How many smart home devices and sensors can connect to a single access point before I look to add another WiFi access point?

S

somus

Novice
I'm slowly adding smart home switches, sensors, and bulbs throughout my apartment. Right now there are about 12 devices that connect to a single WiFi router. There are about 10 more sensors and switches that I have ordered and will set up soon. After that, there'll be over 20 devices connecting to a single access point. Would that cause connection drops or should I look into adding an access point?
 
Which access point do you have?

Earlier when I worked in a small office there was a single Ubiquiti access point serving some 30-40 devices without any issues.
 
Mr.J said:
Which access point do you have?

Earlier when I worked in a small office there was a single Ubiquiti access point serving some 30-40 devices without any issues.
Click to expand...
Nothing fancy, TP-link archer c6. I'm not sure if that'll be able to handle that many devices like Ubiquiti does
 
Smart home devices don't transfer a lot of data and it's not a concern for normal home routers. You can theoretically connect as many as you want as long as they're within the DHCP pool range, so technically 253 if range is from 1-255 (both exclusive). Just make sure the range is good. Place devices within 65% signal strength, beyond that you may see connection drops.

Some routers may have a configurable max device limit which you can check in router settings. If you don't find it then maybe that limit doesn't exist.
 
Put all your IoT devices on the 2.5GHz network, and your streaming devices on 5GHz network. That's it.
The only practical reason to get another AP is if your home has WiFi deadzones
 
enthusiast29 said:
Smart home devices don't transfer a lot of data and it's not a concern for normal home routers. You can theoretically connect as many as you want as long as they're within the DHCP pool range, so technically 253 if range is from 1-255 (both exclusive). Just make sure the range is good. Place devices within 65% signal strength, beyond that you may see connection drops.

Some routers may have a configurable max device limit which you can check in router settings. If you don't find it then maybe that limit doesn't exist.
Click to expand...
I've placed the WiFi router at a central location in the apartment to make sure there is good coverage throughout the house. From your answer, sounds like I shouldn't face any problems. I'll make sure to check the router settings to see if there's a maximum device limit. Thanks for clearing that up!
 
n1r0 said:
Put all your IoT devices on the 2.5GHz network, and your streaming devices on 5GHz network. That's it.
The only practical reason to get another AP is if your home has WiFi deadzones
Click to expand...
None of them don't support 5GHz anyway and all of the laptops, and phones are connected to 5GHz only. AFAIK, there aren't any deadzones. So, I'll probably don't need another AP
 
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