Flying was a pleasure meant only for birds or for fools jumping off a cliff with homemade wings. The stuff of fancy and fantastical tales. In 1903, a couple of brothers put that kind of talk to rest with the first flights of their Flyer in North Carolina.

Computers in the home was something only seen in science-fiction films until a few kids got together in one of their parents’ garage and created a little thing they called the Apple I. According to Forrest Gump, that little “fruit company” has done quite well since those days.

Staying on that theme, folks used to think that teleportation was only possible in Star Trek, but just yesterday I was beamed from my local transporter to our secret moon base in no time flat! It was really — uh oh! I’m not supposed to talk about that yet . . . just forget you read that last paragraph, please.

Nothing to see here. Moving on.

The point is that when it comes to technology, fiction can often become reality. The fiction of being able to automate our homes became a reality a few decades ago, but it was something only the very (and I do mean very) well-heeled could afford. Since the advent of the smartphone (there’s that “fruit company” again) and the proliferation of cellular networks, we have had greater access to each other and our world than we’ve ever dreamed. As smartphones and apps have grown in popularity, so has the need to use them in ways many of us couldn’t have conceived of before. Today we not only can make calls and send texts, but we also use our smartphones (and tablets) for watching movies, catching up on the news, checking weather forecasts, viewing live sporting events, listening to our favorite music, and many more tasks that Isaac Asimov couldn’t have thought of.

Wi-Fi networks and the Internet have also opened the door (in some cases literally) to a whole new level of home accessibility: using our smart devices and apps with our home’s Wi-Fi network to remotely control and automate tasks in our home. You can use your iOS or Android device to adjust the temperature, set the mood with customized lighting schemes, preheat the oven so you can cook your meal the moment you walk in the door, and even tell your lawn mower to start cutting your grass. That’s just scratching the surface of what you can do with today’s smart home automation technology — and in this book, I happily tackle the subject with you.

About This Book

This book introduces you to the smart home revolution, which is today’s way of automating and/or remotely controlling common, everyday tasks via your smartphone or tablet (and in some cases, your computer), your home’s Wi-Fi network, and the Internet. My aim throughout the tome is to explain why you want to automate, how you can do so, and just what you can accomplish with it. This book also shows you a multitude of the aforementioned tasks that you can accomplish using automation and/or remote control, and how to go about the process of automating those tasks. I discuss not only tasks and the technologies, but also the companies that are the major players in today’s emerging smart home market.

The For Dummies series of books has been helping folks (like me) make the most of technology and other things that enhance our lives when we are properly taught how to utilize them, and I’ve written this book using those wonderful time-tested methods. The organization of this series is stuff of legend, and I’ve made sure not to deviate from them. Feel free to jump around as you like, or follow along in exact page order — whatever suits your needs. After all, this book is for you to learn about smart home automation, and it’s designed to help folks at various levels learn as they see fit.

Some items in the book, such as sidebars and Technical Stuff, are simply there because I thought they were neat. Don’t get me wrong, they do contain helpful information, but feel free to skip them if you like.

You’ll find this book is absolutely chock-full of URLs (otherwise known as webpage addresses) that you can use to check out the products I discuss. All of them were functional at the time of this writing, but trust me when I say that URLs can — and do — change often.

While reading this book, you may notice that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these webpages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist (this might be hard for some English majors, but give it a try anyway). If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to go directly to the webpage.

Foolish Assumptions

Dear reader, you assume a certain amount of knowledge and expertise from me as the author of this book. I, too, have certain expectations of you, my audience, when it comes to your ability to put the information contained herein to good use.

I assume that you are familiar with the Internet, and have at least a cursory knowledge of your home’s Wi-Fi network (which I also naturally assume you have). If you don’t know diddly about either of these things, you’ll definitely want to bone up on the subjects before delving into this tome too deeply. I don’t expect you to know how to create a website, how to run Ethernet cable throughout your home, or how to set up a network that even the federal government couldn’t crack into. However, you should at least know how to surf the web and how to successfully connect to and use your computer and smart devices, like phones and tablets, with your Wi-Fi network.

If at this point you’re wondering what all this talk is about computers and smart devices, my advice to you is to immediately put this book down after completing this paragraph. Next, peruse your local bookstore (I’m safely assuming you’re not reading this book’s introduction on Amazon.com) for other For Dummies titles that will catch you up to the rest of the world in those subjects of interest. When you’re ready, I’ll be here waiting to guide you on into the wonderful world of the smart home.

I do not assume that you have any clue about how to rewire your home’s electrical system or network cabling. For the record, neither is required to perform any of the tasks in this book.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book I highlight items that I think deserve your attention just slightly outside of what I discuss in the primary material, or maybe I expand on a topic. I use the following icons to accomplish this:

Give close attention to items beside this icon. They generally will help you achieve results being covered more easily, or may help you avoid pratfalls in the process. Tips also may point you in a different direction entirely.

I know folks who use anything from reminders on their smartphones to writing notes on their hands with Sharpies to make sure they don’t forget important goings-on. The Remember icon is the For Dummies way of doing something along those lines, helping you to remember important things relevant to the topic at hand.

When you see this icon, watch out! There’s something here that I really want to alert you to regarding the current topic of discussion. An example would be if a certain home automation protocol would conflict with other protocols in your current home automation setup, I would certainly make you privy to that knowledge in a Warning icon.

Geeks rejoice! This icon alerts you to items that may be of interest to you in your quest for home automation. Topics featured with this icon may or may not be exactly relevant to the one being discussed in the chapter, or may be something pertaining to topical trivialities. I just couldn’t help myself and thought you might be interested in them, so there.

Beyond the Book

I’ve put a ton of information between the covers of this book, but there’s even more information that you can access on www.dummies.com, such as

• I provide you with a Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/homeautomation that lists the following:
  • The best home lighting devices
  • The top smart thermostats
  • Wi-Fi routers to use with your smart home automation system
• You also will find extra helpful online articles at www.dummies.com/extras/homeautomation that discuss
  • The best smartphones and tablets
  • Streaming media providers
  • Ten top whole-home automation companies (they do all the work for you, in other words)
  • A list of links to all the outdoor home automation products I mention in Chapters 11 and 12

Where to Go from Here

I wrote Home Automation For Dummies with the idea in mind that you, dear reader, would be able to tackle the subject either in the order that it’s written or in bits and bites as you desire. In other words, there is no one way in which you must read this book. I will say, however, that if you’re a complete newbie at this whole smart home thing, you’ll be best served to start at Part I; from there you’ll have enough of a frame of reference to understand the subjects in the other four parts.

Congratulations on automating and remotely controlling your home. Ain’t technology great? I guarantee you’ll think so when you’re enjoying a nice evening on the town with a loved one and you receive a text from your robotic lawn mower letting you know the mowing has been finished.