The basis of any good smart home is good WiFi. If you think you have poor WiFi performance right now or you get some smart devices but they aren’t working perfectly, you might want to consider upgrading your WiFi. Here are some basics to help you understand and make the right buying choice.
If you aren’t familiar with the technology, WiFi has different generations and generation 6 (AX) recently came out. It also has what are called bands, or the frequency of the radio signal - commonly 2.4ghz and 5ghz. Most routers sold these days are either WiFi 4 (N) or 5 (AC), but as time moves forward, more and more devices will use WiFi 6. As of right now, most smart devices that don’t use their own communication protocol like Zigbee or Bluetooth, rely on your WiFi network, and almost always only on the 2.4ghz band. This means that having multiple access points and getting traffic off of the 2.4ghz band will enable your smart home to have better responsiveness and functionality.
WiFi 6 is an exciting iteration because it doesn’t just make things faster, it has taken a page out of the cell phone book and will be able to handle more devices a lot better. If you're interested in learning more about this jump, you can read a
great article here. But as of right now, there are very few cell phones or even computers that use WiFi 6, including smart devices. This means that while WiFi 6 is great, there are very few routers and devices that can use it, so that expense might not be worth it at this time. However, we have tested some WiFi 6 routers and recommend one in the honorable mentions if you would like to go down that route.
Mesh WiFi is likely something you have seen or come across in your search and it makes a compelling offer - a little puck to help extend the WiFi further. We are really excited about these because it makes multiple access points (a great way to balance the load of smart home devices) accessible to the everyday person. We recommend wiring each of your access points if at all possible, including using
ethernet over a power line if you can because even that will drastically improve WiFi performance.
Let’s briefly mention some of the
marketing misnomers 1) the number associated with routers (like
AC2300) and 2) the number of bands. The numbers with the routers are the
theoretical speed when you combine everything together. No single device will be able to take advantage of these speeds, but generally, a higher number is better. We like to test our routers in the real world and find the ones that work best. Very popular right now are tri-band routers, but again, no single device will use all three bands for increased speed. Take a look at tri-band vs. dual band
here. We really only recommend going tri-band on a mesh system (like the Eero Pro) if you cannot run wire or use powerline adapters to where you want your additional access points.
HomeKit Routers are in alignment with Apple’s security-focused philosophy and therefore are a great option for people who have chosen Apple’s ecosystem. They help manage your smart devices and make sure that if something ever happens to one, it doesn’t take down the rest of your network. The good news is just because a router is
HomeKit compatible doesn’t mean it can’t be used by other devices or smart home systems.
Lastly we want to mention that
Ubiquiti is a great offering for those who want professional-grade equipment and control at near-consumer prices. Their PoE (different from EoP) solution is great for neatly wiring cameras and access points, but requires running ethernet to anywhere you need it. In the past, their setup had a high entry price point because of the multiple devices you needed, but now if you're just getting started or need a new core for your network, the Dream Machine makes a heck of a compelling offer.
