In many blogs, you’ll read about the features and benefits of smart products or homes, but we say confidently that you should be just as informed about how to protect your Keller, TX home, and use home networking as a security tool.

In this blog, we will discuss how you can use home networking to ensure that your data is safe and without risk of being tapped into. Keep your property safe from cyber-attacks by reading more below.

See Also: The Essential Piece to Your Smart System

Network Name & Password: Don’t name your network after something obvious (family name, address). Moreover, create a password that won’t be easily-guessed by others; or, alternatively, randomly generate a string of letters, numbers, and symbols. All your devices are tied to the same network in your home, so taking this first step to protecting them is key.

Traffic-Encryption: When your network encrypts the traffic running through, it shuffles the messages sent through your network. Even if tapped into, they can’t decipher the info. Devices should have matching encryption to ensure that they can still communicate.

There’s nothing quite like the experience of watching a classic Hollywood movie or listening to your favorite music playlist in the comfort of your own home. But can your home network support the plethora of devices and streaming activities that your family uses on a daily basis including laptops, game consoles, Blu-ray players, smartphones, tablets, televisions, video streaming and game downloads? The typical home network is slow and inconsistent. Isn’t it time you upgraded? Read on to learn more about inviting the future of tech into your home.

Support 4K Streaming

Televisions are getting bigger, and prices are coming down—in particular, 4K ultra high-definition TVs. But what good is a fancy, new 4K TV if your network doesn’t have the bandwidth to support your family’s streaming habits? Greater download speeds will transform the way you watch TV and open up a world of crisp color that is sure to make your friends jealous. Slow download speeds result in buffering issues and lag time, which no doubt you have experienced.  

SEE ALSO: Are You Making these Home Networking Mistakes?

An additional piece of information to be aware of is that internet service providers (ISP) often put a cap on the total amount of data that a customer can use each month. These caps present a problem when it comes to streaming live video. If your ISP limits your data usage to 50 or 200 GB per month, you could quickly reach your limit when live streaming. 

When installing a smart system in your Keller, TX home, regardless of how small or big you’re starting, we want to make sure that it’s going to work exactly the way it’s supposed to 100 percent of the time. One way we can ensure this is by having a good home network established.

A smart home needs a solid network to function. With a smart system, all your products and devices — like security systems, smart lights, window shades, thermostats, televisions, speakers and more — are connected through one central control system. This system facilitates the communication between devices via your home network.

You may already use your home network for something as simple as internet access. But is it ready to carry a much heavier load with each additional smart device? The fact that your home network plays such a huge role in the functionality of your devices is why it’s imperative to ensure that you have a reliable one.

It’s tempting to think that setting up your smart system means just installing the products and then assuming they’ll be fully functional from there on out. However, your home network should be considered as another vital piece of the puzzle during installation.  

Here are a few of the reasons why a home network is so valuable and essential to your smart home system.

These days, you can find just about anything you could possibly need for home networking at your local electronics store. They’ve got routers, wireless access points, Ethernet cables…you name it. Yet despite the availability of DIY home network solutions, savvy Texas homeowners still consistently opt for a professional installation, and with good reason. If you’re questioning whether to DIY your own networking solution or invest in a professional network installation for your Westlake area home, then read on.

Smart Homes Require More than the Minimum

It’s tempting to grab the cheapest router on the shelf, set it up with the default settings, and call it a day, but if you’re planning on using your network with multiple smart devices, that process simply isn’t going to cut it. DIY is still possible, but be prepared to do extensive research on the best products, setup, and maintenance for smart home success.

There are several aspects of a professional installation that you simply cannot get with a DIY solution, and they all boil down to the level of knowledge and experience that comes from working in the home automation and networking industry.

SEE ALSO: 3 Signs Your Smart Home’s Network Probably Isn’t Cutting It

The Benefits of Each Option

DIY home network installations definitely have some worth. They don’t cost as much (although keep in mind the value of your time spent on research and manual labor), and they offer you an opportunity to stretch your technical skills and create something incredibly useful. However, these benefits pale in comparison to the security, reliability, and ease of having a professional installation.

