Organizing Users and Groups

Written By Rhonda Grimm

Users and Groups help you organize your smart home network. They give you maximum visibility and the ability to troubleshoot and maintain control over devices and children’s access. Getting the most out of Users and Groups requires just a little planning ahead.

Here’s a sample scenario: A family has 2 adults, 2 children. There are 4 mobile phones, 5 Smart TVs, 3 laptops, 2 fitness trackers, 4 tablets, 18 smart light switches and locks combined, and 3 outside security cameras. All told, there are 4 users and 39 devices.

One approach could be to set up 4 users: Two adults (Erin & Sam) and two kids (Lucy & Jack):

  • Lucy has a laptop, a tablet, and a mobile phone.

  • Jack has a tablet and a mobile phone.

  • Erin has a fitness tracker, a laptop, a tablet, and a mobile phone

  • Sam has the same set up as Erin

Next, create a group called Kids and add Lucy and Jack to it. Any controls you apply to the group will effect both Lucy and Jack; for example:

  • Apply a filter

  • Assign a screen time schedule

  • Pause Internet access at any time

  • ∞ For more tips on setting up filters, go to Tip Sheet: Setting up parental controls

Next, let’s organize devices. Create a group for TVs.

On the group page, you will see the devices in the group, any users associated with the group, and any filters assigned. Scroll down to usage graphs.

if the usage graph shows a spike in activity at 3:00 AM on the TV upstairs, perhaps:

  • Kids are watching TV in the middle of the night

  • The TV is getting updates at a specific time

  • There is an attempted network intrusion

With this info, you may choose to block Internet access for the TV between midnight and 6:00 AM.

∞ See Tech Tip: Understanding Device Activity Charts

Other potential groups of devices:

  • Smart speakers

  • Cameras

  • Sprinklers

  • Networking equipment

  • Lights

  • Locks

  • Game consoles

  • IoT devices like refr

Rhonda Grimm
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