Steve’s Home Networking and Home Automation Guide

stevessmarthomeJust like our phones, our home are becoming smart. To make them smart they are being fitted with:

  • smart switches
  • smart lights
  • smart Locks
  • etc

These once normal household devices are being made smart by connecting them together over a network, and then to the Internet.

Because most Homes built today aren’t smart they will be made smart incrementally,by adding smart devices to solve present day problems

Perhaps you might need to install a security system, so you install a smart security system. Later you want to integrate it with your lights so you install a smart lighting system.

In order to do this you will need a basic understanding of networking and how, or if, they can be connected to each other.

About This Site

The aim of this site is to help you :

  • Learn and understand Home Networking basics
  • Understand how these smart devices connect to each other and how they work.
  • Understand the technologies and protocols found in a smart home.
  • Solve common home networking and home automation problems
  • Install and Setup home automation systems.

Getting Started

In order to build a smart home you will need to understanding how to setup a home network and how it works. – See Smart Home Networking

Recommended Reading

Questions

If you have any questions please ask

Best Regards Steve

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Latest Posts



Controlling the Tasmota SonOff Switch with Node-Red

In this tutorial we will look at controlling the Tasmota SonOff Switch using node-red and the sonoff-tasmota node

You will need to first install the node. It is called node-red-contrib-sonoff-tasmota

node-red-tasmota-node (more…)

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Introduction to Sonoff Switches

Sonoff is a brand of  low cost (£5) Wi-Fi switches that can be used for controlling mains powered devices like lights, pumps, heaters etc.

They consist of the ESP8266 Wi-Fi Chip plus additional circuitry. and are made by ITEAD Studio based in China ,who also make a collection of home automation products.

There are many switch types (see here), but two versions of the software.

  • Official software
  • Tasmota MQTT software

(more…)

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Understanding DHCP on Home Networks

understanding-dhcpDHCP (Dynamic Host configuration protocol) provides a mechanism for automatically allocating IP (IPv4) addresses to network devices e.g. computers..

It consists of two components.

  • A DHCP client
  • A DHCP server

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Using The Ping Command – Home Networking Testing

ping-command-iconThe ping command is one of the most often used networking utilities for troubleshooting network problems.

You can use the ping command to test the availability of a networking device (usually a computer) on a network.

When you ping a device you send that device a short message, which it then sends back (the echo). (more…)

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Basic Home Network And Internet Components, Devices and Services

An Internet connected home/home office network, consists of a variety of hardware and software components.

In this tutorial we look at the various components that you need to create a computer network and connect it to the Internet.

The technologies, components and services used in small home networks are the same (function wise) as those used in large corporate networks.

(more…)

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