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Supported Accommodation, Independence and Modern Technology

GnomeUK
GnomeUK Community member Posts: 2 Listener
edited June 2020 in Coffee lounge
Good day, not sure where to post this, but as I like coffee I thought I would start in here.

I have friend who recently suffered a head injury leading to a lack movement, except in one arm.

When they leave hospital they are going to  a complex where each person has their own flat, but there is staff around and it is likely my friend will need a support person from when they wake  up until they go to bed.

In order to make things easier, such as turning the TV and lights while in bed, I was thinking of getting an Alexa thing and a TV, bulbs etc that can all be voice operated.

But thinking about things I realised that in the complex they provide wifi, which is great for internet surfing, tablet connections, smart phone connections but I suspect that this is not so good for the Internet of Things which I suspect prefers a private network in your home, rather than a public network that covers numerous homes.

Has anyone come across this situation and could they provide some pointers to information, hints, tips or even a "How to" guide.

Many thanks.

ALan

Comments

  • April2018mom
    April2018mom Posts: 2,882 Disability Gamechanger
    Hello! 

    Are you talking about supported living or not? 
  • M_Anthony
    M_Anthony Community member, Scope Volunteer Posts: 309 Pioneering
    Hello @GnomeUK

    Are you referring to security concerns over public wifi? if so there are tools called VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) which gives you encrypted and secure connections for anything sensitive over public networks. If that is what you mean I can give you more information,
  • Chloe_Scope
    Chloe_Scope Posts: 10,586 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @GnomeUK, Alexa should be compatible with this type of wifi. When I lived in university halls I was able to use one. They can be a great piece of tech for disabled people.

    Here is an article that shows some things that the alexa can do to help disabled people. :)
    Scope

  • GnomeUK
    GnomeUK Community member Posts: 2 Listener
    Thanks for the responses.

    The VPN is a good way of connecting over a public network from private to private, but in this instance I would be connecting my  IoT stuff onto the private network.

    It is good to know it worked in the Halls, as this is how I think the complex WiFi will be working.

    I am still uneasy though at connecting something everyone else can see on the network.

    At home, the Modem/router connects to the internet using an address supplied by your provider.
    The modem/router then gives each home thing connected to it a unique address, not associated with the internet address.

    In the modem/router there is a bit of magic that allows the modem/router to pass out stuff from the internet to the appropriate device connected in the home.

    In effect mail comes from the mailman to a central office and the central office distributes it internally.

    My concern is that the central office is connected not just to my home, but to every home on the complex, and that (to my mind) is a security risk.

    I know enough about networking to be able to connect to the WiFi, use that as the Internet and have a router that sets up another network just inside the flat, but that adds another level of complexity to the system that I want to avoid, as I will not be near all the time to fix things that go wrong.

    But thank you for the information and I think I will just plug stuff in and see if it works, adding complexity only if needed.

  • Chloe_Scope
    Chloe_Scope Posts: 10,586 Disability Gamechanger
    Please do let us know how you get on! If you speak to them they might be able to offer guidance.
    Scope

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