Schlage LiNK: Open Your Front Door Through the Internet

Part of us thinks this is cool and part of us is freaked out about the concept. While there are concepts for keyless residential doorlocks and the more familiar combination residential door locks, Schlage is providing yet another way to get into your house, through the internet.

Through the LiNK portal, you can control and monitor access to your home. This means from your PC at the office or even your cellphone from down the street. Has a friend arrived at your place earlier than expected and you won't be able to get home to let them in? Punch in the code from your phone and do it instantly. Just arrived at the airport for your vacation and realized you forgot to lock the door? Punch in the code from your phone and save a trip back home, not to mention a missed flight.

2008_09_07 schalge system.jpg

This all sounds good in theory, but we can't help but feel a little paranoid about security with a lock connected to the internet. Hopefully Schlage can provide a guarantee here, but we should be getting our hands on one soon and will report back on our first hand experience.

Take a look at the Schlage site here.

Comments (5)

There's a lot of room for error here. Not the least of which is the part where the Internet connection goes down or gets interrupted. I was given a demo of this last month. Five tries and nothing happened. They ended up just punching in the code old school.

posted by techgirl on October 7th 2008 at 7:27pm
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because inserting a key and turning it in the lock is simply too much friggin work...

posted by ronzo on October 8th 2008 at 3:59am
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This is such a good example of technology for technology's sake.

posted by techgirl on October 8th 2008 at 4:36pm
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The lock works great, and you do *NOT* need to buy the Schlage bridge or pay the Schlage monthly service. Vera, from Mi Casa Verde, fully supports the Schlage locks, uses the same level of security, also supports remote access from web and cell phone, does everything the Schlage bridge does and MUCH MORE (see: http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Side_By_Side_Comparison). And there is *NO* mandatory subscription fee. Through 3/31/09 Mi Casa Verde is giving everyone who buys Vera the Schlage LiNK a lifetime subscription to their online hosted services as well, which is normally $199. You save $100 by buying the Schlage lock without their bridge, plus $150/year by not using their subscription, and $199 from Mi Casa Verde. See: http://micasaverde.com/schlage_promo.php This makes it more affordable, and you get a real, full-featured home control system that supports all Z-Wave devices and does energy monitoring too.

posted by aaalex on February 16th 2009 at 5:19pm
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There are other entry methods in place to enter your house if the power is out for example. You could use your code or your key which is like a standard lock.

As far as the concern with security, that is understandable; however, Schlage has gone through comprehensive testing themselves as well as outsourced testing to a third party. This product is very secure, and you don't have to worry about people accessing your house via the internet.

Ronzo's response is understandable, but the feature set is immense. I will use a real life example. When I was younger, I used to ride the bus home from school. I would have to call my mother at work and interupt to let her know that I got home safely. Upon a child entering the house, a text message would have been sent to my mother if this technology would have been around 10 years ago. Some may think this is not a big deal, but, in fact, there is demand for this.

The Schlage product and the portal that goes with it connects to other devices such as a Trane thermostat, light modules, video camera, etc. If you go on vacation for 2 weeks, and you forget to adjust your thermostat before you leave the house, you can operate it remotely to exercise cost savings. You can also control your lights remotely to make it appear as if someone is home when you're away from home.

Please take a look at the Schlage website for more information.

http://consumer.schlage.com/LiNK/

There is an immense amount of knowledge there. You can also check out the Schlage YouTube channel for product videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SecureLocks

posted by IRBrian on July 28th 2009 at 10:25am
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