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

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?

Questions

If you have any questions please ask

Best Regards Steve

Multicast DNS is part of Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) set of technologies designed to enable devices to work on networks without manual setup.

Multicast DNS is used to locate a device or service by name on a small local network without using a preconfigured name sever i.e DNS.

Originally developed by Apple it goes under the name of Bonjour. It is an Internet standard Multicast DNS RFC 6762.

Multicast DNS uses the same packet structure and commands as DNS, but doesn’t rely on a user configured DNS server. (more…)

DNS (Domain name Service) is a service that provides domain name to IP address resolution for computers on the Internet.

All of these computers have a public domain name assigned by the internet authority ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). (more…)

Zigbee2MQTT is a nodejs Gateway application that connects Zigbee networks to MQTT networks.

It is run from the command line but can also be started as a service on startup.

Because it is written in nodejs it will run on Windows and Linux (Raspberry Pi). (more…)

Tasmota devices can be controlled by both HTTP and MQTT.

If you don’t have an MQTT broker or don’t want to use one then you can still control your Tasmota devices using node-red.

To do this you need to use the http request node which is one of the core nodes.

The http request node can be used for. (more…)

HTTP is currently probably the most widely used control protocol on home networks.

To troubleshoot control problems, and to develop your own a control Dashboards and control applications you will need a basic knowledge of HTTP. (more…)