Talk:Insteon

Copyright

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Mike (sig added by Cburnett, please type ~~~~ to add it in the future)

Cleanup

Thanks Mike for the start on the article. However, it needs to be cleaned up to be much less like an advertisement ("Reliability is a hallmark of INSTEON Networks." is a prime example) and more of an encyclopedia entry:

• Remove marketing POV
• Link in other articles
• Use the standard article format (External links, see also, an intro that explains what INSTEON is to someone who's never known about it or any buzzwords relating to it)

Cburnett 05:18, Jun 22, 2005 (UTC)

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Please do not add commercial links or links to your own private websites to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or a mere collection of external links. You are, however, encouraged to add content instead of links to the encyclopedia. If you feel the link should be added to the article please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. See the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thanks.

Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_soapbox

Warning messages

Hiya, I just added a couple of NPOV warnings to the page, and removed their company banner from the top, since the article does smell very much like advertising. However, I would vote in advance that it should not be deleted or removed, but re-edited (maybe totally re-writen) with an NPOV. --Tyr 80.195.231.235 11:20, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

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Transclusion of competing technologies

I have created Template:Wireless competitors which came from the entry for ZigBee, and am inserting the reference to that template into all the entries that it includes; this should create a fairer, more neutral, and automatic inclusion of all references to all of the competing wireless data networking schemes, whether it's wifi, bluetooth, X10 or whatever. If there's a new one or a better description, it can just be added to the template (or the template changed to update the information) and thus all the competitors have the same reference. Paul Robinson 13:55, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

cleanup

paul - good table, do you have any more suggestions in order to make this article better?

Editing changes

Hi, per the warnings and suggestions, I edited the opening paragraph and tried to remove the marketing POV, as well as adding a sentence explaining what INSTEON is to someone who has no idea about this type of technology. Please let me know if the changes are sufficient or if I need to do more. thanks. --Mpleasant 19:00, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

More of the same

Mpleasant reverted my rewrite of the beginning of the article without specifying why. I brought this to his/her attention on their talk page but ve did not respond (it has been 24 days). I am cutting and pasting my original rewrite. I sincerely hope that Mpleasant will join the discussion on this page. In case it is not clear, I feel that the intro is written in purple marketing speak, without addressing the technology's predecessor X10. Codeczero 00:37, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Advert, again

This article reads like an advertisement to me, and I've tagged it as such. If there are many good things to say about INSTEON, please find a good source and cite it. There are currently zero sources for the content of this article. --AbsolutDan ^(talk) 03:57, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Advertisement, NPOV, Sources

I have added sources and some additional information from the INSTEON.net and SmartLabs Pages. I also included some information from a PDF about INSTEON which is accessible via the link provided. Hopefully this clears up the lack of sources etc. I also tweaked a few things that sounded a little advertiserish. Please keep in mind that because I work for/with the inventors of this technology, it is hard for me to keep a NPOV. If anyone has any information regarding INSTEON from an outside source please add. Mpleasant 22:20, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Data in the table is incorrect

As many others have noticed, this looks like an advertising page. Additionally, the facts in the table are incorrect. ZigBee, for example, uses 16-bit addressing (64K unique addresses) in each of 16 channels. See, for example http://www.zigbee.org/en/about/faq.asp.

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I've noticed it mentions 24bit address which provides for an "unlimited" number of devices. This would actually limit the number of devices to 2^24, (or about 16.7 million) which would be consistant with a generic IP such as 24.x.x.x.
Jarod (talk) 13:03, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

110 vs 220 V

Is all of this available on both 110V and 220V networks? Or is this a USA-only system? -- Michael Janich 08:13, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Introduction is too long

The introduction is too long. The list of "features" in the introduction belongs in the article's body. Introductions need to be meaningful and concise. --KJRehberg (talk) 17:55, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Removal of the tags

I have become an INSTEON enthusist, and agree that they needed to cite more references. I hope I did everything right, I tried to take each issue nad fix it to the best of my ability. Any question, feel free to ask. Any fixes I need to make, also let me know. I will monitor my talk Back :)

Scrltspdr (talk) 00:15, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Written like advertising

This article is a disgrace. Why is INSTEON all-caps, for instance? Is it an acronym? ANY company would want its namae in all caps -- that doesn't mean an encyclopedia has to do it that way. The tone of this piece is highly promotional, and judging from someone above who granted copyright to use material from the company web site, there's clear conflict of interest involved. Also, no "enthusiast" for the company should be writing here -- that's admitted conflict of interest. This piece needs to be plain WP:NPOV, and it is far from that now. NOTE: Wikipedia policy forbids removing tags without the issues being addressed. -- 207.237.132.90 (talk) 19:23, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

