Hi, currently all the devices are on one network (a combination of wires and wireless). What I was thinking of what to lock down the network more at home and create a different network (essentially differnt vLans that don’t spill over into each other) for all the Smart devices - and the machines at home.
Currently I have 100+ different sensors and devices (combination of z-wave/zigbeee/wifi) - many of them connected to SmartThings and others are their own ecosystems but connected (e.g. Nest Thermostats and Protects).
If I can setup different networks, the intention is the desktops/laptops/phones will be on a different from the other - so would things still work with each other via the cloud? I also use a Synology NAS to record cameras as an example. I am thinking more from a security perspective and minimize the surface area of attack.
Just starting to think about it and wanted to get any guidance in case anyone has already done this and if there was any recommendation.
The smartthings mobile app can be on the phone anywhere, even thousands of miles away. So that’s fine.
The zigbee and zwave Devices set up their own networks that communicate directly to your SmartThings hub, neither one uses Wi-Fi, so that won’t matter.
Cloud to cloud integrations will also be fine, that’s just based on your account in the SmartThings cloud.
The big question is those official integrations which use a local network connection, such as a Phillips hue bridge and Echo. I believe those will have to be on the same ethernet router. The hub itself does not use Wi-Fi, so the Wi-Fi doesn’t matter, but they have to eventually reach the same point of origin.
I run three wifi networks, one for fast devices, AC phones, tablets, etc, one for other non streaming general purpose things, tablets, things that don’t support 5Ghz, and a single 2.4Ghz one for all my HA stuff.
I used to VLAN them off and interVLAN route, but that was a pain with SSDP and some other things that came into play. So I now have a single subnet with a ridiculous amount of stuff on it, but all the HA is on a single wifi ssid/channel. It’s very stable and no slowdowns I can detect with anything.
I have around 35-40 wifi devices attached to ST at this point, so I’m really impressed, that includes all my Echo’s which stream audio a LOT in my house, never a drop out.
If you do setup VLAN routing, be careful of what you put on which network/VLAN, or use some non consumer grade gear to actually forward multicast as needed, consumer gear generally sucks at this. I’m using a Juniper SRX and Cisco gigabit switches, and did have multicast and some limited broadcast forwarding going on, it worked, but was a PIA to deal with, so I simplified. If you have hundreds of wifi/network devices for the home automation stuff, you may have to go that route anyway to avoid serious contention issues. But then you’ll be running out of 2.4Ghz spectrum anyway.
