by Charles Miller

What do plumbers, doctors, gardeners, cooks, and HVAC workers all have in common? Firstly, they are all professionals who in today's connected world often make use of the internet in one way or another. Secondly, they are all people with whom I always try to maintain good relations, though sometimes it is more of a challenge than others.

Over the last few years I have been called on to fix internet problems that were caused by the aforementioned professionals. In our increasingly internet-connected homes it is now commonplace for Internet of Things (IoT) devices to be installed and configured by professionals, who while quite skilled in their own fields, often have no knowledge or understanding of computer networking. Most of the time, connecting new IoT devices to the internet is seamless enough, but when connecting one of these IoT gizmos causes unintended conflicts those problems can be very difficult to identify and correct.

One client had a router that seemed to keep losing its Wi-Fi password. This problem was easy for me to recognize and correct, but it soon happened again for no obvious reason. What was happening was that the plumber who installed a new water heater had been resetting the router in order to connect the new water heater to a smart phone app. When I told him he must not do that again he huffily showed me the instructions for the water heater where it said to reset the modem/router if necessary, then he stormed off after saying that no %$#@ gringo could tell him how to do his job. The homeowner and I never figured out which of us was the %$#@ gringo.

Thankfully that was a singular occurrence. The company that installed the in-ground lawn sprinkler system for a friend of mine in Texas was genuinely apologetic when I determined they had caused their customer many months of erratic internet service. All they had done was to connect their sprinkler controller to Wi-Fi so it could go on the internet to check the weather forecast so as to not water the grass while it was raining. Unfortunately, the intermittent problem their IoT device created took months to identify. Who would have ever thought the lawn sprinklers could interfere with Netflix? Full disclosure: That was not the first thing I thought of either.

I have experienced other issues when the air conditioner service man installed a new "smart" thermostat and unknowingly turned off the Wi-Fi password permitting dozens of students at the public school next door to log into the client's home network. The cook unintentionally blocked others from connecting to Wi-Fi when a new internet-connected toaster oven arrived in the kitchen. Doctors will be quick to assure how important a reliable internet connection is for their home kidney dialysis machine or oxygen concentrator… but I swear I am going to have to draw the line if anyone ever asks me to look at a Wi-Fi-connected rectal thermometer (and yes, that is a real thing).

To keep your internet working smoothly there needs to be cooperation between everyone using it. Any time your decorator, locksmith, painter, security system tech, or any other tradesperson visits, it would be wise to tell them they do not have permission to connect anything to your network without prior permission. Before connecting any new device they need to tell you in terms you understand: what they want to connect, how they propose to connect it, and why they need to connect it. If you still do not completely understand their answer to all three of those questions, then a quick phone call to whoever installed your home network might avoid an innocent mistake that could cause you much frustration later.

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Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with decades of IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted at 415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.

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