We are living in the age of smart living, where everything is connected to the internet, from thermostats to doorbells; everything uses the internet in one way or another. While these smart home devices are making life easier and more convenient for us, their reliability depends on the Wi-Fi network to which they are connected, as they are only as reliable as the Wi-Fi network to which they are connected.
For this reason, configuring your Wi-Fi router is essential to have a stable, secure, and responsive smart home setup. Let us explore some useful tips for configuring routers for smart homes to ensure better connectivity, security, and performance.
Enable the Dual-Band or Tri-Band Feature
WiFi routers these days come with dual-band or tri-band support, and you should make use of this technology by enabling this option. By using the dual-band or tri-band transmission feature, you can ensure that your network can handle the demands of multiple devices connected to it in a smart home setup. The benefit of using the dual-band or tri-band feature is that you can reduce congestion on the network and improve the performance of all the connected devices in your smart home setup.
Use a Separate Network for Smart Home Devices
Using a separate network for smart home devices is another thing that you should consider because smart devices often lack strong security features, particularly the lower-cost ones. By creating and using a separate network for smart devices, you can protect your personal data on the network and your personal devices on the network.
This practice is often referred to as network segmentation, and it helps to ensure that your main devices aren’t compromised in case a smart device is hacked or compromised.
Enable WPA3/WPA2 Encryption
To protect your data and devices on your WiFi network, you need to enable some sort of encryption on the network to prevent eavesdropping and unauthorised access. Most routers these days support the WPA3 encryption, and it is what you should enable on your router as well. In case your router doesn’t support WPA3, WPA2 is still a solid choice.
Enabling encryption on a WiFi router is quite easy; you just need to log into your router’s admin panel through http://192.168.0.1, head over to wireless settings, and enable WPA3 or WPA2 under security options.
Monitor the Network
Monitoring the devices connected to the network through the router’s app or dashboard is also important to keep a check and balance on connected devices. Modern routers offer mobile apps or web dashboards with the help of which you can monitor connected devices, block unknown devices, and even pause the WiFi network when required.
You can go through this guide on how you can access the web dashboard of your WiFi router to monitor connected devices on the network, see which devices are online at any time, detect unauthorized access, control bandwidth usage, and restart or reboot smart devices remotely.
Limit Port Forwarding and Use Strong Passwords
Some smart devices require port forwarding to work remotely and function properly, but you should be cautious while opening ports, as opening too many ports can leave your network vulnerable. Consider forwarding or opening ports when it is absolutely necessary and you understand what you are doing; otherwise, you might end up making your network more vulnerable.
And while we are at it, never keep default passwords for router admin panels, WiFi networks, and smart device apps to keep your home devices and network protected.
