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Forum Discussion
Orbi router & satellite (RBK50) plus nighthawk X8 plus nighthawk extender ac1900
Good morning all- I’m currently using an orbi RBK50 system. The base station is in my office (upstairs), and the satellite is also upstairs in our game room. I have a PS4 and a few other devices wi...
Swiedeback wrote:
A second question. I’ve got a smartthings system linked in to the main orbi router, and when I’m done building it out, I’ll have 75+ zigbee & Z-wave devices linked in to it.
Is there any advantage to setting up a separate SSID exclusively for that system?
So there is some kind of controller for these IoT - where none does connect direct to WiFi. Shouldn't a controller for tis automation system be connected by Ethernet? And then, don't you expect being able to reach that contoller from other systems on your (W)LAN?
- The smartthings hub (via a dongle that links to an nvidia shield) is directly wired to the Ethernet. In short, it goes ST dongle —-> nvidia shield —-> Ethernet wired to orbi base unit. I’ve got a switch for other stuff, but I believe that one is Ethernet wired directly into the orbi base unit.
I believe ST talks independently to the individual IOT devices from the Wi-Fi (via either zigbee or z-wave).
I just didn’t know if there was any advantage to putting the Smartthings system on its own SSID. Right now with the two orbi units I’ve got a single combined SSID. I don’t think that the ST setup draws enough bandwidth to mess with the other devices on the combined orbi SSID, but I thought I’d ask if anyone has more experience with that in this area.The advantage with a single SSID is simplicity. Multiple SSIDs still share the same chan/band and will only hurt performance, which you will not notice it in normal use, but only when your wireless game/gig starts acting up. If you can offload them to a separate AP, that would be best.
schumaku wrote:
Swiedeback wrote:
A second question. I’ve got a smartthings system linked in to the main orbi router, and when I’m done building it out, I’ll have 75+ zigbee & Z-wave devices linked in to it.
Is there any advantage to setting up a separate SSID exclusively for that system?So there is some kind of controller for these IoT - where none does connect direct to WiFi. Shouldn't a controller for tis automation system be connected by Ethernet? And then, don't you expect being able to reach that contoller from other systems on your (W)LAN?
Zigbee and Zwave devices are not enumerated by a router.... they are controlled instead by a single hub -- which may or may not be connected to your IP based network, so you could have one or a thousand Zwave devices and they would react the same.
As an example, my zwave devices are controlled by an alarm system and have no physical connection to the router. Zwave devices do not ride on an 802.11 network, they form their own mesh network on a different frequency.
In your case, you may have a zwave controller connected to your router, but it is just a single device no matter how many locks, lights and sensors you may have.
