Here are some handy tips to make sure your home network is ready to use Smart Devices.
You don't want to buy a Smart IoT Device and install it, only to find it does not work, or works sporadically. You can avoid this situation with a few precautionary measures.
1) Ensure your home network actually reaches the parts of your house you are installing your devices in. A Smart Device may struggle to join your network, or may only operate sporadically if it doesn't have a good signal. Download the Netspot App and use the Inspector to determine the strength of the 2.4GHz signal in each location you want to install a device. (Ignore the 5GHz signal results). You really need a "Green" result in each location to ensure reliable IoT service. If you don't get a "Green" result, consider implementing a mesh network (essentially network extenders but they interoperate and keep the same SSID and login throughout the house). These devices not only ensure your network will reach the furthest corners of your house using the same network ID, but they also take considerable strain off your router by acting as interim "hubs" for traffic requests.
2) Familiarise yourself with your router's configuration and check if you can switch the 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals on and off separately. Most IoT devices use 2.4GHz and some require it exclusively during pairing. Unfortunately many ISP-supplied routers don't always make this choice available -another reason for installing an extender or mesh network, most of which do. Once successfully paired, you can re-enable both signals.
3) Check your subscription bandwidth. You can use Netspot to run a speed test. These days with Fibre optic, bandwidth and quality of service for IoT devices should not be an issue. However some people are not yet lucky enough to have fibre and bandwidth becomes a more contentious resource. The more devices you add; each potentially emitting a couple of hundred bytes a second simultaneously, plus everything else in the house making some sort of bandwidth demand, you run the risk of being network constrained as well as creating bottleneck conditions on the router if your bandwidth is insufficient. Remember IoT devices also communicate both ways, so Upload Bandwidth is important, not just download.
4) Ensure your router firmware is up to date and apply per-device and app updates if these also require updating.
5) Research the App support website for the devices you intend to use and check there are no known incompatibilities between, for example, your router and the app framework you intend to use. These incompatibilities do exist and it is wise to pre-empt any possible issues.
Problems to Look out for:
Difficulty pairing
If you are experiencing difficulty pairing your device to your network, in most cases it will be no clear 2.4GHz signal being available and in rare cases, more than one (so the device does not know which one to connect to - solved usually via the device's own "alternative pairing mode".) Be sure the 2.4GHz signal for your network is available for the device and if necessary, stop any 5GHz signal until pairing is complete.
Changes to the App don't reflect in changes to the device and vice versa.
If the device appears available (i.e. not "offline") in the App and you are able to make changes in the app, then if the device itself is not updating chances are you have some form of internet or connection issue related with your network. This could be a combination of points 1 to 5 above and you should check through all of them. Is it happening with devices that were also initially hard to pair? Some IoT devices have their network status available in "Device Information" on the App, so check that first. Signal strength of -55dBM is very good. A signal strength of -70dBM or higher is very poor so a device may appear "connected", but is only partially so and may not function correctly.
"Offline" devices that should be online
Check the device proximity to the network. If the device in all other respects shows it has a strong signal, but still regularly goes offline, check if rebooting your router fixes the issue. If it does, it is a possible sign of router overload and not managing devices actually connected to it, versus those it thinks are. (There are all sorts of reasons why, not in the scope of this article to address). If you have the technical skills, assigning a static IP to the MAC addresses of the IoT devices or assigning a specific DHCP range only to your IoT devices should fix this problem.