Ring glitch results in global ding dong ditch: Doorbell bling flings out random pings but they're not the real thing Amazon-owned smart home appliance maker Ring has won the world record for biggest game of "ding dong ditch" after a software glitch broadcast erroneous doorbell chimes to countless users yesterday. The global game of Ring and run (as it's known in the US) coincided with software issues that prevented owners from viewing …
Yes. The first weird thing I noticed was my neighbour was standing at my door, but (as far as I thought) had not rang the bell. I just happened to be on my way out.
Several hours later, the bell rang. It was late enough for me to think that there was some sort of drama outside - it was definitely at the sort of time people wouldn’t ring without good reason. Once I saw there was nobody there I tried to view the video to see what kid was going to get their arse booted.
No video for the last few hours. That’s when I realised there was a problem.
My friend poo-pooed my concerns about sending personal data to the cloud, and what if Google has issues or shuts it off?
Now he's getting dozens of phantom rings and is asking me how to turn it off.
I suggested a sledgehammer, and he's angry I can't magically fix someone else's server issues.
Came to say something similar.
Arrogant twat at a company I service always tries to convince the bosses that I'm too old to do tech and they need somebody younger who 'knows all about the cloud and stuff'. Turns out his best mate is 'into IT' or such.
Anyhoo, my suggestions are always to avoid those fluffy sky thingies that grab your data if you don't need to. Fridge? Toaster? Light switches?
Each to their own, I guess.
What would I know, just another old techie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I don't have one of these things so forgive me my ignorance but does this mean it's processing it's data off the premises?. Why would you develop such a device in say sunny California when the rest of the world is wet and prone to extreme weather conditions. I'll stick the one I have, it has one moving part and it's called a door knocker.
"does this mean it's processing it's data off the premises?"
Of course. Why would one install a simple circuit consisting of three pieces of wire, a buzzer, a power source and a button when one can use a computer that has to be networked to a massive bank of servers halfway around the world and requires a cell phone to properly use?
I mean, really! It's obvious, innit?
There are feature reasons.
But this is basically a button-activated camera that sends a video to your phone.
In my mind, that's more commonly known as the "alarm" circuit on any cheap CCTV NAS box - they literally have a set of green terminal blocks for precisely that. Wire them together, via your door bell. Press the door bell. It triggers the CCTV (it doesn't need to "alarm" audibly). That records the last/next 30 seconds (much like your dashcam which can also... gosh... trigger a recording when you press a button). And then, like even the cheapest networked CCTV box, can send that alert by email to you.
Any integration past there (which people don't do, like opening doors for the person) can be wired in just the same. Most CCTV boxes that are half-decent will support that too, even from an app that lets you trigger other outputs.
The only bit you're missing is "talking to the guy at the door". Which is, what? Setting up a video conference session to something cheap stuck to your door?
All these unnecessary expensive junk defeated by a bog-standard £50 CCTV box and maybe a £10 tablet stuck to your door/spyhole if you want to get really techy.
And why? So you can see who comes to your door when you're not there. Such person is either: a) someone who's going to break in anyway and just smash your doorbell off the wall, b) someone delivering something that they will just drop off anyway, c) someone delivering something that they can't drop off without a signature so they'll go next door anyway, d) someone you don't want to answer the door to even if you were at home, let alone when you're at work or on holiday.
I'm the techiest guy I know, and I consider these things useless consumer-tat. Tech is a tool to aid you, a human, do things that are useful which you can't easily do without it. Answering your doorbell from 1000 miles away, however, isn't something I've ever wanted to do.
"And why? So you can see who comes to your door when you're not there."
Because you can't think of a good reason it doesn't mean there isn't one. As I said elsewhere we use one in the care of an elderly relative. It means we are able to monitor and observe things when we are not here. After nearly 15 years of caring for an elderly, infirm and very sick person the odd one or two hours we can afford away from the house are a god send. To have the ability to check that everything is ok and care nurses, etc arrive at the correct time makes it possible.
"...anyone else needs one though..."
But there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in my situation. I wonder what kind of life people are living if they don't know about this. Perhaps I have the advantage of a few extra decades on most that post here.
"After nearly 15 years of caring for an elderly, infirm and very sick person the odd one or two hours we can afford away from the house are a god send"
So why would you want to be disturbed by every doorbell, and still have to worry / manage the door for them the few times you can get away?
"So why would you want to be disturbed by every doorbell, and still have to worry / manage the door for them the few times you can get away?"
We have perhaps 4 visits a day by various nurses and others. Also most things we buy are delivered, even more so at the moment. Our home office that I work from is upstairs. For me to get up and deal with every visitor is just disruptive to work. The record is 9 visits in one day. If we didn't have ring then every doorbell would have to be answered in person.
The other advantage is that having dogs we can change the ring noise every couple of weeks and they don't bark anywhere near as often.
"After nearly 15 years of caring for an elderly, infirm and very sick person the odd one or two hours we can afford away from the house are a god send."
