Jan 23, 2023 | Home Technology, Cyber Security

You’re packed up for a trip, the luggage is in the car, and you’re headed to the airport. Everything is taken care of. Now to relax for the next week as you head to your favorite vacation destination.

But a few miles down the road, suddenly panic sets in. Did you turn off the stove? Did you close the garage door? Did you remember to put the living room lights on timers? What about turning down the thermostat because you don’t need to heat the house that much while you’re away? You knew it felt like you forgot something.

We’ve all had those moments when we are suddenly gripped with a sense of dread when all we want to do is enjoy our vacation.

If you live in a smart home, that fear vanishes. Just open your phone and check the app. Stove off? Check. Is the garage door closed? Check. Living room lights on timers? Check. Thermostat? Oops, you forgot to adjust, but you can do it on your way. Tap a few buttons. Problem solved. Now back to vacation mode.

Smarter Devices

In the old days – ten years ago – all those pre-vacation checklist items had to be completed manually in the midst of packing, getting the kids ready, and everything else that happens pre-vacation. And they were easy to forget. Once you were on the road, you had to either turn around and head back home to check or call a trusted neighbor to run by your house to make sure the stove was off and the garage door was closed.

Nowadays, thanks to smart devices and excellent internet connections, not only can you worry less about the pre-vacation tasks, but you can rest easy knowing you can see the status of your home while you’re away.

But it's not just about when you're on vacation. A smart home can give you peace of mind and save money anytime, whether you're away or at home.

Here are a handful of smart devices that can help keep your electronic life in order.

Video Doorbell

Wouldn’t it be nice to know who is at your front door while you’re on vacation or even while you’re just running errands? With a video doorbell, you can keep tabs on deliveries, solicitations, and anyone else who comes to your door. Many models of video doorbells trigger an alert to your phone as soon as someone gets within a certain distance of your door or rings the bell. You can ignore the person or engage them in a conversation through the device that makes it look like you’re home, even when you’re halfway around the world or right down the street.

A Bright Idea

Tom Edison likely never dreamed that over 100 years later his humble lightbulb would be so smart. But smart technology has changed his simple invention into a game-changer. Gone are the days of manually programming a mechanical timer to turn your living room lights on and off at night and in the morning to make burglars think you’re home when you’re not. Instead, screw a smart bulb into an ordinary lamp and program it from your phone to turn it on and off whenever you want.

And it’s not just for security. Many models let you set the mood for a party or just because you want to change the color and brightness, all from your phone or another smart device.

Heat It Up and Keep Your Cool

Adjust your thermostat without being home, or even when you are. Turn down the heat and crank up the AC when you’re away, saving money on your utility bills with a smart thermostat. Or maybe you’re already at home and want to make it hotter or cooler without getting off the couch. Pull out the phone, and voila! Adjust the temp a few degrees from across the room or across the house.

Some smart thermostats are so smart they will figure out your family’s patterns and adjust accordingly without you ever pushing a button.

Mesh Wi-Fi

Smart homes need smart Wi-Fi. Traditional extenders that most people have in their homes are not a bad option, but you can do better. Extenders are simply a passive way to extend the signal from the main router. And that’s about all they do. In fact, in a way, extenders can mess with your signal because they create a whole new network within your home, potentially causing confusion among devices as they move from room to room.

Mesh networks, on the other hand, are more advanced than extenders in two important ways:

1. They work off the main network instead of creating a new one, so your devices move seamlessly without changing networks.

2. They adjust the signal strength smartly according to where the wireless devices are throughout the home.

Additionally, mesh networks can be controlled by an app that lets you adjust the settings on any connected device.

Hey, Alexa!

If you’d rather talk than push a button, Alexa is listening. So is Google, Siri, and other smart home speakers that wait patiently for your next instruction. Just tell them what you need, and they’ll take care of the rest. With a smart speaker, you can put down the phone and still control all your devices.

Smart speakers can also serve as entertainment centers with built-in speakers and connections to your favorite music streaming services.

Fiber is Faster…and Smarter

With all these connected devices running at once, how does your current internet keep up? Chances are, it doesn’t, at least not well. It likely struggles a bit to keep up. Traditional internet connections, such as cable, DSL, or satellite, lack the bandwidth to manage a smart home and still provide enough speed for surfing, Zooming, gaming, and streaming. But fiber optic internet can more than handle it.

With speeds up to 65x faster than traditional internet access technologies, fiber optic internet delivers all the bandwidth you need to keep your smart home operating smoothly – which is, after all, just plain smart.

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