Hope this is the right category for this question; there was no obvious choice to me. My wi-fi is old (N300) and crappy. I have a wired router (TP-Link RL-470T) that’s been great and 100% trouble-free but the two TL-WA-801N WAPs (one at each end of the house) that provide wi-fi have never been great and since reliability is a key element of home automation, I think it’s time that I upgraded my system. I’d like to get your thoughts and input on the following, please…
- What have you done to insure the reliability of your home automation efforts from a networking perspective?
- Do you use/recommend static IP addresses and/or DHCP reservations?
- Are the new mesh systems better/worth the money?
- What about using wi-fi (especially with a mesh setup?) to track who’s home and movement within the house?
- Anyone using/recommend powerline products/systems? (I’m particularly intrigued by the ones that combine a WAP with 2 or 3 Ethernet ports.)
- If you were revamping your network today, what would you buy?
- Any other thoughts/suggestions?