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Best network setup for smart home devices /IOT Conventional router or mesh?





So for a while now I have been using googles whole home mesh WiFi system it dose exactly what It says you get whole home WiFi with semless trensitiin between nodes, management of your devices is simple and straight forward and it's self repairing. It allows for IP reservation and port forwarding rules but that's about it for what configuration settings you have.
Now thats becomes an issue when we get into the world smart homes, for example my August lock for example is bridged to the internet via my doorbell cam. The doorbell cam is not compatible with 5g, so I had to use a 2. 4 exstnder so It would have a stable & usable connection to actually use it as intended.
I AM allsoa huge DIY guy and use the Esp8266 wemos d1min and MODEMCU ESP8266 dev boards with adruino. Aswell as using the ST_ANYTHING integration to work with my smartthings ecosystem, normally have no issue connecting them but it ends up being alot if devices on my network polling and so on.
I am not sure if I have Even noticed any diferance in changes to the quality and/or my networks ability to handle so much continuous traphic . I have however in a normal router exstnder type style setup noticed it without question
things like speaker groups stayting in sync or skipping , and that can get really annoying with the google mesh I have had no issue like that. I am now looking In to Netgears Orbi mesh wifi system. Maybe have a little more Control?
I have heard really great things about ubiquity system but sure what direction I will end up takeing
plz describe your network setup with pros and cons, what you have done to circumvent your particular issues pertaining to smart home and the IOT , and also your future plans for your network?
Comments
The nodes now have better control over what node a device uses. Also now has better self healing and strongest signal route.
Even throughput seems to have improved.... Fingers crossed this a great and stable update !
Community Manager at Fing
Now I'm trying to figure out how to split the devices into different VLANs for IP cameras, IoT, home and Guest and maybe a separate one for the Networking gear (router, APs, managed switches..) the only issue is the Fing box only works with one Network, so either i buy one box for each subnet/VLAN or decide what i want to monitor...
I also use Unifi Wlan/Network equipment
you need a unifi switch to manage vlans with the other products.
Downside is there is so little configuration options. DHCP server can't set devices to have reserved IP addresses, can't set an IP address range for the DHCP allocations, can't even turn off the DHCP server! So if you need a fixed IP address you are pretty much screwed.
I "think" I might be able to work around it by putting in a bogus port forwarding setting, as it must surely fix the device to an IP to be able to manage that.
This seems to be a trend with the mesh systems from what I have read, very little in the way of advanced options. This is why I like my Asus mesh so much, you don't give up much in terms of advanced options.