The first step in setting up a smart home figuring out your network requirements! Find out what you need to know to keep from overloading your Wi-Fi!

<p>A smart home makes everything easier, but not when it's overloading your Wi-Fi. So, to avoid that, you first need to find out whether your network can handle streaming your favorite shows, working on a laptop, and running your smart hub.</p>
<p>And while there are several ways to connect your smart home network, it's best to let the professionals handle it. They handle things like checking which bands to use (2.4 or 5 GHz) and whether to set up a different network or router while making the connection seamless!</p>
<p>To give you an idea of what you need, we&rsquo;ve done some digging on the network logistics your custom installers will consider, so check it out!</p>
<h2>Do you need a smart home network?</h2>
<p><img alt="Woman looking over her smart network hub" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_ci/Q3_2022/CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_1.jpg" title="CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_1.jpg" width="700" /></p>
<p>The first question you should ask yourself is whether or not your smart home devices can connect to the internet without a dedicated smart home network. Many smart home devices can connect to the internet via your existing Wi-Fi network. However, it can cause issues with your bandwidth if you have video-supported devices.</p>
<p>With a dedicated network or a separate router, you can lump all your smart devices together to free up your bandwidth and get the most out of your smart home tech. Plus, having a separate network makes it more difficult for hackers to access your information &mdash; they'll only be able to access the connected smart devices!</p>
<p>Whichever your smart home automation needs, your custom installers will figure it out for you!</p>
<h2>What type of connection do you need for your smart devices?</h2>
<p>The next consideration is what type of connection you need for your smart devices. Most smart devices will use either a wired Ethernet or a Wi-Fi connection. But there are other types, too, including Z-wave and Zigbee, which use radio waves on frequencies that are different from your Wi-Fi frequencies.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Wi-Fi Connection</strong> is reliable and comes in 2.4 GHz with a longer range and 5 GHz bands featuring faster speeds.</li>
<li><strong>Bluetooth Low Energy</strong> is capable of mesh networking and has improved range and government-grade encryption.</li>
<li><strong>Zigbee/Z-Wave</strong> has zero impact on your Wi-Fi network and frees up bandwidth (although your smart hub will need to connect to the internet).</li>
<li><strong>Insteon</strong> uses a mesh network using two bands to increase reliability and performance while also using powerline networking.</li>
<li><strong>Thread</strong> creates a secure home network that can handle up to 250 smart devices.</li>
<li><strong>Universal Powerline Bus (UPB)</strong> turns home wiring into a network for transmitting signals, but it can be slower and less secure.</li>
</ul>
<p>There are several ways to set up your smart home connection, but professional smart home installers know exactly what your system needs to communicate with each other.</p>
<h2>What is the range of your smart home network?</h2>
<p><img alt="Pixelated image of WiFi range" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_ci/Q3_2022/CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_2.jpg" title="CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_2.jpg" width="700" /></p>
<p>The range of your smart home network is important to consider as it will determine how far away you can place your devices from your router before they lose connection.. Traditional Wi-Fi routers have a 300-ft outdoor range and a 150-ft indoor range, so you might need to extend your range using access points, additional routers, or a mesh network.</p>
<p>We recommend using a mesh Wi-Fi system for smart home networks as they provide better coverage than traditional routers. And wherever possible, increase the strength of your network by using wired connections.</p>
<h2>How fast does your home network need to be?</h2>
<p>As mentioned before, sometimes smart devices can clog up the bandwidth on your network. And while you can set up your smart devices to work on a separate network, you should still consider the speed. You don't need a fast connection for basic voice commands, but devices that use cameras, like smart doorbells and security cameras, require more bandwidth.</p>
<p>On average, you'll need to add 5Mpbs to your internet plan for every ten smart devices, plus an extra 5Mpbs when installing cameras. And if you don't want to do the math, you can work out what speed you need with your custom installers and internet provider.</p>
<h2>Do you need any special hardware for your smart home network?</h2>
<p><img alt="Man checking out his router connection" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_ci/Q3_2022/CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_3.jpg" title="CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_3.jpg" width="700" /></p>
<p>Depending on the smart devices you have, you may need to purchase additional hardware for your smart home networks such as a Wi-Fi extender or a powerline adapter. These devices can help to improve the performance of your smart home network by boosting the signal strength or extending the reach of your network.</p>
<p>But one thing you will definitely need is a smart hub to connect all your devices. Think of the smart hub as the central brain for all your smart home automation, which helps everything communicate with each other. Keep in mind that these will need their own power supply and ethernet port in your router.</p>
<h2>Is your smart home network secure?</h2>
<p><img alt="Woman touching a lock symbol of her secure network" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_ci/Q3_2022/CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_4.jpg" title="CI_Smart-Home-Network-Requirements_4.jpg" width="700" /></p>
<p>Another essential consideration for smart home networks is security. Many smart devices can collect sensitive data such as your location, contact list, or financial information. As such, it's essential to make sure that your smart home network is adequately secured to protect your privacy. One way to do this is to use a VPN (a virtual private network) to encrypt all the data being sent and received by your smart devices.</p>
<p>So, if you deal with a lot of sensitive information and want to secure it, please mention your concern to your custom installers when planning out your smart home. They'll help fortify your connection so you can use your smart home worry-free!</p>
<h2>Setting Up Your Smart Home</h2>
<p>A smart home makes your life more convenient, and with the proper network settings, every command will run seamlessly. So, if you're finally ready to upgrade to <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.gleesonsav.com/catalog/electronics-automation-control/" target="_blank">smart home automation</a></span>, check out what you need at Gleeson's Home Entertainment and Automation.</p>
<p>Our team of custom installers will help set up your smart home network to the system's exact requirements. We'll work with you to assess your needs and recommend the best solution for your smart home. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.gleesonsav.com/contacts/" target="_blank">Contact us</a></span> to get your consultation started!</p>

What Network Requirements Do You Need for Your Smart Home?

