This is especially useful for monitoring your smart tech, as great as it is we know things go down unexpectedly. In the example, we made we have made our Philips Hue lights change colour as devices ‘go down’.  This means you can fix the problem before you want to use the device.

Alternatively this could be used to visually alert you if someone enters or leaves your network.

It’s worth noting this solution is not real time due to the fact it uses email as a communication method. When testing it these are the response times we had:

14:52 – Device online on network
14:52 – Device taken offline by removing power
14:58 – Email received
15:00 –  Light changed to alert us device offline

If you don’t know what Fingbox is read our Fingbox review here.

How to connect Fingbox to IFTTT

Requirements:

• Fing account – set to a GMAIL email address
• IFTTT account
• Gmail account
• Fingbox
• Something connected to IFTTT

1. Open the Fing app, sign in to your account. It’s important the email address for the account is Gmail.

2. Select devices

3. Select the device you want to trigger IFTTT when it’s state changes. In this example we are selecting our Sonos AMP.

4. Name the device

5. Enable ‘alert me when state changes’. You will now get an email when this device joins or leaves the network.

6. Check the device you are monitoring is on the network. Remove power from the device, and check you get an email. There can be a slight delay here as Fing notices the device has gone and an email is sent. Make a note of the subject of the email, for example ours is:

A device went DOWN: Sonos AMP @ Home

7. Go to IFTTT website and if you don’t already have it enabled, enable Gmail connection. If you don’t like giving them access to your emails you can easily setup a separate account just for this.

8. Create a new Applet, selecting GMAIL as the service.

9.  Select Email in inbox from search.

10.  In the ‘Search for’ box you need to enter below where XXXX is add the name of the device and your network as shown in the email subject you got above:

from:alert@fing.io subject:A device went DOWN: XXXXXXXXX

11. Click Create Trigger

12. Now select whatever you want to do when the device goes down. Click the +

In this example we want one of our Philips Hue lights red

12. Click Create Action and its ready.

Now you understand the principle this can be applied to any part of Fingbox that alerts you via email. Simpy adjust the search trigger.

Hope that is useful, let us know in the comments how you get on.

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The post Connect Fingbox to IFTTT appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

This is a We Own It review of the Fingbox network security and troubleshooting box.

Fingbox is an extension of the successful Fing application, that allows you to trouble shoot your network from your ios or Android device. The app has over 20 Million users so even if they only get 5% using the box this has huge potential.

It was created after an impressive Indiegogo campaign where it received 1,744% of its funding!

We were lucky enough to get our hands on one of the first Fingboxs in the UK at their London launch event.

Size wise the device fits in the palm of my hand, its a little bigger thank we imagined .

What does Fingbox do?

The Fingbox box connects to your router, or any part of your network. It then monitors your network offering:

– Network Scanning & Digital Fence

It lets you know in real time as devices join and leave your network. One cool thing about this is you set users and it alerts you when they enter the network – for example if your child comes home or your cleaner comes. This is all done behind the scenes, they don’t even need to join your network just be in range and you get an alert. Also you get the alert where ever you are no need to be on the home network.

It also shows all the channels every device is on allowing you to find the best channel for your wifi.

– Parental controls

Based on users you can limit internet on any device, great for bedtime or when someone is supposed to be doing homework.

– Identifying network hogs

This is a very interesting feature as you can quickly see where the bandwidth is going on your network. For example, has your camera decided to upload photos to the cloud whilst your trying to stream a film on a Saturday night. Once you have found the hog you can pause its internet access.

– Wifi analysis

This test the actual speed of the wifi coming from your router to your device. As you walk around you can see it change. It also shows if this speed can stream SD, HD or 4K.

– Speed test

This is the speed of the internet coming into your router.

– Hacker Threat Check

Unfortunately this didn’t make it into the version we received they told us its because they are reworking the feature to include even more threats and insights.

How easy is it to setup?

Very easy! We already use the Fing app and had an account setup, if you don’t you need to install the free app (ios / Android). Create a free account.

Plug Fing into your network, it does need power but a micro usb cable with plug adapters comes in the box.

One plugged in open the app and scan the network as normal, Fingbox is detected.
Few easy configuration questions and its all setup.

Once setup you can start creating users, one nice touch is it can read your phonebook and pull in people and photos from your phone, to save you entering names.

What’s the connectivity?

Fingbox at present does not work with any external connectivity however at the launch event one of the founders, Carlos Medas, told us that they are looking at IFTTT and an API to allow connectivity.  They wanted to launch the product first and get feedback on what users wanted.

From us it’s a big we want IFTTT integration.

Fingbox does have a USB port at present its for debugging but potential for log files later in life.

How much does Fingbox cost?

The retail price is $99 – take a look on Amazon.co.uk

Fingbox Home Network Monitoring & Security

What’s it like living with Fingbox?

Great! Never have we had this level of control or information about our network in one place.

The app is very intuitive and good to use, this is probably due to the fact Fingbox is integrated into the proven app rather than starting again.

After only using it for a few minutes we identified a few issues with our network we could easily fix and improve stability. We have also set alerts for other smart home tech, for example our Ring Doorbell so if it falls offline we know.

What are our final thoughts?

This already is a good addition to our smart home, excited to see where it goes and what more this magic little box can do in the future. The founders told us the firmware can be updated very easily in minutes, being sub 3MB.

We would give this a higher score if it worked with IFTTT, Stringify or had an API – but as we said hopefully that is coming soon.