Most homes in the Dallas, Texas area have a network of some sort. With so many internet-connected devices available now, there’s no denying that a network is an essential part of everyday life. So why are networking issues so common? If you want to avoid making the mistakes that so often result in an unreliable, unsecure, and glitchy home network, then read on.

Mistake One: Thinking “Off the Shelf” is Good Enough

With networking equipment, you absolutely get what you pay for. The standard routers you find in your local electronics store might be adequate for a home without any smart home automation devices, but if you’re the type of person who embraces the Internet of Things, you’ll have much better luck with a professional system. Professional-grade networking is about more than high-quality equipment (although that plays a big role). It’s about finding the right equipment for your needs – both today and for the future.

Mistake Two: Not Changing the Default Settings

Although networking companies are getting better about giving unique default usernames and passwords, the most common combination is still admin, admin. In fact, it’s easy to find complete lists of the default login IP addresses, usernames, and passwords for all the popular networking brands.

So what does this mean for you? It means that if someone wants to gain access to your network, they can do it in less than a minute. After hacking into your network, they’ll be able to see all the data transferred to and from your computer as well as track some web pages you’re viewing. It could be a very big problem, but fortunately, it’s easy to avoid: just update the default settings with a secure username and password that’s not easily guessable.

SEE ALSO: 5 Questions to Ask When Upgrading Your Home Network

Connected devices have exploded in popularity in recent years. With the rise of the Internet of Things, devices communicate with each other throughout your Southlake, Texas home, from your refrigerator to your speakers. Many times when these products malfunction, it's not because of faulty manufacturing but rather a bad network. As people upgrade their technology, they fail to improve what matters most: the home network that serves as its foundation. In this blog, we guide you through some of the questions you need to ask to make sure your network is up to the task.

SEE MORE: What Are Some Perks of Living in a Smart Home?

How Do You Plan to Use Your Network?

The first step is knowing what you want out of your network. The hardware offered by your internet service providers works fine for basic functions: checking emails, browsing the web, watching videos on your computer, etc. However, if you are planning on using it as part of a connected home, you’re going to need an upgrade.

Sometimes, it may be enough to add a couple of routers and invest in a more expensive internet package to bolster your signal. Sometimes you need to upgrade to a router that can handle bigger bandwidths (if you expect to do a lot of media streaming, for example). In the case of a connected home, you may even need subnetworks called VLANS to divide up your traffic.

In our last blog, we talked about the aspects of a smart home that are absolutely essential, and a strong home network came in at #4. There’s a good reason for it: without a professional network installation, your home is going to have a hard time handling the demands of modern smart devices, such as televisions streaming 4K video. So how do you know if your Colleyville, Texas home network needs an upgrade? See if the three common issues outlined below sound familiar.

SEE MORE: 5 Questions to Ask When Upgrading Your Home Network

1. You Only Have Wi-Fi in Certain Areas of Your Home

This is a sure-fire sign that your home doesn’t have good coverage in every room. Most likely, the areas nearest to your router have Wi-Fi access, but the further away you go, the harder it is to connect. Especially in larger homes, this can be a big problem. Obviously, you want to be able to use your home’s Wi-Fi no matter where you are on the property, from the patio to the bedrooms. A networking expert can analyze your home and identify the best spots to install network bridges or wireless access points – devices that boost the wireless signal from your router for even coverage.

1. You Don’t Have Any Network Security

What kind of security do you have set up for your network? If your answer is “I don’t know,” there’s a good chance that you don’t have any protections at all. Your network and all of the connected smart devices in your home need to be secured so that only you and authorized individuals can access them.

Even if you don’t keep any sensitive information on your computer (and let’s face it: most of us do), a determined hacker might be able to access other sensitive areas of your home, such as security cameras, if the network is not secured. We can work with you to not only set up the firewalls, virus protection, and other security features, but also to ensure that all of the smart devices in your home are prepared against network security threats.