Solved! Smart Home Halted

[gco88]

Ok guys, so I got a little excited and started looking at everything in my house and thought, I can smart home that. I can smart home that, oh and that!

Well, I now have 17 lifx light bulbs, 4 smart switches, 2 amazon alexas, 5 smart plugs, 1 wifi range extender and that's all my network is accepting at the moment in terms of connection.

I guess I was seeing how far I could go before running into connectivity issues, and well.. it finally hit.

I have an Xfinity (comcast) gateway with two frequecny bands (5ghz and 2.4). I have a very little amount of devices connected to my 5ghz band and my 2.4 ghz band is just filled with basically all of these smart devices. I started realizing that once I started adding these new smart light switches that I wasn't able to connect them to my 2.4ghz band (only option as it's not 5ghz compatible.) When I reset my modem (gateway) I would quickly try to connect the device I was having issues with and WA LA, I got it connected. I then walked around my house and did a little inspecting and discovered that one of the other devices was kicked off the 2.4 connection to make room for that new device I added. So I feel like I've run into a road block and cannot keep adding to my smart home.

Has anyone else run into this issue, I'm pretty lost on what my next steps should be, I called comcast to upgrade but they basically told me the network would not support all of these devices.

What are some of you other folks doing to make this smart home dream come to reality?

 

[americanaudiophile]

This might help
http/community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Too-many-devices/td-p/3479084/page/2

 

[homenetworksolutions]

The best option would be to install a wireless access point (WAP), something like the Ubiquiti AC pro (£123 on Amazon), this device is designed to handle up to 200 wirelss devices, although the number is probably closer to 100. It does require an Ethernet cable to be run but it is a fantastic way to give excellent coverage for a large number of devices, normally these are used in office spaces, hotels etc. WAPs use power over Ethernet (POE) so you would have to buy a POE switch, they are relatively cheap (£25).

 

[pochrist]

I work in IT in a small private school, we have multiple network providing connections for at least 100 devices on both 2.4 & 5ghz. You will new something more robust then simply an access point. A standard network in the 192.168.x.x range will handle up to 254 clients (or in this case devices} but in order to accommodate them you have to have available bandwidth - in this case Wi-Fi coverage throughout the house, also you have to have a Router (or as you call it a Gateway) that can handle it. You mentioned you use a Xfinity (comcast) gateway a really basic unit obviously provided to you, this unit is the basis of your problem, its a very basic unit and like an Apple device your pretty much locked out of the controls you need to make you smart home "smart". Simply put you can't run a smart home with a dumb router, its the brains of the system. 1st I would suggest you replace the Xfinity gateway with a TP-Link or Netgear Router, then you can add a Ubiquiti or Engenious WIFI Access point (just make sure it comes with a "POE" - power over Ethernet injector) once they are both set up don't go along and just spam it with all your smart devices, have a plan; assign each devices a static IP and then plug that info to the Router this way you can make sure that no device is able to knock off another, you will exactly what happening as you go along. good luck.

 

[inlowgwdrhpk2015]

Excellent topic. I remember a lot of new things. I need more such discussions