I think he means enthusiast for the product line. I might describe myself as one as well, but I have nothing to do with their company, and if I were to contribute, I would certainly not be a COI. Also I don't think "INSTEON" is the name of a company - I believe the company who made it is called "Smart Labs", and their company that sells it "Smart Home". I believe the name INSTEON principally refers to the combined RF/powerline protocol, and secondarily, to the products that utilize that protocol. And I will agree that capitalization is inappropriate per WP:MOSTM Reswobslc (talk) 17:44, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

IKEA is written in all caps on Wikipedia Daylen (talk) 23:31, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

IKEA is an acronym; INSTEON is not. Lambtron (talk) 14:45, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

Advertisement Tag added

I just tagged this article as its tone sounds like an advertisement. Skimming the comments above, it seems like this has been a problem for a very long time. Editors, please don't remove a tag that says "reads like <something_other_than_an_encyclopedia>" unless the article reads like it came from an encyclopedia. There are people who volunteer their time to help clean up articles with problems. When you remove the tag, the article no longer shows up in lists helpful people see. Krushia (talk) 19:51, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

I've made extensive edits to remove the promotional tone. For now at least, this article is as neutral as most other WP articles on home automation (e.g.: Zigbee and Z-Wave). More work could be done on comparison of home automation protocols but such info is hard to come by from neutral sources. Ross Fraser (talk)

Alas, once again this article is filling up with advertising text and is once again developing a promotional tone. E.g.: "Insteon Plug-In modules make any plug-in lamp or appliance part of the connected home." "The wireless switch can be mounted anywhere for easy accessibility." So it may once again need to be tagged for reading like an advertisement. In fact, right now, it reads like a catalogue from Smarthome.com Ross Fraser (talk) 07:51, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

I agree that it's become blatantly promotional and I've added an Advert tag to bring attention to this problem. This article reads like an advertisement and lately has gotten much worse. Lambtron (talk) 13:55, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

When was Insteon technology developed? Who developed it? What makes it unique and what are alternative technologies 69.170.33.107 (talk) 23:02, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

It still reads like an advertisement and now much of the Insteon technical documentation that this article relies on has been proven to be lies made by the company.

References

Cleaning up the article

I've made some changes to clean up the article. I was going to excise a lot of the product info as being too much detail and advertorial, but user:nikthestunned beat me to it. Most of that product info would be better served being in a company article, as part of a discussion of the company's notable products. I think we're almost there in terms of getting this to be proper in tone for a technical protocol article.Timtempleton (talk) 00:58, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

I agree that the product info was mostly advertising but I've reinstated a (non-advertorial) version of the small section on central controllers, as this really is a defining technical feature of Insteon. Ross Fraser (talk) 04:11, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

@Nikthestunned and Timtempleton: Great job! That was long overdue. @Ross Fraser: I hope you don't mind, but I've rewritten the central controller section to keep it on topic and non-promotional. Lambtron (talk) 14:11, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

I don't mind at all: these are good and succinct edits. :)

@Timtempleton: Two minor notes re: removing "See also" list.

1) Symmetry should still prevail: Zwave, Dash7 and EnOcean still point to Insteon in their own See also lists, but Insteon doesn't point back (though I note Timtempleton removed "See also" from Zigbee so perhaps this is a global edit-in-progress.

2) Mesh networking and Powerline communication are legit "See also" entries not covered by the home automation info box and should probably be reverted, especially the latter as it is somewhat of a peculiarity of Insteon in these everything-is-wireless days.

Ross Fraser (talk) 00:55, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Yes - I'm trying to remove the see also lists from as many related items as I have time for, specifically in the home automation and wireless sensor spaces. Those lists have turned into random lists of whatever and whoever wants to add something there, and you could argue that it borders on SPAM. Also, without descriptive info to help explain what each term is, in advance of clicking (is it a protocol, networking application, company? etc.), it's less useful. Similar to how the various categories on the bottom function as alternatives to putting in random names of competitors in the articles (another area I'm starting to work on since it's a target for spammers to attract eyeballs), the templates seem to perform a much more useful, scalable and global see also function. The next challenge becomes what to add to the templates. I tried to only add items that were notable, and the few that don't have articles are redlinked and probably should have their articles, from what I can find about them online.Timtempleton (talk) 15:22, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

I realized I didn't address your concerns about the other terms. Power-line communication is already listed on the home automation template, and I just added mesh networking to the "other" section, since it technically could be added to all three "network technologies, by function" sections.Timtempleton (talk) 15:38, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Article Uses Insteon Documentation which has been found to be heavily falsified.

