We love a nice smelling smart home so we were excited when we discovered the latest product by Febreze – Febreze Home. Febreze Home connects to your Wi fi via an app on your smart phone then lets you control the smell as well as automating it. It learns how ‘smelly’ you like your rooms, based on how often you boost the smell and makes it how you like it.

The clever part is it works with Nest meaning if you have Nest and you are not in and Away mode is on, less smell is used to prevent waste.

It also integrates with Nest protect – if an alarm is activated it flashes red and yellow if a heads-up is activated. This is a great idea!

Febreze Home also alerts you when smells are low.

Based on the website ( https://www.febrezehome.com/ )  it seems this is a USA focused release, we have asked them for info about the UK and will update you when we hear back.

The post Febreze Home – A lovely smelling Smart Home! appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

In this how to we are looking at Wi Fi channels and how to find the best one using your iPhone. Doing this can speed up your Wi Fi as well as improve the stability.

Stability and speed are important, especially if you want the best out of your Smart Home gadgets.

What are Wi Fi channels?

‘Traditional’ Wi-Fi  on the 2.4GHz spectrum operates 1 – 13 channels, within the 100 MHz total width of the 2.4 GHz spectrum.

Each channel is 20 MHz wide and there is 5 MHz gap between them, if you do the maths you can see they do not all fit without some overlap!

However channels 1,6,11 do not overlap by design so if possible use one of these channels.

Too many devices on the same channel or on over lapping channels can result in poor performance and speed.

How do I know what channel other networks are on using my iPhone – is there a iPhone Wifi Scanner?

1. Yes there is a free iPhone Wi fi analyser – created by Apple!

Open the App Store and search for ‘AirPort Utility’
2. Install it

3. Go into Settings > AirPort Utility

4. Enable Wi-Fi Scanner – this turns your iPhone into a wi fi scanner.

5. Open AirPort Scanner and select ‘Wi-Fi Scan’

6. Press Scan

7. Now look at the list, seeing what Channel each network is on, you are looking for numbers
1 – 13.

If the number is in the hundreds it runs on the 5GHz spectrum so ignore it.

Ideally you want to use 1,6 or 11 so see if these are free or less busy.

I know which channel I want to be on now what?

You need to go to the admin page of your router or hub and change the settings to choose that channel.

The post How to choose the best Wi-Fi channel for your home appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.