[jrref]

I have a friend who is buying a new home in Dabney. The house specs say it's a "Smart Home". I can see Centric Fiber who provides service in this area has installed a small white box in the Data cabinet in the garage. The fiber is terminated to the box and there is a label with default network ID and password which looks like it's for WiFi. I know the box terminates the fiber but does this box also provide WiFi? There are no other RJ45 ethernet jacks to terminate one of the blue ethernet cables or anything else on the Centric box. Normally with Quantum, the box installed in the data cabinet is the Fiber Terminator and the Router and has RJ45 jacks to connect either hard wired ethernet cable or wifi equipment.

So my questions are:
1)What does the Villages mean when the home is called a "Smart Home"? I can see an Ecobee wifi thermostat and a wifi irregation controller but that's it.

2)When you connect to Centric Fiber how do you get WiFi? Do they add another box? What happens if you want to connect one of the blue ethernet cables to provide wired internet to your office for example?

[McClendons]

Originally Posted by jrref

I have a friend who is buying a new home in Dabney. The house specs say it's a "Smart Home". I can see Centric Fiber who provides service in this area has installed a small white box in the Data cabinet in the garage. The fiber is terminated to the box and there is a label with default network ID and password which looks like it's for WiFi. I know the box terminates the fiber but does this box also provide WiFi? There are no other RJ45 ethernet jacks to terminate one of the blue ethernet cables or anything else on the Centric box. Normally with Quantum, the box installed in the data cabinet is the Fiber Terminator and the Router and has RJ45 jacks to connect either hard wired ethernet cable or wifi equipment.

So my questions are:
1)What does the Villages mean when the home is called a "Smart Home"? I can see an Ecobee wifi thermostat and a wifi irregation controller but that's it.

2)When you connect to Centric Fiber how do you get WiFi? Do they add another box? What happens if you want to connect one of the blue ethernet cables to provide wired internet to your office for example?

The box in the garage is the Fiber modem, it does not do wifi. It should be connected to a single ethernet cable that goes to a wifi router inside the house, typically located on top of the cabinets over the refrigerator. The wifi router is a small white box. and is included in the smart house. I ended up upgrading (replacing) mine with a mesh network for better coverage, but the one in the house actually did pretty well. You should be able to verify that the Centric router is already in the house as you will see a wireless network named for the street address.

In the low voltage cabinet in the garage, you should also see a bunch of ethernet cables and coax cable (cable TV) that are NOT terminated/connected. If you want ethernet in the house, you can either 1) pay Centric something like $230 to terminate the ethernet cables and install an 8 port switch in the garage or 2) you can terminate the cables yourself, and buy a switch at Bestbuy. I chose to pay Centric because the builders did a couple of VERY SHORT ethernet cables, and I knew termination could be a challenge. It was.....Centric had to run a new cable into the kitchen at no additional charge. It was not hard for them, but I would have been nervous doing so.

Not sure if Dabney is different, we are in lake Denham, but we had an ecobee Thermostat and the irrigation controller CAN ACCEPT a wireless module --- but the wireless module for the controller is NOT included. When they say smart, at least in Lake Denham, they seem to mean that ethernet cables are run to many rooms in the house. The house does not have wireless garage doors etc like many true smart houses........but they can easily be added.

[frayedends]

McClendons post is spot on. Only thing I can add is turning on the internet is as easy as a call to Centric. Since it is all installed they don’t need to come out again (unless of course you want the Ethernet cables connected). I don’t need that since everything works well on WiFi.

Regarding the Hunter irrigation WiFi adapter, I have Hunter WiFi at my Massachusetts home and I don’t care for the app. I installed a Rachio controller and the app is much more user friendly. Easy install. Just be careful of pricing as it changed quite a lot while in my cart on Amazon. I paid about $165 but it had gone over $200 at one point. I have 5 zones and bought the 8 zone controller

[jrref]

I connected with a Villager who has a new home in the South of the Villages with Centric Fiber service. The way it works is the fiber comes into the home and is connected to a terminal box in the white Low Voltage cabinet in the garage. If you open the cabinet in the garage you will see a thick wire coming from the bottom of the box from outside the home to a small white box in the cabinet. From that box is a thin blue fiber that goes into the attic and then terminates to a fiber terminator on top of one of the cabinets in the kitchen. There, already installed and powered up you will see a WiFi router connected to the fiber terminator. If you want to turn on the service all you need to do is to call Centric and they will e-mail you a password, then you will have WiFi all throughout your home. Nothing else to do. $65 per month, 1GB bidirectional service (more bandwidth than you will ever use), no tax, no contract, very easy. Once the WiFi is enabled then you can connect the installed WiFi thermostat, your TV and all your other WiFi devices. Unless you have a very large home and want full speed everywhere, you should have to install an external WiFi mesh network. Also, for those technical people who want wired internet to their office computer for example, coming out of the router in the kitchen they connected one of the blue ethernet cables which brings wired ethernet back to the low voltage cabinet in the garage. There you will see many blue ethernet cables going to recepticles throughout your home. If you want wired internet to your office for example, you will need to get a connector tool or have someone with one put a ethernet RJ45 plug on the cable going to your office and then connect it to the blue ethernet cable coming from the router in the kitchen. You can also buy a ethernet switch from Netgear for example, you can get them on Amazon or Best Buy and plug the blue ethernet cables in the Low Voltage cabinet in the garage into the ethernet switch for the connection.

This is actually a very nicely engineered setup for fiber service in your home. I still don't know what the Villages calls a "smart home" but now i'm guessing it's having this Wifi setup along with a Wifi thermostat installed when you buy the home.

Hope this helps clear up this mystery.