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    #16
    I have plugged my garage door into appliance modules. In vacation mode I turn the modules off so the garage door has no power. If my family were more predictable I could probably work this into a daily routine.

    I am reluctant to use powerflash modules to close the Garage door and have drilled into my families head that you do not close the garage door unless you are watching it. I like to know it is open however and will use HS to alert me to the condition.

    Comment


      #17
      <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Yes, they do have that feature these days, as well as a beam across the bottom of the door opening like elevators do to determine if someone walks through it. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

      The beams required on garage doors are 6" off the ground and designed to keep kids from getting smushed, and not much more.

      A correctly adjust garage door opener will reverse when it hits a moderate amount of resistance, and that could help as well, depending upon exactly what angle the door hits on object. If the door hits directly on it, you should be O.K., but if the door slides along it, your out of luck.

      If you insist on using X-10 to open or close your door, you can get some security by using two codes on different housecodes to trigger it. Set both of the universal modules for a short timed trigger, and wire them in series. That way, you will need to send both codes within a few seconds of each other, which should be fairly immune to noise.

      Comment


        #18
        Never considered this "trick", and may adopt such sequence method.

        Having said that I am more concerned about failing x10 than its openness...
        I would be surprised if burglars walk around with an x10 Palmpad and try for 10 minutes to get to the right frequency not even knowing if the house is "simple-x10" protected...

        There is a bigger risk with the web HS monitoring of through guest-mode: cameras and seeing if the people are in, the system armed, learning habit-patterns of a HS-house, etc.

        Gordon, a question: how do you get the SMS sent to your cellphone?

        380 MHz, Ocelot, VCR, 2x751, 2x501, 4 ActiveEye, 2 XCAM2, 1 IR Cam, 4 PH, 5 keychain, 3 stick-a-switch, 5 AM, 5 LM, 3 WS, PCS05, univ mod, P-Flash, 11 Door-sensors, DS7000, GlassBreak, MS10a

        Comment


          #19
          It's a nice feature for those who like to share and those who like to see other's setups, but it's a security hole. Given that someone was able to obtain your physical address, they can monitor your house for a pattern of occupancy.

          It's likely that you guys will have an alarm as well, but do you really want to expose your daily routine?

          Comment


            #20
            <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
            Blade, Radio Shack sells the door/window-style magnetic reed switches for alarm systems - those owudl work. Any home store or possily hardware store that carries garage door equipment should have the garage door switches.
            <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


            Can anyone tell me exactly which magnetic reed switch at Rat Shack I need to get in order to use a Universal Module to tell if my garage door is open or closed. I also only want to be able to close the garage door. I do not want to be able to open it (for security reasons).

            I line in Canada so if you could point me to a radio shack part in Canada I would appreciate it.

            Cheers,
            Bob

            ------------------------------
            Pentium 4 - 2 GHz
            1 GB DDR RAM @433Mhz
            Homeseer and Homeseer Phone
            DooMotion Plug-in
            HomeSeer PCI Voice Modem
            MR26A with plug-in
            Media Player Plug-in
            AT&T Natural Voices
            More to come....
            Cheers,
            Bob
            Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

            Comment


              #21
              I monitor my garage door for opening and closing. I also have a script that tells me (and keeps reminding me!) that the door has been open for more than 10 minutes. As far as magnetic switches go...here's the canadian site. Look for part #49-497 - it should work fine.

              There is also a more expensive and likely more rugged from Smarthome, that mounts on the ground. I used one similar to the radio shack cheap one and mounted it about head high on the garage door - with the mate mounted on the door frame. When the door is closed the circuit is closed through the magnetic switch to the universal module. The circuit opens when the door does and HS sees the x10 signal from the universal module.

              I don't use x10 to close or open the door....but you can do so using a powerflash unit.

              http://www.radioshack.ca/estore/Cate...log=RadioShack

              ....Jeff

              Comment


                #22
                Thanks. That is the one I was looking at today. I just was not sure.

                Now I just have to figure out the best way to mount it.

