart home set-up for a research project. I would like to automate some Alexa-compatible appliances (turn off the lights, change lighting colour, on/off smart plugs, play sound through speakers) through the HA environment.

I have a HA green connected via ethernet to the university’s secured network (cleared by IT). However, I cannot connect the Alexa echo to the same secured network for privacy-issues. Instead it is connected to the unsecured public wireless company network.

What would you do to have the HA green communicate with the Alexa echo + the rest of the appliances?

IT recommended using a USB wifi adapter to help the Alexa and the HA green ‘communicate’ with each other. I’m not too sure if this would work though… I would really appreciate any pointers you may have.

Thank you

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Are you sure that is even necessary? AFIAK, the connection between Alexa and HA is not local, it always goes through Amazon’s cloud.

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Yes, indeed! Thank you. I thought there was another option than something HA cloud-based, but it doesn’t seem so…

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There is Emulated Hue, which is local push so HA and Alexa would need to be on the same network. However it only exposes devices that are connected via Home Assistant to Alexa, any devices connected via Alexa would still require a cloud connection for Home Assistant to interact with them.

There’s also Matter, but I don’t know enough about far along its roll out is on the Alexa platform to tell you whether that is a viable, fully-local path at this point.