Will HS4 survive without internet?

[jetkit]

Hello there. My apologies for the silly question. I have both HS2PRO and HS3PRO and somehow this morning I was thinking on getting HS4PRO.
I was "out" of this HA environment for near 3 years, and probably missed a memo or two, so here is my first and foremost concern: Will I be able to use HS4PRO fully "internet free"?

This is a sine qua non condition for me.

Yes, I understand that to get some super duper feature I may want to have my box connected, but to me, if an HS4 system cannot survive disconnected as my HS2 and HS3, then I don't want it. I can certainly live with what I have right now.

I am ok with mobiles using my LAN/WIFI network to function, but if access to an external server is required, I am out.

Thanks for your assistance.

[mik3]

Hello there. My apologies for the silly question. I have both HS2PRO and HS3PRO and somehow this morning I was thinking on getting HS4PRO.
I was "out" of this HA environment for near 3 years, and probably missed a memo or two, so here is my first and foremost concern: Will I be able to use HS4PRO fully "internet free"?

This is a sine qua non condition for me.

Yes, I understand that to get some super duper feature I may want to have my box connected, but to me, if an HS4 system cannot survive disconnected as my HS2 and HS3, then I don't want it. I can certainly live with what I have right now.

I am ok with mobiles using my LAN/WIFI network to function, but if access to an external server is required, I am out.

Thanks for your assistance.

No need for internet as long as everything is z-wave, zigbee, x-10, etc. Anything cloud base like Alexa, Google Home will require Internet.

[mulu]

That's EXACTLY why I chose HomeSeer. It still works even without internet connection and there is no monthly fee (though the starting cost isn't cheap). It's similar to Vera which I used previously (it's cheaper but more limited). The important part about home automation is that everything still works as expected when the internet or company/HS goes down and you only loose the automation part.

[mulu]

No need for internet as long as everything is z-wave, zigbee, x-10, etc. Anything cloud base like Alexa, Google Home will require Internet.

I have a skybell doorbell and didn't route a physical wire. I thought it works with IFTTT so I could get a chime on the many Alexa devices I have in my home and disable the notification if someone doesn't want to be disturbed. Well, if the message makes it through at all then the doorbell chime comes in 10s to usually more like 100 seconds later. A doorbell that rings 10-100s after pressing the button is useless. I ended up programming an Arduino to monitor the door bell and then play a chime through a z-wave device. This solution makes it independent of the internet/IFTTT but it required many hours for a custom solution (and paying for the Arduino plugin). It's by far my biggest mistake I did in our home so make sure nothing in your home depends on the internet.

[Tillsy]

Yes one of the fantastic things about HS is that it is 99% non-dependant on the Internet. I allow 1% because if you have the myHS service configured then an outage earlier in the year froze many of our systems for hours - and in some of our cases only recovered after a reboot once HS fixed the problem their end. That was a once-off in my experience though 👍

[dzee]

As privacy and security considerations continue to plague various IoT devices, ensuring HSx works on a LAN without internet (so long as the devices themselves have a local interface) may be the greatest marketing differentiator of HSx from its competitors.

[jetkit]

Good to know. Thank you all.
I think my hs3 box is going on for almost two years running in the closet. No updates, no fuzz, just working, transparent to me. I want to keep it that way. That's what automation means to me.

[mik3]

Good to know. Thank you all.
I think my hs3 box is going on for almost two years running in the closet. No updates, no fuzz, just working, transparent to me. I want to keep it that way. That's what automation means to me.

I want to be at this state. I can’t stop messing with things.

[dzee]

Good to know. Thank you all.
I think my hs3 box is going on for almost two years running in the closet. No updates, no fuzz, just working, transparent to me. I want to keep it that way. That's what automation means to me.

Yup. I didn't upgrade plug-ins once they were working for years. Then in 2019 some external issues happened like WeatherUnderground killing WeatherXML and the occasional device update creating issues the plugins had to be upgraded to fix. I think my HS3 ran from at least 2014-2018 flawlessly. I seem to have it balanced back on the head of the pin again, but I'm going to have to change a thermostat soon.