If you want to know when people are showing up to there home, you need the internet connection. If it's just so they can verify who's at the door before getting up and going to it, that doesn't need a whole world's internet to accomplish. There are local systems that can route video housewide from cameras installed here and there that are much more secure and not reliant on a third party's support.
I recall a few stories here where support was dropped and tech stopped working. When the newest tat loaded with even more useless "features" is released, the old stuff gets discontinued. Without ongoing sales, the support gets dropped and you just contribute to the local landfill and pay an installer more money to do the same work over again and again.
A door consists of a very limited number of parts:
A button that has 3 pieces of metal and 2 screws
A length of thin "bell wire"
A ringer, maybe just a simple brrrrrrriiiinnnnnggg. or a nice ding dong
A battery of indeterminate age that nobody ever remembers fitting.
All is well, it just works and the only unexpected brrrinngs or ding dongs are kids mucking about. Occasionally it stops so you end up with a feeble brrr or dong but a wiggle of the battery sorts it out.
My Grandparents had a bell that was on a spiral spring. You pulled a knob out side and a steel wire or rod wiggled the spring. Hey presto, a door bell.
It is just a sodding bell to let you know if someone is at the door. If you are not in then who cares. If it is a burglar ringing to see if anyone is in they are going to get in anyway. The police don't have the time or resources to follow up some knob dialling 999 to say that a suspicious character has just rung the bell, and not I am not in when you come round. If it is a delivery they will either dump the parcel by the door, leave a card, try a neighbour or lob it over a fence.
Personally I am with the knocker, preferably large so it squashes the unwary finger.
"Of course. Why would one install a simple circuit consisting of three pieces of wire, a buzzer, a power source and a button when one can use a computer that has to be networked to a massive bank of servers halfway around the world and requires a cell phone to properly use?"
Because not everyone lives like you do. We care for an elderly relative and have a combination of ring / alexa devices, key safes and cameras that allow us to monitor the house and people coming and going.
We have had an instance when we were out, a visitor (innocent it ended out) that matched the description of someone that had invaded the house of someone else on our road called. We were able to answer the ring and record the incident. How could your "normal" doorbell help us in what we need to do?
There are more things in the world than you know and experience.
There are in the region of 750000 people in the UK doing what I do (according to Age UK so that's probably just elderly relatives add in those with disabled children then you'll easily exceed a million).
One mans pointless tat is another mans life changer some people can't see beyond the end of their noses, though.
"pi zero W, a camera, wired to a switch, some cable and a BELL - no cloud, same functions, this is an IT site, right?"
Way too much fuss for me. All I have to do with a ring / alexa setup is change the batteries every 3 months or so. I don't have to write / find software, etc. I don't even want to consider the pest that would be writing an iOS app to support answering the door remotely. I'm sure that something to do all this is on Github somewhere but I'm beyond wanting to faff with that - I have far better things to spend my time on when I can just have a plug and go solution.
Neighbour has one.
Annoying thing. Why does it need to make that stupid sound on the outside, and so loud, so people who don't have (not want) one, have to suffer the noise. Surely whoever presses the button will see some visual indication.
Mind you, the phantom rings must've been silent as I didn't hear a thing.
"Mind you, the phantom rings must've been silent as I didn't hear a thing."
Nope - it was the notifications sent out to phones or other devices that alert you to the doorbell - those then sounded their chime, not the doorbell itself.
As to notification to the person ringing the bell: There's a light on the button (or around it) that does that bit. If you're paying attention.
Yes, I have one - it's better than my old bell and as I'm in a 3 story town house, I have a chance to let the caller know I'm on my way. That and see who it is in case it's someone I don't want to answer the door to.
Is it the best product? Probably not. Does it work? Most times. Has it proven useful? Yes. Has it paid for itself? Possibly. Would I replace it? If I found something that fitted my needs better: Sure. Would I recommend it? Depends, but mostly I'd say talk a look and decide if it's what you want. After all, it's your money...
"Would I replace it?"
It's not an IF, it's a when. At some point the current crop of this stuff will have it's support dropped and you will be forced to get another one. Probably when sales drop below a certain point. The service is what costs the money. They can stamp out the hardware for pence as a one time cost, but the servers need to be fed electrons constantly. It's as frustrating as having to replace a perfectly functioning computer because a software vendor has released the newest version that only works with the latest OS that can't be loaded on my computer. There never seems to be a reason why they couldn't add the newest features and have it run on an older OS. There is often a competing product that has that same feature that does. If something like Photoshop could be run on a Mac a couple of revs back, more people could afford to use it. The subscription model makes the software cheap, but the penalty cost is keeping up with the hardware. My old 12 core cheese grater is plenty fast for my needs, but it's hit the wall on OS's. The latest MacPro starts around $6,000. A bit beyond my budget.
Yes, I have one - it's better than my old bell and as I'm in a 3 story town house, I have a chance to let the caller know I'm on my way. That and see who it is in case it's someone I don't want to answer the door to.
