this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Building a smart home in 2023, where to start? (kbin.social)
submitted 2 years ago by Realtrain@kbin.social to c/tech@kbin.social
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Hey all, we're moving into a new place soon and I want to start making it a smart home. I have some experience with wifi-based smart bulbs from TP-Link Kasa and a ring camera, but that's about it. I need to update the switches in the house anyway, so I figure that's a good place to start.

A few details:

  • The house was built in the early 60s, so I'm guessing no neutral wires. (It doesn't look like most of the switches have been updated since it was built)

  • All the bedrooms have overhead fans with just a single switch controlling them. Is there any way to use smart tech to control the fan and light separately? This isn't a huge priority, but would be nice even if it's in the distant future.

  • I use Google Home

  • While I consider myself probably technical enough to figure out and set up something like Homeassistant, complex automation is not my goal (right now). Voice command and remote command via smartphone is the primary concern.

  • I have no hubs/thread border router right now.

  • I'd very much prefer something that will last / something that I won't need to update or replace after a few years. (I'm not very familiar with the longevity of the software running some of these smart home options. I've had a couple Kasa bulbs for over 5 years, but I'm not sure if that's common or not.)

  • I think there are a lot of unknown unknowns for me. This is an area of tech I just haven't kept up with.

I'm just a bit lost, and with reddit gone I'm not sure what to trust. Any guidance on where to start would be very appreciated!

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[โ€“] dragna@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I cannot recommend setting up a pi-hole or something similar more before getting started on anything else.

My friend set up a whole bunch of really nice smart features in his apartment, and separately set up a pi-hole as he was beginning to build out his NAS/plex server to be remotely accessible. One of the many things he found out was that his lightbulbs were pinging back and forth 100s of times an hour with a server in China that his pi-hole was able to start filtering/blocking. I don't know if he ever set up any packet sniffing to see what exactly was being communicated with all those pings, but you can never be too safe with this stuff.

[โ€“] panzer@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I use Technitum DNS server to block but take a couple more steps.

I have a IoT block group that blocks them from WAN.

Then I point them at a dummy gateway and DNS server.
Actual gateway is 10.0.1.1 dummy 10.0.1.99 and use the same for the DNS.

I know I should use vlans but a lot services have issues jumping vlans.