While you’re away on vacation this summer, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your home is safe from harmful predators (such as robbers) or from a natural disaster. While this could certainly be a source of stress for travelers, it doesn’t have to be, thanks to the technology we have available to us. Explore different ways to leverage technology to ensure that your home is safe while you’re away, so that you have the peace of mind you need.

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Ring Video Doorbell
If people approach your front door while you’re away, this gadget immediately alerts you and also shows you who is there, even if you’re not physically home. You can even use the app to speak to whoever is at the door, which is helpful because it gives off the idea that you are present, even if you’re thousands of miles away. This device has features such as HD video recording, movement detectors, and instant mobile alerts.

Maximus Smart Security Light
This is not your average motion-trigger light. Wherever it is placed around your home, it’s two-way speaker and Wi-Fi enabled camera send real-time alerts to your smartphone as soon as movement is detected, which allow you to see who is there and speak to them, too. The other perk to these lights is that they come in a wide range of styles, so they’ll fit in with virtually any home!

Vivitar Deluxe Home Automation Starter Kit
This three-piece kit has what it takes to keep watch of the inside of your house while you are away. This kit comes equipped with a two-way microphone, motion detection, and night vision multi-angle cameras. The kit also consists of a Smart Plug, which allows you to control your appliances remotely. Gone are the days of worrying about whether or not you turned off that stove! The Smart Light Bulb fits in any standard socket and allows you to monitor motion and temperature via your smartphone. Talk about a kit that does it all!

1. Check the Status of Your Wi-Fi

The best way to figure out if your Internet is running at its full capacity is by using DFNDR’s Wi-Fi Check feature. Wi-Fi Check will test your network speed, download speed, connectivity, DNS security, and network security. That way, you’ll be able to easily tell if you’re getting the most out of your Wi-Fi. Click above to check your network speed right now.

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2. Move Your Router

You might not realize that your router’s placement in your house affects how well it works. That means that you don’t want to hide your router behind doors or in cabinets. Instead, place your router out in the open, where it can stand without obstructions. If you can elevate your router, do so. Move it to the highest floor of your house or else put it on a cabinet that’s above all other objects. Also, make sure it is at the center of your home for the best connection. Finally, situate the router’s antennas so they are perpendicular.

3. Don’t Let Other Appliances Interfere

One of the biggest reasons that routers don’t work as well as they should is because of appliances that interfere with your reception. Things that you might not expect to cause problems are cordless phones and microwaves. These appliances can suck your signal. One way to improve this problem is by buying a dual band router. If that’s not an option for you, simply move the router away from other appliances.

4. Prioritize Certain Applications Over Others

We bet there’s someone in your house who streams a lot of shows from Netflix or plays online games for hours. Think about all of the smartphones, tablets, game consoles, TVs, appliances, etc. that you have connected to the Internet at all times. Obviously, these activities absorb a lot of bandwidth on communal devices. To stop some of these Internet hogs, you can use a Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize certain applications, like Internet browsers, over others, or specific video chat applications. You can also turn off access to the Internet for certain devices and appliances when you’re not using them.

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The Danger of the Internet of Things

Household appliances — and even plant pots — can now connect to the Internet. Our phones, TVs, and security cameras connect to the Internet. That’s a lot of connectivity. It can also create a lot of problems. You can run a quick Internet search about the security of your Internet of Things devices. Common issues or vulnerabilities will appear — something thieves and hackers will want to take advantage of.

With our constantly changing technology, it might be too much for the Internet of Things to keep up with breaches. Dyn, the world’s biggest DNS provider, was attacked back in October 2016. The DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack was formed by a botnet of millions of Internet of Things devices. The goal? To get onto the pages of Dyn users and collapse several sites like Twitter, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, leaving them dark.

How to Protect Your Home

Feeling worried? You should be. Fortunately, you can do things to better protect yourself. Look into the manufacturer of the Internet of Things products you buy. There should be frequent security updates, bug fixes, and stellar support.

Further, change default usernames and passwords. It doesn’t take long, and it will significantly cut down on your vulnerability. Purchase a firewall device to help block any would-be attackers. It’s one more way to make your house too difficult to mess with. It is worth the bit of extra effort, don’t you think?

Google Assistant
By far one of Google Home’s best features is its intelligence. Unlike Amazon Echo, Google Home allows you to search Google, control your smart home, and manage your affairs through Google Assistant, the smartest assistant around. Google Assistant can learn your behaviors and preferences (like with Google Now), for a more pleasant and satisfying experience with the smart hub. Those are features that Amazon Echo simply can’t compete with.

Read More: How to Best Utilize Google’s Voice Assistant

Google Assistant can manage your calendar’s events, online orders, travel itinerary, and all of your Google-related questions. Google Assistant understands what you want to know and can provide you with quick answers to your questions (from a Google search), in addition to information from any follow-up questions. It can even read you passages of text from a web page. Try asking it questions about monetary conversions, text translations, or even the schedule of a local movie theater.

Google Home As a Speaker
Google Home works as a Wi-Fi speaker for playing music. Connect your phone to play music from your phone, or ask Google Assistant to play music from services like Google Play Music, Spotify, or Pandora.

Google Home As a Smart Hub
Through Google Home, you can adjust the temperature of your home, change the lighting, and even manage other smart hubs in your home. Further, you can use Google Home to control your smart TV.

Enhanced Voice Recognition Software
Google Home will be able to understand your voice commands even when there’s background noise from music or a TV show.

Different Color Options
Google Home offers a variety of different colored speaker bases, in addition to different types of materials, to ensure that your device matches your tastes or home décor. Few smart hubs offer such customization options.