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Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

home-assistant.io

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Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#131

Here's the company's statement, which they've updated to accuse HA of, basically, DDOS: https://chamberlaingroup.com/press/a-message-about-our-decis...

Perhaps they updated the statement since then, but they're not accusing them of "basically" DDOS: they literally say DDOS now. Which of course prompts the question: is the problem that the CTO doesn't understand what DDOS is, or are they intentionally painting HA as malicious somehow?

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#132
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy little ESPHome devices that will speak it’s local serial protocol and control it. (And then link to them how you want) It’s incredibly annoying and dumb and I now have to get some. grumble

You can just use a relay to open and close the door if that’s all you want. Edit: no you can't, if it's the fancy one. You gotta hack a switch like this: LiftMaster 883LM Security+ 2.0 MyQ Door Control Push Button

Sort-of: the newer ones require the physical button to speak the same rolling code protocol the remotes do. So, yes: but you have to modify a real door opener. ratgdo has the advantage that it pretends to be said door opener.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#133
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can access the device when you're away from home if it's internet connected. Of course, the server doesn't need to be doing much besides proxying connections.

And of course, you can easily run a VPN/Tailscale/ZeroTier/whatever to achieve the same without the downsides.

Most VPNs need significantly extra work to get notifications to pass through.

For example, Apple Home does not work by default over WireGuard.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#134

I use Home Assistant and have this openner. My installer recommeneded it because he’s had happy customers like me who use home automation. I can tell you that I a) will never recommend or buy the brand again, and b) have already complained to my installer about his recommendation of this line (and he is moving to another brand). I wish ratgdo a ton of success and have several on order.

> have already complained to my installer about his recommendation of this line (and he is moving to another brand).

What brand is he moving to? Does it work with Home Assistant?

I can't recall the last time I saw a garage door that wasn't Chamberlain or one of the brands they own. At least in my area they seem to have a near-monopoly.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#135
post #7

From company statement: > Our customers rely on us to make access simple without sacrificing quality and reliability. Unauthorized app integrations, stemming from only 0.2% of myQ users, previously accounted for more than half of the traffic to and from the myQ system, and at times constituted a substantial DDOS event that consumed high quantities of resources. Yeah, that sounds plausible, because: - Home Assistant u…

> - Home Assistant users are power users, thus more likely to actually use the devices in question; >50% traffic from 0.2% of the users is far too big of a discrepancy to just explain it away with powerusers. Customers too have to follow a fair level of usage. > designed to discourage effective use (while maximizing data collection). What valuable data can they collect, if nobody is using it?

> What valuable data can they collect, if nobody is using it?

What permissions does the app have? If it has location data so it can open/close the garage door based on proximity, it can probably collect your location whenever the phone is on and that can be sold to data brokers. That's just an example. There is potentially a trove of information the app could collect and sell and not just when the user has the app open.

Of course if the app is never installed it collects nothing. I wonder if the vendor requires the app to be installed for initial configuration.

And IAC, it would be preferable (to me) to have a device that works entirely locally.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#138
post #15

Based on my local big box store and garage installer availability, Chamberlain has a de facto monopoly. They also pulled the rug out from under customers: that behavior had been in Home Assistant since 2017, and it's their own recent changes that caused the alleged "DDoS". They say it's to promote official products, but the company previously had a local hub that didn't require their cloud service and discontinued it…

Huh, nice. I went with a dry contact kit from Athom but status feedback is tempting (mine just uses a reed switch to detect state):

https://www.athom.tech/blank-1/garage-door-opener-for-esphom...

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#139
post #106
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On each integration page there is a button that states if the integration is local or remote.

That helps, but a remote integration doesn't _have_ to be hostile. I get that it's different from IoT, and most of my stuff is local Zigbee after learning the hard way, but my Home Assistant also talks to the Norwegian meteorological institute and Tailscale :) One reason this is tricky to do is because up until let's say the last 6 months or so, myQ _wasn't_ hostile, even if it was Cloud-based. (I get that that align…

All remote are more potentially hostile than any local will ever be.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#140
post #7

From company statement: > Our customers rely on us to make access simple without sacrificing quality and reliability. Unauthorized app integrations, stemming from only 0.2% of myQ users, previously accounted for more than half of the traffic to and from the myQ system, and at times constituted a substantial DDOS event that consumed high quantities of resources. Yeah, that sounds plausible, because: - Home Assistant u…

Yeah, I always felt like the implementation wasn't that good. But, tbh, rate limiting them and saying "hey don't poll quite so much" would have been trivial compared to the approach they ultimately took.

And obviously people with HA will use it more than people that have to wait a ridiculous amount of time every time they open that stupid myq app. It was terrible.

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