If you’ve built a smart home, you could have dozens of devices trying to access your network at once. For the most part, modern routers can handle this kind of traffic without much issue, but there are still some other reasons you might want a separate network for your IoT tech. Some routers can even create a dedicated IoT network alongside your main network to keep your devices separate without needing to use another router.

Keep your devices separated

If you want to keep your IoT devices apart from the devices on your primary network, using a separate network can do that. Most guest networks, for example, can remain isolated. This would prevent your smart home devices, for example, from seeing your PC or phone on your main network. More important than that though, you’ll be freeing up capacity on your main network for the devices that need them the most. For example, if you’ve got 50 IoT devices all trying to connect, your network performance could be significantly impacted, even if they’re not transmitting that much data.

If you’re using an entirely separate router for IoT, you'll free up a lot of capacity on your main router, especially if you choose to use a different band and narrower channel widths with your IoT network. With multiple devices connected to the same network, the router must switch between them. With enough devices connected, this could have a real impact on network performance. That being said, if you've only got a handful of IoT devices, a modern router should have no trouble keeping up with them all.

On the other hand, if you’re trying to control your smart home tech, like a smart speaker, over your local network, you’ll actually want it to be on your main network. While some speakers can be controlled over the internet and will work fine on an isolated network, it could be frustrating, especially if you want to use Chromecast, for example.

Make it easier to connect devices

One issue with IoT devices, whether you’ve made a server out of an old PC or have just picked up some smart home tech over the years, is that they may not play nice with the Smart Connect feature on modern routers which assigns a wireless band to a device, whether that’s 2.4GHz or 5GHz. With some older networks, this assignment may not happen as it should, and the device could end up with a bad connection.

If you’re setting up a separate IoT network, it could be made using only the 2.4GHz band, which is what most smart home tech is limited to anyway. Not only that, it could use a simpler password or an older security protocol. If you’re trying to move your main network over to WPA-2 to improve your security, an IoT network for your older devices could help with the transition. Home cybersecurity is important, and you shouldn’t use old security protocols on your main network just to keep a handful of IoT devices connected.

Many routers have an IoT network

A lot of routers ship with the option for an IoT network. The thing is, IoT networks aren’t all the same, and when you set them up there are some settings you should pay attention to. For example, some IoT networks will allow the devices connected to it to see the rest of your network, which you might be able to disable, so keep an eye out for that. Many, however, use the IoT network mainly to separate the IoT devices from your main network by sticking them on the 2.4GHz band. That frees up capacity for the most important devices, like a gaming PC, while still keeping your IoT devices accessible from your main network.

The IoT settings will vary by router, and many cheaper models won’t support IoT options at all. If you want the most flexibility out of your second network, your best bet is picking up a second router. You can stick with one of the best Wi-Fi routers for your primary network with plenty of capacity for fast downloads and streaming, alongside one of the best budget routers for your IoT devices.