Amazon Echo

[TheKrell]

Apologies for resurrecting this old thread. I have a question which I have not been able to resolve via Google.

How in heck do subsequent Echo devices (after the first which required the Alexa app) auto configure themselves? I don't much care for the Alexa app, so I de-install it whenever I don't really need it. I first bought a 2nd gen Echo Dot to see what all the fuss was about. Subsequent Echoes, after being plugged in, auto-configure themselves without the Alexa app. I have quantity 5 3rd generation Dots, a 3rd gen Echo, an Echo Flex, 2 Echo Show's, and an Echo sub. All, once powered up for the first time, auto-configured themselves. The only time I had to reinstall the Alexa app was when I wanted to pair a couple of my dots with the sub. Pretty fair sound for a smart speaker IMHO.

I am trying to remember if my Amazon smart plugs auto-configured as well, but that info is no longer in my memory. My Kasa smart switches required the Kasa app to configure those. But I de-installed the Kasa app as well. I really despise every retailer in existence trying to get me to install their own app. To blazes with them! I also figured out Alexa routines which I use to turn on my porch light at dusk and off again at dawn. Works great without either the Kasa or Alexa apps.

Oh, and another contribution I would like to make to this thread; you can take your Echoes off premises and still control the smart switches and plugs (as well as the Echoes) wherever they are. My wife required an apartment nearer her job in Baltimore. So I rented one for her, subbed to FIOS, and used one of my old routers with the same SSID and password as my Orbi mesh routers here at home. Maybe that was obvious to everybody, but I was unsure what would happen or if I would have to configure them again. Oh, I also turned on the Echo intercom feature which allows you to talk from one Echo to another. But my wife decided that was too damn creepy so I turned it off again.

 

[TRG]

Amazon knows more about you and your network than you think. Your WiFi name and password for example. You really need to read those EULA contracts before you agree to anything.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The App will ask you if youw ant Amazon to remember your Wifi Password which is used for easily setting up your next Amazon device.

 

[TheKrell]

Amazon knows more about you and your network than you think. Your WiFi name and password for example. You really need to read those EULA contracts before you agree to anything.

I know that TRG. In fact, we have to approve of this "stored WiFi credentials" bit and I did that while configuring my first Dot with Alexa. But that doesn't explain how a new Echo can auto-configure. There is no way Amazon customizes every Echo they send out for every customer's WiFi. When I buy one, they don't even know if I will give it to somebody else.

The Alexa app, IIRC, finds a stand-along WiFi network whose name starts with "Amazon-<bunch of hex numbers>". But without the Alexa app, what exactly is accomplishing that?

 

[TRG]

Its pre configured at Amazon and tied to your account. Its the same with Kindle although I don't recall Kindle remembering my WiFi password. The Amazon account and library is usually preloaded though.

 

[TheKrell]

The App will ask you if youw ant Amazon to remember your Wifi Password which is used for easily setting up your next Amazon device.

Sorry, Scott. The damnable Xenforo automatic-refresh added TRG's answer, but not yours. I thank you for this reminder, which I did agree to.

Its pre configured at Amazon and tied to your account. Its the same with Kindle although I don't recall Kindle remembering my WiFi password. The Amazon account and library is usually preloaded though.

All right gentlemen. There is no way in hell that Amazon would auto configure every Echo I buy to match my wifi. In the first place, they don't know that I bought it for myself; it could be destined for somebody else's house. And can you imagine the logistics of making sure millions of pre-configured Echoes got to the right customer? Egad; that would be beyond epic. I think the presence of my other Echoes accomplishes this somehow.

 

[klang]

Pretty sure you have the option at purchase to say it is not going to your house. Kindle is the same.

Amazon doesn't pre-configure the device, when you power it on it goes to Amazon's servers, they know it is your device and the configuration stuff is downloaded for you.

 

[TheKrell]

Amazon doesn't pre-configure the device...

Exactly.

...when you power it on it goes to Amazon's servers, they know it is your device and the configuration stuff is downloaded for you.

But without your WiFi credentials when first powered up, how does it do that? That was my question above.

 

[klang]

Exactly.

But without your WiFi credentials when first powered up, how does it do that?

Perhaps it gets the initial stuff from another device on your network? Without a cellular chip I don't see anyway else.

 

[TheKrell]

Perhaps it gets the initial stuff from another device on your network?

I claim it must be another Echo. That might proceed either through WiFi or Bluetooth. It would be nice if Amazon would tell us how they do that. Maybe it's like their Sidewalk thing which can actually give random passers by access to the Internet through your ISP. I hate that. I may have to re-install the Alexa app to make sure it's off.

 

[TRG]

I have 5 echo devices. Two full size and three dots. I had to set the first one up with my WiFi credentials. After that everything was automatic. I'm not sure if that helps to solve the puzzle or not.

 

[klang]

I claim it must be another Echo. That might proceed either through WiFi or Bluetooth. It would be nice if Amazon would tell us how they do that. Maybe it's like their Sidewalk thing which can actually give random passers by access to the Internet through your ISP. I hate that. I may have to re-install the Alexa app to make sure it's off.

I meant another Echo. Pretty sure it would have to be Bluetooth.

 

[TheKrell]

I have 5 echo devices. Two full size and three dots. I had to set the first one up with my WiFi credentials. After that everything was automatic. I'm not sure if that helps to solve the puzzle or not.

Yup; that is exactly the case at my house. I am getting all technical on you and want to know exactly how that is done.

 

[TRG]

I claim it must be another Echo. That might proceed either through WiFi or Bluetooth. It would be nice if Amazon would tell us how they do that. Maybe it's like their Sidewalk thing which can actually give random passers by access to the Internet through your ISP. I hate that. I may have to re-install the Alexa app to make sure it's off.

I turned off sidewalk access too. That should be an opt in and not an opt out option.

BTW I had turned that "feature" only to find that it had been reactivated somehow. That only happened once but it gave me a reason not to trust Amazon.

That said, I use my echo devices every day. Mainly for streaming music and news during my work day.

 

[TRG]

Yup; that is exactly the case at my house. I am getting all technical on you and want to know exactly how that is done.

Sorry, I don't know. Pixie dust perhaps?

 

[klang]

I turned off Sidewalk when they first introduced it. Just checked and it is still off. Hasn't been much discussion of that feature lately.

 

[harshness]

All of your Echo devices access the Internet through a common Internet IP address. I'm not convinced that there's an obvious conspiracy here.

 

[TheKrell]

All of your Echo devices access the Internet through a common Internet IP address.

Mine don't. I have 3 of them in an apartment in Savage, MD. I have the rest here at home in Fairfax, VA. I can control any of them, or any of my smart home devices, from any Echo regardless of it's location.

Word to the wise: don't creep out your wife by turning on the intercom feature!

 

[harshness]

Mine don't. I have 3 of them in an apartment in Savage, MD. I have the rest here at home in Fairfax, VA. I can control any of them, or any of my smart home devices, from any Echo regardless of it's location.

Once they're on the account that's easy. Figuring out how to associate a factory fresh (or reset) Echo with your account that is the question here.

 

[TheKrell]

Once they're on the account that's easy. Figuring out how to associate a factory fresh (or reset) Echo with your account that is the question here.

Right. BTW - I figured out how to test this, at least partially. (This won't tell me whether it works over a temporary WiFi or rather Bluetooth, which was really my question.)

1. Unplug all Echoes but one.
2. Factory reset the only one remaining on your WiFi (using the "action button").

I haven't done this because I have so many Echoes and I am almost certain that 1 pre-configured Echo has to be on my LAN for auto-configure to work.