Planning guides for home projects, connected-home technology, and small workspaces. Use the filters below to browse by topic.
Showing 161–180 of 212 Smart Home & Tech guides · 20 per page
Smart Home & Tech · Privacy and security
Face a lamp or a window for a holiday video call, with the shade bare and the cord off the walk. Ask before anyone is in the background, and do not post children.
Smart Home & Tech · Smart devices
Rename a guest’s device with a first name they agreed to, then delete it when they leave. Do not read their traffic or hand them the router admin password.
Smart Home & Tech · Wi-Fi and networking
Test smoke and CO alarms with the buttons on the units before you cook. A phone alert is extra. If you do not know why an alarm is sounding, go outside and call.
Smart Home & Tech · Home office tech
Give a visiting worker a door, a headset, and the encrypted guest network. Do not share the admin password, bypass their work VPN, or point a camera at the desk.
Smart Home & Tech · Privacy and security
Copy holiday photos to the backup you already use and open two of them from that copy. Do not wipe the phone first, post the whole roll, or photograph passwords.
Smart Home & Tech · Smart devices
Put the game on Ethernet if the cable stays out of the kitchen, and keep guests on their own encrypted network. Pause other downloads. Do not open a port or flip a breaker because...
Smart Home & Tech · Wi-Fi and networking
Let overnight guests sleep on the night setting you already use, and pause an empty-house setback until they leave. Do not track their phones or put a heater under the bed.
Smart Home & Tech · Home office tech
Send the robot vacuum to its dock before you cook or serve. Leave its sensors on, keep the dock out of the exit, and do not let it tug a cooker cord.
Smart Home & Tech · Privacy and security
Turn the speaker down and tell guests it is in the room. Mute or unplug it for a private talk. Do not listen in on a bedroom or let a voice command cut power to a cooker.
Smart Home & Tech · Smart devices
Charge phones on one strip on a hard table, with the cord along the wall. Do not cover warm chargers, share the strip with a roaster, or count phones from the amp rating.
Smart Home & Tech · Wi-Fi and networking
Hand guests the guest-network name and a password you will throw away. Leave door codes and the router admin password off the card. Tear the card up when they leave.
Smart Home & Tech · Home office tech
Tell relatives the doorbell sees your door, and keep the camera aimed at that door. Do not post them, share the owner password, or treat the clip history as a tracker.
Smart Home & Tech · Privacy and security
Time the oven with its own timer or a phone alarm. Do not put the range, a pressure cooker, or a smoke alarm on a smart plug. Someone who can use the controls stays home.
Smart Home & Tech · Smart devices
Sit a family video call near the router or on a cable that stays out of the walk, and pause a big download. Do not turn security off or invent a bandwidth percentage.
Smart Home & Tech · Wi-Fi and networking
Give Thanksgiving guests their own encrypted Wi-Fi name and a password you can change when they leave. Do not share the main password, open the network, or forward a port.
Smart Home & Tech · Home office tech
Write down which plugs, hours, and lights were in the Halloween scene. Leave passwords and breaker photos out. Test the scene again next year.
Smart Home & Tech · Smart devices
A geofence may turn on an extra light when your own phone gets home. It must not unlock the door or track guests. The porch switch still works if location is wrong.
Smart Home & Tech · Home office tech
Dim screens with the phone’s own setting if you want. Leave porch and hallway lights on. This is not a sleep treatment and not a reason to cover a lamp.
Smart Home & Tech · Privacy and security
Charge phones on a hard table, on intact chargers, with one strip into the wall. Do not charge under a blanket or daisy-chain strips.
Smart Home & Tech · Smart devices
Give décor plugs their own schedule and leave the porch lamp on a switch. Do not move them to an open network or stack a timer on the smart plug.
Page 9 of 11