The smart home company’s servers had mysteriously fired up overnight. Insteon’s new CEO Ken Fairbanks posted a message on the Insteon blog today.

We are a small group of passionate Insteon users who have successfully acquired Insteon. Our homes are powered by Insteon’s dual-mesh technology and highly configurable products.

Insteon’s servers went offline last April when smartlabs ran into’financial difficulties’. A financial services firm had been appointed to sell its assets, but this’group of passionate users’ stepped in and has taken over.

The group says it plans on’responsibly re-building the Insteon business’. What that means exactly is unclear, and it’s not known whether a subscription fee will be necessary to keep the servers going.

The hubs were able to reactivate the service before they had access to the site or ways to communicate with users.’we are aware not all functions are back online but we are actively working on it. We hope you understand this urgency and appreciate your patience’.

The devices had n’t stopped working locally but had lost their cloud connection through the hub. There was no way to program them using the app or control them remotely.

It’s not a great sign for the smart home in general. No one wants to worry about whether they’ll have to buy the company one day just to keep the lights on.