Ring is having a major outage | Hacker News Reader

Ring is having a major outage

status.ring.com

61 pointsvector_spaces52 comments

Users are kinda mad https://twitter.com/ring/status/1685049112306262016. I’ll give them credit and say this is the first time in 3 years I’ve had any issues

People are losing their minds. This person sounds like many software developers: " I’m debating on setting up a home DVR system because I can’t trust Ring will stay online 24/7." - good luck with that.

I mean, I get the frustration but you outsourced a core service to the internet, then are shocked when it's not available all the time? All the comments about "must be 24/7" and "don't you have backups?" etc... How can we possibly expect people to consider subtle things like privacy when they don't get the fundamentals?

If this was the 90s and a telephone pole crash took down an alarm system monitoring center nobody would bat an eyelash. It’s inconvenient, but it happens.

The digital equivalent—dropping the prod DB or something—draws the ire of millions. Consumer expectations changed when we put a computer in their pocket screaming OUTAGE.

They wouldn't expect any redundancy in an alarm system monitoring centre? Also there's a very brief instance in time where such a system would not be basically digital.

I think a lot of systems have lost a lot of reliability and resilience as they are replaced by (centralized, virtual) digital equivalents.

Having a doorbell that fails because someone made a typo in a DNS entry (or whatever it is this time) is silly and people have every right to be angry. Though it would help if they direct some of that anger towards themselves for subjecting themselves to a doorbell that they don't control and sends surveillance on its immediate surrounding to some third party (who may send it back, for a price).

That's an interesting observation, but I don't think it's because of the instant-outage-notification thing.

It might be worthwhile to look at how peoples' expectations of service availability have changed in the last fifty years as compared to peoples' perceived importance of non-essential services.

"They" and "people" includes a surprising fraction of software engineers themselves. So many engineers design their systems assuming every customer has internet 24/7.

And what are the odds that they’ve never experienced an outage while on the job? Shit happens, I stopped freaking out about outages after I started my software career because every time one happens, my first thought is “I’m just glad it’s not me dealing with it”

I mean I run my own security system at home.

Part of the struggle is… what happens during a break in and they just swipe the damn dvr.

I’m torn.

Mine is also one that to enable RTSP means it running a insecure firmware. So I can’t use both services. It’s rtsp or cloud only.

Having a replica is an easy part - just host another DVR elsewhere (in a location you own or trust, preferably far away) and stream a copy there at the same time you're streaming a copy to your local DVR. Repeat with more replicas (or a distributed filesystem with relevant properties) for higher resiliency. There are a bunch of distributed filesystem solutions out there to pick from. If you have a hacked but original firmware, most likely it uses a variant of S3 protocol for their cloud recordings, so simple binary patching (replacing hostnames and any hardcoded TLS certificates or fingerprints) may do the trick.

Having a backup power and network is tricky. You need a reliable battery backup that would automatically kick in in case of power outage, notify you about the failure and power all systems that must stay online for a reasonable amount of time. And an one or more alternate network links that would still work if the primary one is severed - e.g. a fiber line and a 5G modem, but the more the merrier.

Insecure firmware is probably not a problem if all devices are strictly isolated away to their own VLAN, which is carefully firewalled away from all your other systems (so even if you get a compromised laptop on your home LAN, it can't reach those cameras without going through a tightly locked down jumphost). Then it is more likely someone's throwing a wrench to a camera than someone hacking into it (even if all it takes is passwordless telnet that gives root access).

rsync to a NAS locked inside a fireproof safe and keep the combination in a safe deposit box

forget the combination to be invulnerable to rubberhose crypto

> good luck with that

This can be done relatively pain-free with Ubiquiti with the added benefit of getting the full framerate recorded all the time instead of only during a detection.

It’s more expensive, but all recordings are local.

The best side effect of only-record-with-motion is that I have multiple cameras running on full solar. Running power would have been quite inconvenient.

However, any time I try to view a feed and it lags or doesn’t connect, I swear I’m just gonna hard wire everything. Sometimes it’s nice to have one system I can’t tinker with.

Because they don't get the fundamentals

I get being mad when a service is down, but some people seem to be like, melting down. Humans have lived for millenia (and really into the what, mid 2000s) without doorbell cameras, but some of those people are acting like they're going to get murdered now that it's down.

A huge part of Ring's marketing involved making people so fearful that they felt they needed it to help them be safe.

I'm willing to bet a lot of that anger comes from them feeling afraid. It's marketing in action.

"I actually feel very vulnerable not being able to check my cameras before I go to bed"

"I am missing many moments at home now !!"

"I have no clue if someone is breaking in now"

"The one time we decide to put the puppy downstairs on his own, we can’t even make sure he’s ok. Never mind our doorbell picking up people who have no business being there"

"Would have been great to at least have a view of the robbers if they came to my house, u know. What a 'Ring' is supposed to be used for."