I tried to start making edits as I saw this read like a marketing page. A security researcher at DEFCON 23 recently called out Insteon on their falsified documentation and marketing lies. Many of the lies the company has said were included in this wikipedia article.

References

External links modified

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External links modified

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Edit text 10-23-24

I work with Insteon and was told by someone more familiar with Wikipedia that I'm not supposed to edit this article directly. I'll put a few requests below. Hopefully I'm getting this request process right. There used to be an Insteon company article and an Insteon protocol article. When they were merged, it wasn't done quite right. The protocol info should be at the top, and the company history should go below. Also, the company is back in business, but with a smaller product line than before. These requests update the article and correct various other things.

1) Please remove the last sentence in the lead. The company is back in business, per Ars Technica. Also in the lede, the past tense employed should be present tense employs.  Done
2) The article is about the Insteon protocol, but it uses the company infobox. Can we make the main infobox a protocol infobox, and move the company infobox down below? Here's the code for the protocol infobox.

Insteon

Developed by	Smartlabs, Inc.
Introduced	2005
Industry	Home automation
Connector type	Wi-Fi, Powerline
Compatible hardware	LED bulbs wall switches and keypads sensors
Website	www.insteon.com

The company infobox can be moved to the history section below. The company relocated so the address is incorrect, but since it's still in Irvine, I just removed the street from the infobox. The infobox code is below. I also removed the old headquarters photo.

Insteon

Company type	Private
Founded	Irvine, California (2005)
Founder	Joe Dada
Headquarters	Irvine, California United States
Key people	Ken Fairbanks
Products	Proprietary dual-band home automation and lighting control systems using radio frequency (RF) and powerline technology
Parent	Smartlabs, Inc.
Website	www.insteon.com

 Done

References

3) Please reorder the sections so instead of:

• Corporate history
• Protocol
• Network topology
• Products
• Security
• Installation
• Compatibility
  

please make it:

• Protocol
• Network topology
• Products
• Security
• Installation
• Compatibility
• Corporate history  Done

4) The product line has been reduced, so please change the first paragraph of the product section.

−

Insteon produced over 200 products using its technology, including LED bulbs, wall switches, wall keypads, sensors, thermostats, plug in modules and embedded devices, along with central controllers for system management.

+

Insteon initially produced over 200 products using its technology, including LED bulbs, wall switches, wall keypads, sensors, plug in modules and embedded devices, along with central controllers for system management. In June 2019, it was reported that Insteon was reducing the number of products it sold to focus on less commoditized connected products like smart lighting and electrical controls.

Please also add this sentence to the end of the product section, indicating that one of the products has been discontinued.

The Hub Pro was later discontinued, according to a note on Insteon's web site.

The sourcing is primary, but the text explains that.  Done

References

5) I'd like to restructure the history to make it chronological, and remove unnecessary excessive detail about the initial shutdown.

−

As of April 15, 2022, there are reports that Insteon has shut down its servers and closed. On April 16, reports emerged of users finding their Insteon Hubs offline. The company forums, web servers and API servers went offline. The company's CEO Rob Lilleness appeared to have scrubbed any references to Insteon from his LinkedIn page, and other employees also appeared to indicate on their LinkedIn profiles that their employment with the company ceased in April 2022. In a community statement published on the Insteon.com website, Smartlabs has revealed that it had been looking for a parent company to purchase and continue developing the Insteon ecosystem following supply-chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. This sale failed to materialize in March 2022 and subsequently a financial services firm had been tasked with optimizing the assets of the company. As of June 9, 2022, a group of Insteon users acquired the company and committed to rebuild the business. In October 2022, Insteon services were brought back by a group of customers who claim to have bought the company assets.

+

In a community statement published on the Insteon.com website, Smartlabs has revealed that it had been looking for a parent company to purchase and continue developing the Insteon ecosystem following supply-chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. This sale failed to materialize in March 2022 and subsequently a financial services firm had been tasked with optimizing the assets of the company. In mid-April 2022, the company appeared to have abruptly shut down. In June 2022, a group of Insteon users acquired the company and its assets to rebuild the business. In October 2022, Insteon services were brought back by the new owners.

 Done

References

Thank you for your assistance. Irvinetech2024 (talk) 21:03, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Marked answered STEMinfo (talk) 06:51, 30 October 2024 (UTC)