                Cheers,
                Bob

                ------------------------------
                Pentium 4 - 2 GHz
                1 GB DDR RAM @433Mhz
                Homeseer and Homeseer Phone
                DooMotion Plug-in
                HomeSeer PCI Voice Modem
                MR26A with plug-in
                Media Player Plug-in
                AT&T Natural Voices
                More to come....
                Cheers,
                Bob
                Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

                Comment


                  #23
                  You have to be a bit creative when mounting these, but there are many options.

                  First, decide if you want to detect when your door is open or closed. With a normal door this isn't much of an issue, but with a garage door there is a very wide zone of not open or not closed.

                  If you want to only allow closing your door, and you are using a typical alarm contact that is closed when the magnet is near it, this means that you need to mount it near the garage opener with the magnet on the top of the door.

                  Just open your door, then look for places where the door comes in contact with stationary location where you could mount the sensor. You might have to mount it hanging down from the ceiling so it hovers over where the top of the door stops. If at all possible, mount the magnet and sensor in such a way that the magnet doesn't move past the sensor. It should move toward and away from the sensor. If the magnet goes across the sensor, it could magnetize it over time, and that is bad.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    In order to prevent your door from being opened using a series-connected magnetic reed switch with a universal module, you'll want either the Radio Shack 49-532 or 49-533, depending on which end you mount them to.

                    If you want it to work like mine, and allow the closer to be triggered no matter how far "open" the door is, use a normally-closed switch and place it so that the magnet is next to it when the door is fully closed (which will OPEN the switch and thereby not allow the universal module to trigger the door opener). Place the switch somewhere on the side as JeffCharger and others state, with the magnet on the door. be sure anything mounted clears the track guides and mounting brackets. Watching the door move a few times should give you clues about where to put it.

                    If you want to only allow the X10 to close the door from wide-open position, use the normally-open switch, and place so that the magnet is next to it when the door is fully open, near the closer mechanism. The effect with this is that if the door is not fully open, you won't be able to trigger the closer at all from X10.

                    - Gordon

                    "Security is EVERYONE'S business!"
                    |
                    | - Gordon

                    "I'm a Man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess." - Man's Prayer, Possum Lodge, The Red Green Show
                    HiddenGemStudio.com - MaineMusicians.org - CunninghamCreativeMaine.website

                    Comment


                      #25
                      This gem often goes unnoticed. There are a couple ways. The easiest way is to send an email to your cell phone email address from HS or some other monitoring package.

                      I happen to have a Nokia GSM phone with T-Mobile prepaid service (pay as you need it) which I no longer used, so I got a data cable to tie it to the computer using a serial port. Then with the right version of Nokia Data Suite and an HS plug-in written by Richard Samphire (v 0.0.36), and some of the "glue" dependency packages, you can set up a 2-way interface to/from HS and your cell phone's SMS service.

                      Then you just write a script like:

                      <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">
                      sub main()
                      dim sMessage ' as string
                      dim sCLI ' as string

                      ' read the message and the cli from the homeseer devices
                      '
                      ' NOTE: if you change the names of the devices
                      ' you will need to change them here as well

                      sMessage = hs.DeviceStringByName("SMS Inbound Message")
                      sCLI = hs.DeviceStringByName("SMS Inbound CLI")

                      select case UCase(sMessage)
                      case "TIME"
                      if sCLI&lt;&gt;"" then
                      ' reply to the mobile with the current time
                      sendSMS "Automation Server Time : " & cstr(now()),sCLI
                      end if
                      end select
                      end sub

                      sub SendSMS(sMessage, sTelNumber)
                      hs.SetDeviceStringByName "SMS Outbound Message",sMessage
                      hs.SetDeviceStringByName "SMS Outbound TelNumber",sTelNumber
                      hs.SetDeviceValueByName "SMS Outbound TelNumber",0
                      end sub
                      </pre>

                      And now I can send an SMS message to my HS box, text of "time", and HS SMS sends back the current time, or use the plugin to notify me of problems even if my home phone line or DSL goes out, as long as the CPU and cell phone have power. Simple example. Lots of capability for notifications or two-way messaging with HS/HSP/etc.


