Daniel J. Gonzalez posted:H1000 posted:Easy, once someone pays the $25. the WIU features are unlocked physically in the unit itself, not the phone. Once that takes place any phone that connects to said WIU will have all the features unlocked. Its possible but as you can see, cuts the money flow.
Easier said than done... People much smarter than you and I most likely thought of this and moved on. I'll differ to GRJ's tag line: Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing.
$25 disposable tablet - connect to the internet for 5 minutes to download the app from a gmail account (specifically made for buying and downloading the app only) with the unlock. Disconnect from the internet and connect to the WIU directly which doesn't have internet access. That tablet will only see internet again for brief periods when the app needs to be updated. I doubt your whole life will be completely hacked in those brief periods of time from a device that is connected to a home internet connection you can trust.
My $25 tablets do not have any info on them other than the one gmail account with the app unlocked. Nothing worth stealing or hacking, not even credit card info. They were bought for one purpose, running my train apps.
Look my friend, you asked me for a solution and I delivered. When I said "Easy" I meant it was easy to give you a response, not that implementing it would be easy. The WIU is nothing more than a WiFi hotspot. It even has an web interface, MTH can include a "License area" which when a purchase is made, fills in a code in the setting that unlocks the features, this isn't rocket science, literally just a license key or file. If it works for Windows, I think licensing can work for MTH.
If you think someone needs more than 5 min. to take your CC# you have been living under a rock my friend. Like I mentioned, your CC number is usually synced with your google account. Your $25 tablet is just the easy way into your account. I am not trying to turn anyone away from the $25 tablet, just showing you how exposing yourself in a digital world, even for 5 min. is enough exposure to possibly cause issues. Where is that security flaw in the TIU's remote?
There isn't a security problem with a transformer handle either, but that doesn't mean someone has to forgo using command control to be 'safe'. If someone buys a 25 buck tablet, they can be pretty close to 100% safe as an entry device as a handheld remote is. I wouldn't recommend using a 25 buck tablet with an old version of Android and actively surfing the net, that is true, but the beauty of the WIU is it allows local wifi access, which de facto locks out the internet. When the tablet is connected to the WIU using "MTH" mode it is isolated from the internet, because the WIU does not connect to the internet itself, and that wifi MTH connection precludes the user on the tablet from connecting to an internet connected device (like the wifi router) while running the MTH app. So basically, if you buy a cheap 25 buck tablet and dedicate it to working with the MTH WIU set to "MTH" mode, it is as secure as a handheld remote. If the owner only uses internet wifi to connect to the Google play store (I am not mentioning IOS since you aren't likely to get an Apple device for that cheap, even used) and download the MTH app (and perhaps pay the upgrade fee), and from then on simply use it to run the MTH local connection, they will be 99.99% guaranteed not to be hacked, that brief window of interacting with the internet unless they access other sites is not very likely to get hacked (not to mention they likely wouldn't have anything on the device worth hacking given it is basically a mule slaved to the WIU).
Sure, a mysterious hacker crawling around the bushes outside the user's house, could see the MTH wifi signal and try and 'hack into it' (really depends how MTH set it up, I don't know if MTH mode requires a password), in theory they might be able to connect to the MTH wifi, and somehow hack to any connected device like a tablet, but again, who would go through the effort to do that (and I don't know if you even can do that with a WIU Wifi connection, it likely is very, very limited network connection to a basic layer). Most internet problems are caused by things like trojan horses gotten from downloading bad software, clicking on a bad link in e-mail,surfing infected sites or otherwise actively using the internet, not by mysterious hackers working backword to find your device, they through the users actions plant something on the phone that the user downloads that sends back information on the phone..and given that 25 buck tablet's only experience with the internet is going to be getting the MTH app downloaded and maybe paying for the extended features, and maybe updating the app from time to time, unless the MTH app itself gets hacked on the site (not likely, hackers generally put up an app they wrote to infect users, not hack someone else's app, not to mention I am sure that MTH at the very least makes sure the fingerprint of the MTH DCS app hasn't changed in the store). I know enough about internet security to understand most of the risks, and downloading the MTH app (and perhaps updating it once in a while) is not a major risk. If it really freaks you out, get a copy of avg anti virus when you get the MTH app and run it before running the MTH app, and do the same thing any time you update the MTH app, get a new version of avg at the same time.
FYI, if they are going to get credit card information it is more likely they will get it hacking into the back end servers at the service provider for MTH or even MTH itself.......
Someone mentioned LuCi, it doesn't allow general web access, it is there primarily (the web access) to allow updating the firmware, which is being done going directly to the MTH website via iP address and downloading new flash for the wifi module, you aren't downloading anything back to the remote device, the only download is going to be the the MTH device (the flash eprom). I am not even sure you can access the rest of the web via this interface.
