-
Minor Inconvenience Causing Major Headache
One requirement for home automation is reliable Wi-Fi. When you live in a rural area that can be a problem. When you live in a rural area and have SMA it’s downright frustrating. Calling customer service is a feat in and of itself. Once I do reach a representative the first thing they have me do is unplug the router/modem. Luckily this isn’t my first rodeo and I have it plugged into an outlet I control with a remote. After powering it off then on again, some devices connect, some don’t. Of course they try upselling me saying I wouldn’t have problems if my speed was faster. It worked alright a couple weeks ago so I highly doubt that would solve my issues. Frustrated they weren’t listening I hung up.
Since some things connect I try the online chat help desk. They want me to unplug and plug back in the green cable. Easier said than done. After explaining I couldn’t access it I told them thanks anyway before disconnecting. Later that day everything mysteriously started working again. When I turned on the television I heard rumblings of an Amazon outage. Could this have been my problem? In a way I kind of hoped so because that means it’s not an issue on my end.
Unfortunately I’m having connection issues again. Waiting for my PCA to arrive I find something to watch using the actual remote since voice control is out. First I have her let Horton out because the door connected to Wi-Fi and isn’t responding. Then I have her disconnect and reconnect the green cable. At the moment everything is working, but for how long? My gut tells me it’s a modem/router issue but getting the internet company to concede will not be fun. If they do send me a new one it’ll be even more fun switching everything over. It’s already giving me a headache. Having to unplug and plug it back in daily isn’t exactly feasible though.
Do you have reliable internet? What do you do when you have connection issues?
-
4 Replies
-
Maybe a dumb thing, but you seem to be using WiFi and internet interchangeably, but they’re two separate things. Your internet could be fine, but WiFi is failing and vice versa. Your WiFi can work even if you don’t have internet, like I can disconnect the cable on my modem and can still control my lights with the app on my phone since I have a hue hub which doesn’t need the internet. Alexa does not seem to work without an internet connection however, so if that’s your main way of controlling things that would fail if either internet or WiFi is bad.
You can maybe hardwire your modem directly to a pc or laptop with an Ethernet cable and that would let you rule out if it’s the internet or not. Another way to check which might be failing is with your phone: I’m assuming it’s connected to your WiFi. It should have a symbol showing if the WiFi is still connected when you try to control something.
You might want to look into automation solutions that don’t require an internet connection. Samsung’s IoT setup (SmartThings) has added features recently to allow it to work without an internet connection, but I think you have to make sure to configure it all properly and would need to buy a hub. I don’t have a SmartThings hub so I can’t tell you how complicated it might be to set up.
Another thing, it sounds like you got your modem from the internet/cable company: If you have a tech person you trust, you could also maybe have them buy you your own modem/router. It usually starts saving you money after a year or two. When I switched to my own my modem fee was like $10/month and the modem I bought was only $110 and I used it for 4 years which would’ve been nearly $500 in rental fees (I did recently buy a new more expensive modem but even it’ll pay for itself in less than 2 years).
-
I get what you’re saying. Technology, especially explaining it, isn’t my strong suit. Unfortunately I rely on it so have to make it work. Thanks for the info. Definitely options to check into.
-
-
Well after writing that, I started looking more at SmartThings and apparently Samsung no longer makes the hub for it. I did find a brand of hub called Ezlo that can run completely offline and has a battery backup, but it is somewhat expensive (>$200). If you’re extremely reliant on home automation that might be a good thing to check out. (Again, I don’t have one, but it looks like exactly what you might want.)
-
Sigh, I guess the Ezlo thing isn’t great either (they don’t have great software). I should research before typing. There are still other brands, Hubitat seems to be pretty decent, but I’d just suggest searching for hubs that don’t need the internet and read all kinds of different reviews.
-
Log in to reply.