HomeTroller-SE running very slowly

[BradAMiller]

I was trying various drivers on my new HomeTroller-SE and found the set of drivers that worked for some devices that are plugged into it. So to get rid of the unused stuff, I reimaged it with the restore key intending on only reinstalling the right driver versions, etc.

But, since the restore the system runs incredibly slowly. It was never real speedy, but now it's much slower by several times over what it was before the reimage. This is with no custom drivers or anything beyond what the restore key installed.

Any ideas of what to check?

Thanks,
Brad

[Rupp]

Does the task manager show a high cpu usage and what is using it?

[BradAMiller]

Does the task manager show a high cpu usage and what is using it?

Nope. That's the first place I looked. Nothing is using very much CPU and it only occasionally hits 100%. The rest of the time it's pretty low.

It's running like as if some BIOS setting got changed that's making it go slower, but I'm not sure.

Thanks,
Brad

[Rupp]

Nope. That's the first place I looked. Nothing is using very much CPU and it only occasionally hits 100%. The rest of the time it's pretty low.

It's running like as if some BIOS setting got changed that's making it go slower, but I'm not sure.

Thanks,
Brad

I would suggest putting in a support request using the blue support links above if you are still within your 30 day support window for this hardware which I suspect you are since these are new.

[FlyBoyBob]

My Hometroller slowness due to being hacked, yours?

Nope. That's the first place I looked. Nothing is using very much CPU and it only occasionally hits 100%. The rest of the time it's pretty low.

It's running like as if some BIOS setting got changed that's making it go slower, but I'm not sure.

Thanks,
Brad

My unit was running agonizingly slow right from the first time I hooked up a monitor to it - 10+ minutes just to boot up, every mouse click taking 10 or 15 seconds to do anything, lots of other problems.

As it turns out the unit was hacked via RealVNC, even before I had realised I needed to get a VGA monitor and PS2 mouse and keyboard from the local antiques shop to actually get a Home-troll-er working. I was hoping to access it via RealVNC but was not having much luck, apparently hackers know a lot more about it than me, or the Helpdesk!

The unit comes with the lamest possible security with "admin" as the only thing you need to know to get in and do whatever you want, it was probably compromised within a few hours of going live on the Internet.

Last night I came home to see Hotmail accounts being creating using my Hometroller, HSProtect shut off, Start->Shutdown disabled, and who knows what else. I briefly fought for the mouse pointer with my hacker adversary and finally could only stop him(or her?) by literally pulling the plug.

The good news is that after re-enabling HSProtect and disabling RealVNC the unit boots up in probably less than a minute and the mouse works as it should. I am hoping Homeseer Helpdesk can help me detox my machine and get me running properly again asap - fingers crossed.

bob

[Rupp]

Your best bet would be to use one of the restore sticks available from the HomeSeer store and rebuild to a default configuration.

[FlyBoyBob]

"restore stick"

Your best bet would be to use one of the restore sticks available from the HomeSeer store and rebuild to a default configuration.

I'll buy it when I find it... Thanks Rupp, that sounds like a good thing to have, but I spent about 10 minutes in the store and can't find anything like that.

While I have your attention - I noticed "Z-Tool" which sounds like a good possibility for my Z Wave problems? Z-Seer has not proved to be very useful, and is crashing on exit, but that might be due to my hacked system. Too many problems!

It's not clear - but is Z-Tool that set of sticks in the picture at http://store.homeseer.com/store/Home...e-P483C68.aspx? Or is it just a program? Is it included in my $700 Pro price? Is it better than Z-Seer?

Sorry for all the questions, my Hometroller is a mess and I will accept help wherever I can get it. Yes I have a Helpdesk ticket in.
bob

[Rupp]

Look on this page for controller accessories.
http://store.homeseer.com/store/Syst...llers-C81.aspx

[Guest]

The unit comes with the lamest possible security with "admin" as the only thing you need to know to get in and do whatever you want, it was probably compromised within a few hours of going live on the Internet.

bob

How is your hometroller connected to the internet?

[FlyBoyBob]

Slow system = possibly hacked, which is TOO easy to do.

How is your hometroller connected to the internet?

Via my Netgear router on ADSL to Verizon. Initially I forwarded ports 80 and 5800 to the Homeseer as advised in the Installation Guide.

I had issues connecting remotely via RealVNC (see other threads here) and neither the documentation nor the Helpdesk advised that the RealVNC server itself is on port 5900. I forwarded that port one evening and the next day connected remotely for the first time, using "admin" as documented. I did not know how to change the password ahead of actually making it work, and in the meantime some troll found me and made it work for him/her.

The Helpdesk has advised I purchased the "system restore drive" which I will do, and wipe my system clean. My purpose for posting in this thread was that my machine had slowed to a ridiculous pace with whatever the hacker had installed and running - hoping to help the original poster.

Helpdesk is also taking my suggestion about not shipping with RealVNC open and so weak.

bob

[rmasonjr]

Helpdesk is also taking my suggestion about not shipping with RealVNC open and so weak.

bob

We're going through a security assessment here at work and VNC is top of the list of security risks. Our security manager showed us how easy it is to hack VNC - pretty interesting.

On that same note, Spotify has been kicking-out on our virus scans for a large number of our users

[FlyBoyBob]

Hometroller security risk

We're going through a security assessment here at work and VNC is top of the list of security risks. Our security manager showed us how easy it is to hack VNC - pretty interesting.

On that same note, Spotify has been kicking-out on our virus scans for a large number of our users

RealVNC itself isn't a risk, only if not set up properly. There are options that are 100% secure - like not allowing anything but a local machine, or specifying only certain IP adresses as allowed to connect. But the Hometroller is shipped in the nearly-weakest configuration, *and* enabled by default. The only weaker configuation is to allow no authentication at all, and IMHO that option shouldn't even be available.

There are readily available scanners that will test every port on a range of IP addresses and listen for a server response, some will even try idiot passwords like "password" and "admin". At a minimum the Hometroller should ship with the servers disabled and a strong password involving the unit serial number so all are different; and then well-written step-by-step instructions on how to enable RealVNC and what the risks are.

Once into my machine the troll disabled all the other security features like HSProtect and no doubt set it up to be a spam or DOS repeater. I caught him opening new Hotmail accounts, which can only be set up by a real person on a real screen = "Hotmail security". Of course now any spam from that account will come back as originating from my IP address....

Hope that helps,
bob

[FlyBoyBob]

Update:

At the recommendation of Homeseer Helpdesk I ordered and received the System Restore stick. As part of the procedure I Excluded all Z-Wave devices and backed-up the Homeseer/confg directory.

Following instructions through to a batch file that warns me that all data will be erased it is stuck on a "Press any key to continue..." message which does not respond to any key, including Cntrl-C and the 3-finger-salute, whereas the keyboard worked fine in the BIOS setup screen and the mouse continues to work. The keyboard is USB, which I also tried with a USB-to-PS2 adaptor - which never works.

The .bat file can't be edited (a simple comment-out of the Pause command would work fine I'm sure) and I am not adventerous enough to try to copy the files to a bootable editable USB stick, which I'm sure Homeseer would discourage anyway.

A ticket is awaiting the Helpdesk dudes, and the fun continues...

bob