Do ya think? I'm suprised and saddened by these reactions.

I'm saddened, but not even a little surprised.

Ring's marketing is one of the many things that are contributing to the increasing isolation and alienation of people from each other.

I don't know, it really enhances the sense of community I feel when every third house says "Hi, you're being recorded" as I walk by.

That, mon ami, gets a doubleplusgood[0] rating all day long.

It's got understated irony that somehow tends to sarcasm at the same time. It's very hard to unpack yet delicious.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak

And people still say "land of the free, home of the brave" very un-ironically.

Believer or not I'm sure you can use your ears if someone's breaking into your house and sure you will hear it,

This is the world we live in now, yikes. Citizen app feels like another tendril of the same beast.

I kind of dig when things go down, I sort of like sitting around the gas fireplace and listening to my ham radio in a dark house for a few hours. If shit really hits the fan then it’s time for the tabletop gas burner and some beef and shrimp with veggies.

Jira can wait until the power comes back on.

Dude yes. I understand that it's a serious event, but when the background hum of electricity dies the world feels so different and real. I love it.

24/7 news cycle constantly highlighting every single kidnapping or crime that happens across the country has instilled a culture of fear in most people.

I grew up riding my bike completely across town by myself, before cell phones were pervasive. Parents these days are afraid of letting their kid walk 5 minutes to the neighborhood park…

Reminds me that I keep meaning to order the license plate "5NINES" for my car but not sure many will get the reference hehe.

Make it 6NINES and they will.

Kind of off topic: do you need to be signed in to Twitter to see replies now?

https://nitter.net/ring

Yep. But the replies are all about users wanting credits.

For those with no ~~Twitter~~ X account: https://nitter.net/ring/status/1685049112306262016

Reminds me of the time when the MyQ garage opener back-end went down.

I got locked out of my house for about 4 hours.

I set up a whole Mac-mini home assistant thing totally local.

Then I lost my phone and I couldn’t get in to the house to even call it. Thankfully it was just in my wife’s car and she came home with it.

Now there is a physical key under a rock.

Yeah I’ve slowly built out some smart home kit, but literally every single piece is a “nice to have” for exactly this reason.

My door lock is wirelessly controllable via zwave.

It also has a keypad so you can just enter a code instead.

It also has a keyhole. For my key. That is with me.

Similarly… I have some controllable light switches. If anything fails… they are just normal light switches and I can still turn my lights on.

I’ve spent too long in IT to have any faith whatsoever in any of this stuff.

I have digital locks on my front and back door, but they have no external connectivity (something I specifically looked for). No wifi, no bluetooth.

So far the only failure mode has been the battery running out, but it gives you plenty of warning. And if you're super lazy like me, you just go in the other door when the battery runs out. :)

This is why I went with HomeKit devices only where possible.

The door lock is HomeKit and does Bluetooth so it works when the power is out and internet is down, has a key and PIN code for backup.

Garage door opener requires the WiFi to be up, but it will work without internet if you’re close enough to connect to home WiFi.

HomeKit is far from perfect but I like that it doesn’t require internet for the core functions to work. Thread and Matter devices have made it even better.

Even though we have MyQ and have integrated it into Alexa (and was part of the Resideo system we got when we bought the house), my wife and I still use the old school remotes in our car, and we have keypad access as well (which is the same technology Liftmaster has used for 20+ years)

Use scrypted with an Amcrest AD410 or some other camera under your control:

https://github.com/koush/scrypted

I mirror my camera locally and also send it to HomeKitSecureVideo.

FWIW, mine is working fine

Have the cameras been jailbroken? I have a "Ring stick up cam battery" that I don't want to connect to the cloud.

Odd. My ring camera and Livestream etc are all working fine. I'm in New Zealand though.

Wait until yesterday. Then you'll really get hammered. :)

I got an odd logout message, was wondering if they broke (again).

Ring is having a major outage

It's time to go do crime against houses with Ring security systems.

I doubt they actually do much anyway.

Are you implying Ring won't dispatch police when you have a break-in?

Looks like an add on to me.

https://ring.com/professional-monitoring

Yes, but anyone with the alarm system and not just the doorbell usually gets it. It's only $10/mo, far less than the $40-60 you pay for ADT etc.

I never thought about it before but these things are all wifi based right. What happens when you show up with your 2.4GHz jammer in the kilowatt range that you uhhh, liberated from a common cooking appliance.

I mean besides making all the hams in the neighborhood mad at you.

Ring sensors use zwave; so 900MHz range. The hub works either hard wired and probably over WiFi or with cellular backup.

Or just take a walk in a Ringed-up neighborhood with the knowledge that your pictures are not being sent to the local police department in the name of 'pre-crime'.

It's still light out in the US. /me plays Beastie Boys - Rhymin & Stealin

Reply on news.ycombinator.com