I see a lot of posts about people who like their Zigbee and Z-Wave products. As I’m setting up the hardware in my home, I’m using Wi-Fi products because I already have Wi-Fi. I don’t see much difference in price. What is the actual benefit of setting up a separate network for home devices? Is there a reason that I should consider setting up one of these networks?

  • Subdivide6857@midwest.socialEnglish
    1·
    7 hours ago

    Zigbee is wonderful. Be mindful of your network layout. Ensure you have plenty of routers strewn throughout, as it’s a mesh network.

    Most smart plugs are routers, which makes it easy. I’ve had great success with THIRDREALITY plugins.

    The best thing I’ve done: installed a POE coordinator in the center of my home. The SLZB-06M has been a champ.

    Two huge benefits of going with Zigbee over WiFi:

    1. Zigbee is offline.
    2. Adding WiFi devices adds more interference and congestion to your network, causing instability. Zigbee rides in the same spectrum, but just a sliver of it.

    More ip devices on your network also increases attack surface. Keep it simple.