Why does the LB110 upload so much data?
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Hi, first question to the community. I've used five LB110 bulbs for several years now. This week I surpassed my ISP's data limit for other reasons but it got me sleuthing on my network usage in general. From looking at my router logs filtered by device, I was surprised to see such high upload usage from all my bulbs. I mean really surprised, as in why do light bulbs need to be sending over 20 GBytes up into the cloud. List of my 5 bulbs below. Do other LBxxx users see similar on their networks, is this a "China detour" of data leaking out of my network, or a symptom of malware/botnet doing its thing? Thanks.
Bulb 1 = 18.2 GByte uploaded in the last month (I use this location a lot so this light is on the most)
Bulb 2 = 3.2 GBytes uploaded in the last month (not too frequently used location)
Bulb 3 = 2.5 GBytes uploaded in the lat month (again, not too frequently used location)
Bulb 4 = 1.0 GBytes uploaded in the last month (rarely used location)
Bulb 5 = 0.4 GBytes uploaded in the last month (rarely used location)
[EDIT]
Upin further analysis, the data upload for bulb #1 is very concentrated in time:
- From Aug15-Sept14, it uploaded 1GByte on one day of each week. Then on on Aug20 it uploaded 8GBytes (enough for a couple HD movies).
- From July15-Aug14, it uploaded a total of 13GBytes with 4.5GBytes occuring on Aug11. Around Aug11, it uploaded 2GBytes on Aug7,9,10,13.
At the end of the day this is a lightbulb, it's not clear what is the use case that is driving so much data upload. This causes me to be concerned about surepticious data mining. It would be useful to hear if other users are seeing the same usage amounts or have alternate theories on why this is occuring. Thanks.
Hi, B.Will, bulb #1 is about 10ft away from the router, to which it's connected on the 2.4GHz band. The Kasa app shows Bulb #1 is receiving at -51dBm. While the microwave is on the other far side of the house, it's not impossible that 2.4GHz congestion in the vicinity of neighbors could drive constant channel churn but still there's a ton of data uploading into space for a light bulb. As I've been on the PC for the last hour, bulb #1 uploaded about 2GBytes.
The idea of swapping #1 with #5 is a useful exercise. It will take some time to accumulate enough data. Thanks.
Upload graph for the past month Aug16-Sept15:
Upload graph for the prior month July16-Aug15
