These days, anyone can use their phone to turn on the lights. But a real smart home goes beyond parlor tricks. Building a capable, connected home that’s also convenient takes a bit of planning, a touch of know-how and more than a little restraint — not to mention a reliable internet connection. Choosing the wrong virtual assistant or investing in a doomed startup can turn your smart home real dumb, real quick, so study up on everything you need to know to put your connected home at the top of the class.
Beef Up the Broadband
Can you imagine walking into a house without Wi-Fi? Neither can Alexa. Strong, reliable internet is the first building block to any good smart home. Here, three things to consider.
Speed
Lightning-fast internet is not make-or-break when it comes to building a functional smart home. Asking your virtual assistant to turn on the lights or play the Bee Gees doesn’t require a whole tone of bandwidth. Video, on the other hand, is a different story. Security cameras and smart doorbells can devour a lot of data, depending on your quality settings — even if they only need data when they sense movement. If you start getting hiccups while streaming Netflix, consider upgrading your network speeds with your ISP or making sure your router’s up to date.
Coverage
Apartment dwellers can typically get away with a single wireless router, but people who live in larger homes with multiple floors or thick walls will be left high and dry. A Wi-Fi extender, like those made by TP-Link, can help fix trouble spots, but the best way to guarantee blanket coverage is with a mesh network that builds a network out of multiple nodes instead of a single router. Eero, an Amazon-owned company, is at the head of the pack along with Google Wi-Fi, but Netgear’s Orbi line is a solid alternative if you’d feel better trusting your homework to a company that doesn’t traffic in targeted advertising.
Security
Every connected device, from lights to thermostats, introduces a new entry point for hackers. Protect your network with a strong, unique password and change the default password of every gadget you bring home. You can also isolate smart home devices on a guest network if you want to get serious. Whether Big Tech respects your privacy is a whole other ball of wax, but products from companies like Google and Amazon offer better, longer-lasting support than cash-strapped startups. And always, always install software updates religiously.
Pro Tip
To avoid lag when you’re streaming Netflix, Facetiming or playing video games, lower the resolution of your security cameras, which consume more data than the average smart home device. Downgrading from 1080p to 720p will limit the strain on your home’s internet connection without throttling performance.
