Honestly, get a better router.
my router isn’t that bad. but since the only smart light switches i can find are wifi i’m a little concerned about it
How do you know it will slow down then?
because that’s what typically happens
How do you know until you try?
A quick count. I have 10x shelly 1, 7x sonoff mini, 15x sonoff basic, 2x sonoff rf bridge, 2x rflink with esprflink, 2x sonoff 4ch pro, 1 sonoff 4ch, 1 sonoff powr2, 1 sonoff rf, 1 gui10 bulb, 3 desktops, 3 laptops, 2 android tv sticks, 2 phones, 3 android tablets, 1 zigbee coordinator with esp, and probably some I forgot.
Can’t say my network is slow.
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Yeah it’s not like they are all downloading all the movies in the world or something.
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usually your computers/phones/tvs and other high bandwidth things would go onto 5GHz anyway where you can enjoy your hundreds of megs, or even gigabit over wifi.
What is your point?
I actually thought about setting up a separate WiFi router for HA stuff. Use a different channel to avoid interference. It’s not really a bad idea.
It would mostly be for convenience, although if you do a lot of video streaming over WiFi there might be some performance or reliability benefits for your HA devices to get them on their own router with a wired backhaul.
It could work well for a smallish house or apartment. But if you have to cover more area, multiple access points for all devices might make more sense.
My idea for home control is to get as close to the controlled device as I can, and use stuff “out of the box” vs fiddling with it (flashing new software, etc.) for the most part. I avoid bridges, hubs, or other arrangements where there’s “something else” between my controlled devices and my controller (Hass.io). We try to use Hass.io as the One Ring to rule them all!
I had a number of UBP switches and plugs. These require a “modem” (USB controller that plugs into the wall) that I had but there was spotty support in Hass.io. So I pulled them all out! To my mind, using MQQT adds another layer of abstraction which, even if it helped me, might be something I don’t need with a simple setup. The automations are fairly easy to do, so I didn’t need MQQT yet! And people here help a lot!
I got a RPi4, formatted the initial Hass install, then searched around here. It made sense for me to use one USB stick with 2 protocols. Once you get it running, you don’t need an HDMI connection, you run Hass.io headless and SSH/Samba into it if needed. All configs can be done via your web connection.
I use the Nortek HUSBZB-1 USB hub (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GJ826F8/). This USB dongle does Zigbee and Z-Wave.
My philosophy is to not have a single point of failure, so I could go to another USB hub and have separate ones for each protocol. But searching on this forum told me that Nortek was one of the approved (read “tested and working well”) dongles for Hass.io. But if, for some reason, Z-Wave or Zigbee were to be retired, I’d have options of using all one or the other, I’d just need to replace a few switches or sensors.
I don’t know if people do this, but I use a 6’ (or so) USB extension to get the RPi connected to the dongle. That lets me put it a little “up in the air” or not right next to the RPi. Plus, when the dongle’s right into the RPi, you run the risk of bending it or something if you drop something onto the RPi’s case.
I try to use the Zigbee protocol for GE-branded switches, and dimmers (hoping the name brand helps?). I try to use Z-Wave for sensors (like this 6-sensor model - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0151Z8ZQY/) or flood sensors, etc. but sometimes this model doesn’t work. For example, the only acceptable (for my taste and the aesthetics of the house) fan controller was the Honeywell Z-Wave one. As it turns out, that was good, as the fan I control is in the middle of the house, so this wired-in Z-Wave device acts like a repeater for Z-Wave devices elsewhere in the house. Conversely, the only acceptable (to me) outdoor motion sensors were the Philips Hue ones and these sensors are Zigbee ( https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-Hue-Outdoor-Smart-Wireless-Motion-Sensor-541730/308839410 ).
I’ve done a few automations for outdoor lights on at night, outdoor night brighter when motion’s detected, etc. I’ve integrated my Hikvision NVR and cameras, but I might try Blue Iris instead of the Hikvision NVR.
I still need to do a schedule for away, and home, and vacation, for example.
I don’t really like that for some devices, like my Honeywell thermostats I need to use API hooks to get to the thermostats. Meaning that if the Internet is busted, I won’t get data from my local thermostats while on Hassio (or the Honeywell app on my phone for, course!) but these types of integrations or components result from the manufacturer’s reluctance to publish the internal workings of their devices, so we need to rely on how the vendor decides. For example, the API for the thermostats had changed versions recently.
This causes the thermos to not work. But when others and myself noticed this, and posted, developers who work on HA were quick to find the issue and fix it. Much MUCH easier and quicker than waiting for months for the vendor to find an fix the issue! (thanks HA folks!) It was fixed in less than 3 days from first report!
My advice would be start small, try a few small, separate dimmers or controls before installing the regular electrical-box models. Don’t necessarily believe the “works with X (home automation)” in vendor’s collateral material as they usually mean “yeah, if you get the vendor’s bridge/hub”. Come to this forum and ask and answer others. You’ll prevent a large(er) Amazon bill! 
If you don’t understand something which may not be directly related to HA, feel free to pitch it here. Maybe you’ve got regular electrical questions, etc. which may be somewhat related. There are tons of people here to help.
Welcome to the community!
Regards,
Ambi
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@Ambidexter you are, of course, right up with the philosophy expounded by the team https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2016/01/19/perfect-home-automation/
I was searching for an open source home automation system and reading that blog post made up my mind almost immediately.
EDIT: PS it is MQTT not MQQT 
Hi,
Point taken, thanks. Now that I’m 6 weeks into this, I may check it ouTT!
Cheers,
Ambi
My opinion: MQTT is a point of failure, but once it is set up it is completely stable. It is also local and therefore not prone to the whims of some cloud server, or some API disappearing.
It also enables very easy integration of devices - you can build a widget on a microprocessor and use stable mqtt libraries to interface with home assistant or any other automation server. You do not have to write an integration for HA, a binding (or whatever it is called) for openhab and something else for node-red. It is the lingua franca of automation. It has probably accelerated the uptake of home automation more than any other single technology, and it is lightweight and privacy preserving.
It is certainly worth having a passing knowledge of
I may start using this. I’ve found our Rinnai water heater, which uses a Control-R module, uses plain, old JSON with no password! Whereas I can use the Rinnai app around the world, I’d sure like to get it controlled locally from hassio.
Regards,
Ambi