Smart home control panels give you control over your tech without the need to juggle dozens of apps and devices. Learn more here.

<p>It&rsquo;s hard to believe, but there was supposedly a time when Steve Jobs was not keen on the idea of allowing third-party apps to run on the iPhone. Obviously, he ended up warming to the idea. These days, the phrase &ldquo;there&rsquo;s an app&rdquo; for that &mdash; first coined in a 2009 Apple TV commercial &mdash; has become true for a myriad of things. One of those things is the control of smart devices.</p>
<p>While not yet as popular and as ubiquitous as mobile devices like iPhones and iPads, smart home technology is gaining ground and becoming more mainstream every day. Smart lights, thermostats, and cameras are no longer only seen in the homes of the rich and famous. You and your neighbors probably have a smart device or three in your house right now.</p>
<h2>Where It All Began</h2>
<p><img alt="man watching tv and changing channels with a remote" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_electronics/ci-smart-home-control-panels-remote.jpg" title="iStock Credit: gilaxia" width="700" /></p>
<p>Many of the smart home manufacturers that have been in the game for a while started, at least to some degree, with a more modest aim than automating your home. They started by making it easier to operate your TV and all the various devices that you had plugged into it. Essentially, they started with creating a universal remote.</p>
<p>As technology advanced, broadcast television was no longer the only thing to watch on your fancy color TV. We added cable boxes, VCRs, Ataris, surround receivers, and more. Each one of those devices generally came with its own remote control. Simplicity gave way to a plethora of button-filled devices strewn across the coffee table, challenging you to decode the correct sequence of button presses to turn on the nightly news.</p>
<p>Universal remotes fixed all that. That original mess of remotes got shoved in a drawer, replaced by a simple and intuitive device that only required a single button press to bring everything to life. It wasn&rsquo;t long before people started wondering&hellip; what else could we control with this thing?</p>
<h2>Smart Home Meets Smartphone</h2>
<p><img alt="woman controlling home with a digital touch screen panel" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_electronics/ci-smart-home-control-panels-header.jpg" title="iStock Credit: RossHelen " width="700" /></p>
<p>Smart home manufacturers expanded past the media room to control lighting, shades, security, HVAC and more. Universal remotes were joined by proprietary touch screen panels, some in-wall and some wireless, to simplify the operation of these increasingly sophisticated systems. Touch screen technology was pretty new. It was also pretty expensive which contributed to making the smart home a strictly luxury product.</p>
<p>The release of the iPhone, and later the iPad, brought the price of touch screen devices way down. Smart home manufacturers started to look at how they could leverage these mobile devices to enhance their own offerings. They released apps that would allow a client&rsquo;s iDevice (and later Android devices as well) to communicate with their smart home devices. Since these devices were mobile, they added the benefit of allowing people to control their system even when they weren&rsquo;t home.</p>
<p>In some cases, people decided not to invest in an <em>integrated</em> smart home system at all since so many devices like smart bulbs and smart thermostats had their own apps. For each &ldquo;smart&rdquo; device you bought, there was an app to control it. But the more devices that got added, the more apps you had to download to control them. Your iPad essentially became a digital version of that old coffee table littered with different apps instead of remote controls.</p>
<h2>Why Smart Home Manufacturers Still Make Touchscreens and Remotes</h2>
<p><img alt="family leaving the house locking the door using automated security system" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_electronics/ci-smart-home-control-panels-family.jpg" title="iStock Credit: Hispanolistic " width="700" /></p>
<p>Everyone these days has a mobile device that they&rsquo;re accustomed to using for just about everything (email, internet, reading, checking the weather, starting the car, etc.) so it&rsquo;s not uncommon for a person outfitting their smart home to say, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just use my phone to control the system&rdquo;. While that&rsquo;s certainly an option, there are a few reasons to consider having a few dedicated devices (touchscreens, remote controls, keypads, etc.) for operating your system.</p>
<ul>
<li>Surfing the cable guide on your TV is much easier with tactile buttons on a universal remote than it is on your iPhone.<br /><br /></li>
<li>If you&rsquo;ve got your in-ceiling speakers cranked to eleven when your smartphone rings (you know, the phone you were controlling the system with), your pause button and volume controls have disappeared to show you who is calling.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Mobile devices are wireless and sometimes they disconnect or can suffer from interference. A dedicated device, especially one that is hard-wired, is dedicated to staying connected to your smart home.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Apple or Android releases a new OS chock full of great features and you really want to take advantage of them. But, for the most part, those new features have only been tested for how well they work in the Apple or Android eco-systems. Sometimes those updates have detrimental, albeit usually temporary, effects on third-party apps &mdash; including the one that controls your TV, lights, security, HVAC, and cameras.<br /><br /></li>
<li>When something goes wrong, we can contact tech support for the smart home system we installed. Getting an Apple or Google person who can help on their side is a lot tougher!</li>
</ul>
<h2>Call or Visit Us</h2>
<p>For a smart home that actually <em>feels</em> smart, your best bet is to invest in an integrated system dedicated to making your life easier and to use dedicated smart home remotes and touchscreen, with your mobile devices layered in as a secondary or off-site solution. <a href="https://www.gleesonsav.com/contacts/" target="_blank">Our team at Gleeson's Home Entertainment and Automation</a> can guide you through the options and tailor a solution that&rsquo;s perfectly fit for your goals and budget.</p>

What are the Benefits of Smart Home Touch Control Panels and Remotes?

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What Network Requirements Do You Need for Your Smart Home?

What are the Benefits of Smart Home Touch Control Panels and Remotes?

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