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First thing I do when I get a smart appliance is scan it with nmap. This has revealed some interesting Easter eggs, like my Davis instruments air quality sensors having a local REST API.

Doing the usual scan against my GE washer and dryer shows that port 53 is listening. What could that be for? Is there a way I can at least query their status locally or something?

When I got the washer and dryer I was excited about the smart home features because getting an alert when my laundry is done or starting the washer remotely so the clothes are done when I get home are genuinely useful features. However, last time I checked the app none of that was available, so I just have these Trojan horses in my home spying on me with no benefit in exchange. Their app wanted my freaking mailing address when I signed up for their mandatory account, so the features mentioned above are the least they could offer in exchange for my digital soul. But I digress.

My fridge is in a similar situation. It commits the additional cardinal sin of ONLY being controllable via the app, with no on-board temp or filter status indicators whatsoever.

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[-] SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 74 points 3 days ago

Or the old fashion way, don't BUY them.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

The trouble is, you don't know how bad the shit is until after you get it home, unless you do a large amount of research beforehand.

Frankly, at this point I think the better tactic is to buy the smart appliances and then return them as "not fit for purpose," even though that takes even more effort, because it punishes the manufacturer in a way that merely not buying the thing in the first place does not.

[-] echo@lemmy.tf 8 points 2 days ago

It doesn't take much effort to take an appliance model number and Google it to see the features list. People are just stupid and don't bother to spend even 5 minutes researching their large purchases.

[-] JustToOdd@nerdculture.de 9 points 2 days ago

@echo @grue Features list rarely include much of the important information. Trying to find the information I sought on recent appliance purchases was difficult at best. PDFs of manuals didnt have the information. Information that used to be readily available, is no longer.

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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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