Just 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 technology 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

• Beginners guide to home Automation
• Internal and External IP Addresses
• What is Dynamic DNS (DDNS)? -and Why Use It?
• Introduction To Alexa and Amazon Echo

Questions

If you have any questions please ask

Best Regards Steve

Setting up a device on a home network sometimes requires that you manually enter an IP address.

However an IP address alone isn’t sufficient as you will also be require to enter a subnet mask.

So what is a subnet mask and what does it do? and is it important? (more…)

A home router is responsible for connecting the home network to the Internet, and usually provides several important networking services like:

• DHCP
• DNS

Most home routers provide both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections for devices on the home network. (more…)

In the early days of networking splitting a network into segments required a router.

VLANS or Virtual LANS is a technology that allows you to split a home network into segments using low cost switches.

Generally a switch will send broadcast traffic to all connected ports, and will allow devices connected on any port to communicate with any other device. (more…)

Because the HTTP protocol is most common protocol on the Internet it has become the main protocol for controlling first generation smart home devices.

However HTTP is not the main protocol for IOT (Internet of things) devices.

The choice here is MQTT (MQ Telemetry Transport ) and this will also most likely become the main control protocol for home automation. (more…)

Mosquitto is a very lightweight broker and a Raspberry Pi can easily cope with MQTT traffic on clients on a smart home networks..

Mosquitto doesn’t come installed by default so you will need to install it. (more…)