La Marzocco App - requires local network access?

#1: Post by **BoulderMike** » October 3rd, 2023, 11:53 am

I have had many issues with the app dropping connectivity. After a lot of troubleshooting, etc., I found another issue of concern to me. This issue is of concern, but is/was not the cause of my connectivity issues. The issue is that the app requires the user to grant it Local Network access in order to maintain connectivity. I was unaware of this when I purchased the board and have concerns over granting any user or company access to my local network.

Does anyone understand more about what this means, and if I am correct that the local access granted does not have restrictions, and as such is a significant security risk? Maybe LM is trustworthy, maybe not, but what if they are hacked or compromised either internally by a disgruntled employee, or externally!

October 3rd, 2023, 12:44 pm

The app connects to your machine via Bluetooth for basic functionality, and via Wi-Fi for other features. Thus, for setup and thus full functionality, the app must connect to your machine via your local network.

Whether you want the machine itself on your local network (and Internet) is a separate issue, and arguably a greater potential privacy/security issue. As previously discussed, using your phone's Wi-Fi hotspot feature is a good way to establish a separate network that is only turned on for updates, etc., as the way around this possible issue.

#3: Post by HB » October 3rd, 2023, 12:49 pm

Another option is creating a "guest" network. Most routers support this out of the box with a different password. On a related note, here's a video published on my day job for IBM:

October 3rd, 2023, 1:28 pm

HB wrote:Another option is creating a "guest" network. Most routers support this out of the box with a different password. On a related note, here's a video published on my day job for IBM:

Super interesting and useful - Thanks for post this Dan!

October 3rd, 2023, 3:23 pm

So here is what I did:

created a guest network
connected my LMLM to the network
opened app and found that there was no local network connection because my iPhone is connected to my primary home network
added app onto my wife's iPhone
connected her iPhone to the guest network, rather than the primary home network
connected the app on her iPhone to the app

This seems to work fine, but now her phone isn't connected to the primary home network, that shouldn't be a problem, if it is, I can switch when needed.

Thanks for the guest network suggestion. Much appreciated!