this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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It drives me up a fucking wall that WiFi is the de-facto local device communication protocol. There are so many reasons not to use it.
Most home automation stuff seems to use Zigbee. Doesn't have a lot of bandwidth though, so not useful for video.
And frankly, even if you have a video, the police around here won't do shit with it unless someone has been killed.
That's because you aren't one of the owner class. The legally supported armed thugs don't protect the citizenry. They protect the owners private and personal property. Your personal property isn't worth protecting in their eyes.
I personally have many zigbee devices that I operate happily, but most entry devices by big names (e.g. Google, Amazon, Wyze) and smart-home appliances (think garage door openers, light/fan fixtures, laundry machines, ect.) end up being WiFi. Even if you're a self-sufficient homelabber who buys all zigbee and self-hosted devices, it's hard not to end up with a bunch of WiFi devices anyway.
And if you have a spouse who is less knowledgeable, it can be really hard to explain or justify the higher expense for something like a security camera, or dissuade them from buying a smart fan they really like because it uses an external WiFi connection for its smart features.
Zwave is great too, but still no video. Wired is the answer.