Where do you put your hubs and routers

[JDRoberts]

The short answer is that whatever works for you is fine. There’s a lot of variation and much depends on the exact amount and type of network traffic that you have.

If you have a couple of teenagers doing high def WiFi Streaming from multiple devices during every waking minute, you’re much more likely to find your zigbee getting drowned out than if you just have One or two Wi-Fi devices browsing the Internet or running home automation devices.

Similarly, if you are using energy-reporting Z wave devices for live updates every 30 seconds or so you’re going to have a lot more traffic on those networks than if you just use them for occasional “switch on, switch off“ Commands.

Almost all IOT hubs will be “Omnidirectional“ which means the signal spreads as it moves away from the transmission antenna. So if you can keep your hubs at least one meter apart you’re a lot less likely to get interference between them. And if they are transmitting on the same frequency, such as zigbee and Wi-Fi, best practices says to put them at least 3 m apart. But again, if what you have now is working for you, you don’t have to worry about it.

The article linked to above is already referenced in the community FAQs on Wi-Fi and Zigbee interference. If you are having problems, you should take a look at those as they have additional details specific to SmartThings:

FAQ: Networking and Reducing Channel interference between WiFi and Zigbee

Continuing the discussion from [RELEASE] Keenect V1.1.0, pressure protection release: Wanted to start a thread on best practices, tools and general discussion on wifi networking and channel interference… I am using several Android apps to manage my network, but I am no RF engineer so it’s always good to hear from others on how they manage their networks. To get started, here is the diagram I’ve been using to limit the interference in my home… [image] source: http://fosiao.com/content/zigbee-and-wifi-rf-channels Also, another interesting article, is this:

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FAQ: What WiFi Channel is least likely to interfere with SmartThings?

Z wave and wifi don’t interfere with each other, so you don’t have to worry about that. But WiFi can drown out nearby zigbee, particularly boosted Wi-Fi. At my house, we have a Wi-Fi booster. If we plug it in on the north wall in one room, all the smartthings – controlled zigbee devices to the west of it drop off-line. If we just move the Wi-Fi booster to the east wall, all the zigbee devices work fine. So the first step is to make sure that your SmartThings hub is at least 3 m away from your Wi-Fi router or any access point. But sometimes the problem is bigger than that, and your Wi-Fi router is broadcasting on a channel which is just drowning out your zigbee devices. You do have the option to change your Wi-Fi router, typically between channels 1, 6, and 11, so what’s the best Wi-F…

Most people would hate my setup, but it’s designed for minimum maintenance, maximum coverage.

One wall of my bedroom has white wood floating shelves staggered and about 2 m apart horizontally. Then I use white raceway cable covers for the cords.

Obviously the following pictures aren’t of my own setup, but these are the typical components:

Since I don’t have much use of my hands, I need to be able to easily direct someone else to do whatever maintenance is required, and this setup both simplifies that process and generates the best transmission spread.