Three WiFi connections at home...does it matter to the ST Hub?

smartapp
(Roy Gavilan) #1

I have three WiFi connections at home with different names but all connect to my home LAN. In the master bedroom I use HOME_EXT. I also can connect to HOME(cable modem) and UHOME(Ubiquiti extender). All these extend WiFi thru out my home. When I connect to the SmartThings app wirelessly does it matter which one I am connected too. I have the app on my cell phone and also on a android tablet both are connected to a different WiFi connection depending where I am located in the home. DOES IT MATTER??

(Sean) #2

No. The app talks to the SmartThings cloud over the internet, and the hub get its instructions from the cloud, so there’s no direct link over your home network anyway.

Even if there was, it should still be fine - I have two wifi networks (one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz with different names) and the LAN, and they can all talk to each other.

(Roy Gavilan) #3

Thanks for the reply. That was what I was thinking but just wanted to make sure.

#4

As @Sean_B mentioned, there actually is no Wi-Fi connection to the SmartThings hub, so it doesn’t care. There isn’t even a Wi-Fi connection between the smartthings hub and the smartthings mobile app – – the mobile app still goes out over the Internet to the cloud and then back from the cloud over Internet to the hub.

The smart things hub needs to be connected via cable to your Internet router. So it’s an ethernet connection.

The one thing to be aware of for planning, is that Wi-Fi can drown out nearby Zigbee signals. Z wave is operating on a different frequency, and so is not affected.

It sounds like you’ve done a lot to make the Wi-Fi signal really strong throughout your home, which is generally a good thing. But it does mean that you are likely to have more problems with Zigbee devices.

So as you are looking at what items to purchase, I would tend to lean toward Z wave over zigbee. This would be for items like wall switches, pocket sockets, in wall relays, and battery powered sensors and door locks.

Fortunately, smart things is a multiprotocol platform and can support both Z wave and Zigbee, so you will typically have a choice. So it’s just something to be aware of.

Also, plan to situate your SmartThings hub at least 3 m from any of your Wi-Fi transmitter devices, both the original router and extenders.

It’s possible you could set things up and not have any interference it all, but it will just make your life a little easier if you assume that everything you’ve done to strengthen the Wi-Fi then makes it less likely that that zigbee will operate smoothly.

FWIW

(Ben Lebson) #5

The only way this would matter is if you have a wifi device that is integrated using a community devicetype which uses the hubAction function for local network communication.

(Michael Hess) #6

Even then, as long as you aren’t routing wifi networks or using different subnets between device groups, it won’t matter. Adding AP’s to an existing router is basically just bridging them together. If you use a full on wifi router to extend a wireless network, you typically disable DHCP and use the LAN ports, not the WAN port to uplink into the original internet router.

I have 5 SSID’s over two bands on 3 AP’s and they are all essentially bridged to the primary network in my house so everything still talks to everything else.

(Roy Gavilan) #7

Thanks for the reply. I did not realize the wi-fi would mess with the signals. Luckily I placed the hub in my master bedroom and the modem is downstairs.

(Roy Gavilan) #8

I have a cable modem on 1st floor, a Netgear wi fi extender on the 2nd floor and a Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC LR that I just installed on the 2nd floor. I did not change any settings on the cable modem.

(Peter Richardson) #9

If you are thinking of using ZigBee devices , as well as locating the hub away from the router, I found it necessary to select a channel that didn’t overlap my WiFi channel (which I had on automatic - hence it interfered sometimes but not others, depending on what it selected as the best channel).

You can’t change the ZigBee channel of the hub (its preset at the factory) but you can find it out by looking at the hub settings information in the IDE. It’s not the same numbering as WiFi channels so you need to look at the diagram.

I also found downloading a free WiFi analyzer to my PC helped me select the best 802.11(WiFi)channel to avoid competition with neighbors. I also chose to set my router and access points to use the same SSID and channel to make the WiFi seamless over the whole house (there are differing view points on whether this is preferred).

Hope this may help you avoid some of the teething problems I’ve experienced in setting up a system which now works very reliably as a whole.