If you don’t know anything about networks and routers and your technician has configured the device, it’s better not to touch anything, leave everything as it is and connect to the Internet normally. But if you want to improve the WiFi in your home and get the most out of it, and you feel capable of doing so (it’s not difficult), there are reasons why it’s a good idea to have several WiFi networks in the same home , each with a function or reason.
“Many years ago I used a single WiFi network at home for everything, since guests did not usually ask to connect to the wireless network, however, with the popularization of home automation devices this has changed, and now I have a total of three networks WiFi for different uses”, explains Sergio de Luz in Redes Zone. So that? We explain it to you.
Generally, having a WiFi network is enough if you make normal or basic use of it. But most current routers allow us to create several different networks, whether you have bought it yourself or if it is a device that the operator has installed for you. This allows us to divide according to the type of device or according to use…
Your main network
The first would be a main network that allows us to work, generally, in two bands. And most routers are smart and automatically switch between the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band as needed. We will have a single WiFi network in both bands thanks to the fact that the router itself connects us as necessary. But we can also choose to separate the bands with different SSIDs to know which one to connect to manually and not let the router choose. So we can connect whenever we want to the 5 GHz network to have more speed , for example, even if we are further away and have less range.
In any case, this will be our main network and the one that we will use in most of the devices from which we connect. I mean, your laptop, your phone…
Specific network for Smart Home devices
Not only the mobile or the laptop are devices that connect to the Internet, but there are other devices that are connected at home. The vacuum cleaner, smart bulbs, lights, plugs, motion sensors and much more. In this case, the advice is to create a specific network for these devices. Most of them use the 2.4 GHz band, so we will create a new network in this band in the router and we will isolate them from the rest to have it better organized.
As the expert explains, it doesn’t make sense if you only have two or three. But they accumulate and you have bulbs, plugs, sensors, IP cameras… In this case, we can have better control of them if we separate them.
The Guest Network
There is also a third network, which we have already talked a lot about. As its name suggests, it consists of making an independent network with another name or SSID so as not to allow guests who come home to connect to the one where all our devices are, and we don’t have to give them our password either. We can activate it (and it is advisable, in fact) only when they come home and it should not always be activated if you are not going to have guests.
In addition, we can configure it with passwords that are easier to dictate or we can assign or limit the bandwidth so that our guests do not go overboard with downloads and browsing when they connect to the Internet at home.