                      See http://ubb.homeseer.com/6/ubb.x?a=tp...276#6502904276

                      - Gordon

                      "Security is EVERYONE'S business!"
                      |
                      | - Gordon

                      "I'm a Man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess." - Man's Prayer, Possum Lodge, The Red Green Show
                      HiddenGemStudio.com - MaineMusicians.org - CunninghamCreativeMaine.website

                      Comment


                        #26
                        don't forget, if you want to use a powerflash unit, you can tie in to the close/open door limit switches on several garage door openers, so you don't have to buy any magnetic switches. This is what I did, and will guarantee an exact status of the door. Problem is that the Powerflash isn't reliable enough for a garagedoor setup, so I am about to run a wire from the limit switches to my computer, and just use the game port.

                        HSPRO 2.4 (ESXi 4.1) | my.Alert NEW | my.Trigger | HSTouch | ACRF2 | UltraM1G | BLWeather | BLLan | Rover
                        (aka xplosiv)
                        Do You Cocoon? Home Automation News, Tutorials, Reviews, Forums & Chat

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Thanks for the advice.

                          How do I set up the Universal Module (UM506) to only allow the door to be closed.

                          Cheers,
                          Bob

                          ------------------------------
                          Pentium 4 - 2 GHz
                          1 GB DDR RAM @433Mhz
                          Homeseer and Homeseer Phone
                          DooMotion Plug-in
                          HomeSeer PCI Voice Modem
                          MR26A with plug-in
                          Media Player Plug-in
                          AT&T Natural Voices
                          More to come....
                          Cheers,
                          Bob
                          Web site | Help Desk | Feature Requests | Message Board

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Just make sure your garage door opener works with a momentary shorting of the button terminals. Most modern openers work this way, but some people have written here onthe board that they have fried their universal modules or the garage door opener circuitry, so be careful.

                            This is how I did it with my Craftsman door opener:

                            Set universal module (mine is X10 PUM01) to Momentary, Sounder & Relay.

                            Wire one terminal of universal module to one side of your reed switch. Wire the other side of the universal to one side of the garage door opener where the opener button in your garage wires in.

                            Wire the other side of the reed switch into the other side of the garage door opener where the other side of the opener button wires in.

                            That places the reed switch in series with the universal module.

                            Of course, I won't be held responsible if it doesn't work or fries your equipment!

                            - Gordon

                            "Security is EVERYONE'S business!"
                            |
                            | - Gordon

                            "I'm a Man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess." - Man's Prayer, Possum Lodge, The Red Green Show
                            HiddenGemStudio.com - MaineMusicians.org - CunninghamCreativeMaine.website

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Not to rain on the parade of security, BUT, If you knew that one's home was under the control of X-10 and most homes have a junction box out side, at the street lamp post, near the bushes, around back - somewhere outside - ??You think you're secure at all??

                              ((I know some of us have added the dual wall sockets that you can turn off, but I only did this on a couple, too much of a pain to plug in the leaf blower, found it was quite a PAIN to then have to turn ON the outlet.))

                              The outside wall outlet, and extension cord and a maxi controller would reek havoc on anyone’s house!!! Once plugged in to power, you have the house at your control. FOR INSTANCE - if someone was hiding in your bushes, you know they'd get a real rise watching and trying to figure out why your home was going nuts!!! Yes, you'd eventually - shut off the breaker and then follow the bright orange extension cord to 'SOMEONE' hiding out, you can only hope that they'd be in tears, laughing. Cuz, you just got Punk'd.

                              Just how would this rate on the WAF?

                              Hope the other members her in So Cal don't get any ideas.

                              Comment


                                #30
                                I think the people having the will and knowledge to break in your house by figuring out the X-10 code to open your garage door is unlikely. I think your neighbor, buying some X-10 modules to control their lights, and stubling upon one that opens your garage door IS likely. Also, considering how cheaply made X-10 products are, its not unlikely that a burst of noise, X-10 collision, or a list of 1000 other things could trip your X-10 controlled device. Its also likely that someone could hack into your Homeseer Web control, and turn anything they want on or off.

                                So, as I said before, don't ever use X-10 to control something that involves security or safety.

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