Gear to deal with that has been around for decades, and needs no more than a length of cable between the front door and your apartment.
Amazon will eventually shut down the service, and then nothing like this will ever happen again!
Of course when that time comes, you'll have to purchase a new doorbell ...
May I interest you in this new model in advance, so you have no loss of service? It consists of a through-door striker and your choice of chime or bell. It is guaranteed to work for life, with no false positives, no loss of service, and no downtime, and no batteries, ever! Available in Black, Chrome, Brushed Nickle, and Antiqued Bronze. Wood Tone, Harvest Gold and Avocado Green[0] available on special order only for an extra $25.00. Just $99.95 +shipping and handling. Easy installation, requires no more than a drill, two bits, and a screwdriver.
[0] Hey. there are still people out there buying shag carpeting, just catering to the market.
Bur does it give an angry squawk ?
The prolonged buzzing of a stuck chainsaw rather than melodious chimes, Westminster Quarters, or The Ride of the Valkyries ?
In all my life I never understood why at landline phone shops it was never an option to test/select by ringtone. I have heard some vile phones in my life.
Anyway... nice options.
Bur does it give an angry squawk ?
For a modest fee the ringer can be replaced/augmented with additional sound generators, programmed with sounds almost entirely but not quite unlike a standard doorbell ringer or buzzer. For the technically gifted among you a relay contact can be provided to allow triggering of a sound generator of your own design.
(at University I built an electronic doorbell that initially produced a birdlike chirp, but after tweaking a few component values it started to resemble those US police sirens, but decreasing in pitch and tempo over a few seconds after releasing the doorbell button. One transistor, a few resistors and capacitors, a small audio transformer and a speaker)
There's a Bill Bailey clip where he replaces the normal happy ding-dong with a tricord using an augmented 4th interval, which sounds scary...
A colleague has one of these. Uses it to direct couriers to leave the parcel round the back instead of them leaving a 'sorry you were out card' (works full time - she could leave a note on the door but that advertises it to passing scrotes).
One of the few smart home things that seems properly useful - I suspect the couriers like 'em too.
" Uses it to direct couriers to leave the parcel round the back "
In the US, if you have a post office box, you can fill out a form and have them accept non-post deliveries for you. You use the post office's street address with your box number appended and Bob's your uncle. Not only can you be out of the house, you can be on holiday and your package is held securely until you get back. I know people that have posted things back to themselves to keep under luggage limits and then got delayed where the package didn't and beat them home.
This is also very handy to keep your name and address off of lists. UPS, FedEx, DHL and the likes all sell lists of names and addresses. They also keep track of previous address. On one hand, it's handy that they can track you down in the event something is sent to where you moved from, but it's also creepy to have them selling the info, cheap. If you move, it's a good time to break those chains. Nothing gets sent to my house, period. Mostly for privacy but partially for security. I used to do a lot more work were I'd be called out on short notice for a few days. That still happens from time to time, but not as much. I don't want an expensive item to be left on my porch if I'm not home and the delivery driver "helpfully" signs for it for me to make sure their quota is met.
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...but Anita Ward can.*
Just more Amazon spyware that the consumer pays for. Motherboard has done a series on Ring.** We should be at minimum, horrified.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URAqnM1PP5E
** https://www.vice.com/en/article/bv8qjq/amazons-ring-announces-an-entire-line-of-dystopian-surveillance-devices
Maybe I'm missing something here, but shouldn't a system that is designed for immediacy have some sort of expiry timer on notifications? In this case at least on the chimes (there may be a case to continue to log the notification)? What is the value in playing the "ring" well past when it would have been useful?
Gotta say, it sounds absurd that the action between pushing the doorbell, and having the doorbell ring, includes round trips to some off-site server and whatever the hell else. Being able to watch the video off-site, things like that... useful, and of course it'd be possible for a system to go down making this temporarily unavailable. These "internet of things" devices where ringing a doorbell, or flipping the light switch and have that turn on the light bulb, involves off-site communications, that's ridiculous and is the kind of product I won't buy.
I have an Arduino home-brew 433mHz chime repeater system. It solves the problem of "did I just hear the bell" by repeating the relevant chime up to five times. There is also an infrared beam for anyone coming close to the front door - whose different chime alerts me to "post" if not followed by the doorbell chime. The same sound with a different repeat rate is the back doorbell.
A while ago it started continuously sounding the "post"/"backdoor" chime very late at night. Usually that is a plastic bag caught on the hedge and flapping in the wind. Not this time.
Eventually powered down the Arduino system - and the chimes kept repeating - spooky. Took the backdoor bell-push apart to remove its battery - still chiming.
It's happened a couple of times since. The problem is the wireless bell-push spares are in a very full storage box. A critical seismic disturbance could shift the loads to sit on a push button. Thought all their batteries had been removed - pretty certain they have now.
I suspect the occasional non-repeating false signal is due to a chime unit misinterpreting one of the neighbours' many 433mHz devices that can be seen on my SDR receiver.
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