Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'll start by saying my network is different than most home users. My issues may not apply to you. I have an ASA as my firewall and a Cisco WLC with a few access points to provide wireless. That said, I'm quite confident that my issues are due to a poorly designed product rather than my network. My network just more readily shows the issues. I haven't been this frustrated by a "smart" product in a long time. First be mindful of the line that says they only supports 2.4Ghz wifi. I thought I would be okay because I have a wireless network that supports both. This was not the case as the device configuring the plugs must be connected at 2.4Ghz as well. This became a problem for me as the version of android on my phone does not allow you to pick and will default to 5ghz. Not willing to downgrade my whole network to 2.4Ghz, I created a new SSID. After joining my phone to the 2.4Ghz SSID, I was then able to get the vesync app to try and configure the outlets. On to the next problem: Non-standard ports to unknown cloud service. The app and the outlets require tcp/4002 and tcp/4007 to 104.200.30.164 and 45.79.75.157. At least that's the drops I saw in my firewall log. After creating rules to allow that traffic, I still couldn't get the app to see and configure the plugs. With no other drops in my firewall log, I decided to try opening up all ports temporarily. The plugs connected and I was finally able to manage them with the app. I tested a couple times and found that you can open everything up, register the outlets with the app (and presumably the cloud service) and then close the rules back down to just the ports and IPs above. This works until the outlet is unplugged and then plugged back in. You must then open all ports so the outlet can register again. I'm guessing I could dig further and figure out what all needs to be opened up to make this work. It would be really nice if etekcity would have this documented on their website. They don't and it really shouldn't be this difficult. I have a lot of other smart stuff on my network that works just fine. At this point I've packed the plugs up and they are going back. I'm could deal with the second SSID but I really can't deal with the firewall port stuff. If it were just a firewall rule or two -- no big deal. Allow any and all ports to the internet .... eh no thanks. That's a pretty large ask from a security perspective. I have a couple of other etekcity products and they have been fine. This product needs to go back to the drawing board. From a networking / network security perspective, it's a dumpster fire. This is especially compounded by all of the permissions the app needs. Again, YMMV. I recognize that my scenario is probably not the norm. I still think this is a bad product with a bad "smart" implementation.