Smart lighting
How to Choose a Smart Lighting System
Hub or no hub, Matter over Wi-Fi or over Thread, and the wall dimmer that ruins smart bulbs. What to settle before you buy the first one.
Modern Home Grid
Smart home guides with the sources attached
Setup and troubleshooting answers for smart lighting, security, energy and voice assistants — written so you can check every number against the documentation it came from.
Seven guides and one buying checklist. No product reviews, no rankings, no sponsored picks.
Start here
The two long guides that cover the decisions everything else depends on.
Smart security
How to Secure a Smart Home: The Settings That Matter
Six router settings in the order that matters, taken from CISA guidance — and the two risks that none of them protect you from.
Fix a specific problem
One device, one question, one answer with the source next to it.
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Why Philips Hue Bulbs Buzz, and How to Stop It Smart lighting -
What to Look for in a Router for a Smart Home Smart security -
Samsung TV Web Browser: Fixes, and How to Block It Smart security -
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The Alexa Shopping List: What Changed, and What Still Works Voice assistants
Browse by topic
Before you buy anything
The gear page is a checklist, not a ranking: what to look for in each category, and a search link so you can see the current options on Amazon yourself. No prices and no star ratings — both go stale faster than the advice does.
What to check before buying Or start with the router
As an Amazon Associate, Modern Home Grid earns from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon are affiliate links — see the affiliate disclosure.
How this site works
Every figure is sourced
Wattage, bandwidth, firmware behavior: each number in a guide points back to whoever published it — Philips, Amazon, CISA, NETGEAR, TP-Link — so you can check it without taking our word for it.
No reviews, no rankings
We don’t test products and we don’t publish best-of tables. The guides explain how a system works and what to check before you spend anything.
Small on purpose
Seven guides and one gear checklist. That is the whole site, and we would rather say so than pad the menu with pages nobody needs.