+16 votes
by (1.1k points)
Does putting my home automation on a separate wifi from the rest of the devices in the house help?  
Does putting my home automation on a separate wifi from the rest of the devices in the house help?

15 Answers

+6 votes
by (1.6k points)
 
Best answer
As my home automation is tied to my cameras as well, yes, it helps to have it's own vlan and APs. But for general wifi devices, only helps from a security aspect, and if someone is that far in your network already. you have bigger issues.  
by (17.1k points)
Watching my camera and unlocking my door (smart home devices) would certainly be my 'biggest issue' :)
0 votes
by (17.1k points)
Help what?  
by (1.1k points)
Well I know the local network is faster than my WAN connection. So anything going out is the same. However what about local traffic since there is a lot of internal with the devices? Or is that not the case.  
by (17.1k points)
@salts5 Generally speaking, watching a single youtube video will use more bandwidth than an entire month worth of smart home devices' usage. What really helps is not using wifi for smart home (and using zigbee or zwave instead).  
by (1.9k points)
Security. IoT and home automation are the new hunting grounds. Segregate.  
+4 votes
by (17.1k points)
It helps security assuming you put it on a separate VLAN or equivalent.  
+7 votes
by (740 points)
Actually if you enable QOS and tune it so the smart stuff works but isn't consuming to much yes.  
+5 votes
by (1.1k points)
Fair enough I was not sure how chatty these devices are with each other. Like the KMC and Alexa or the Ring?  
+5 votes
by (3.1k points)
It would definitely help from a security perspective. Network segmentation (VLANs) helps keep less secure traffic, like Smart Home devices from more secure traffic like home computers, tablets, etc.  
+5 votes
by (2.9k points)
Assuming, of course, that you don't have other wifi traffic on the other channels.  
+6 votes
by (2.1k points)
I prefer separate networks for IIoT devices and home. I simply use Ubiquity AP’s with separate SSID and VLAM the networks with firewalls to control traffic. This configuration is more secure and saves RF space versus installing another AP, which increases RF noise and lowers overall WiFi performance.  
+12 votes
by (6.1k points)
Get a LOCAL controller and stop f* with cloud services/devices
+16 votes
by (2.5k points)
I tend the stick all smart things that do need wifi on the 2. 4ghz band and our phones and ta let are on the 5hz band as tats where I want the speed Everything else in the house is hardwired as much as possible
+13 votes
by (1.5k points)
Yes, whilst a home router can happily stream YouTube to a few devices, they are great at simply having loads of devices connected at once. Having loads of devices connected aslows down the network even though there isn't much actual traffic, having the IOT on a seperate WiFi helps a lot.  
+12 votes
by (1.9k points)
What is a seperate WiFi? Like a VLAN?  
+8 votes
by (6.3k points)
Mostly it's a congestion issue rather than a bandwidth issue. But saying that, unless the separate WiFi is on another channel it will not help much. As for security, if they are cloud based it doesn't matter much, if at all, the reason to be totally local with your devices and hub. Non WiFi devices start off local then people connect to a cloud based Hub and at that point, once again doesn't matter. And totally local means no Google or Alexa support, but that is mostly just a fancy remote and not really Smart. The Smart is done in the hub, real automation.  
+3 votes
by (320 points)
I've got 107 smart devices and another 20 units, use two routers, one is a mesh the other a regular router
+2 votes
by (1.5k points)
Does your network support a Vlan?  
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