Smart Home Tech Brings Peace of Mind When Traveling

Getting ready for that dream trip to an exotic locale? It’s not just about booking flights and hotels or researching the best places to eat. You also need to prepare your home—whether it’s finding a pet or house sitter, making sure certain deliveries arrive safely or keeping the porch light on at night.

The latest smart home technology and a strong in­ternet connection (which keeps the devices running at optimal performance) can help bring peace of mind while you’re away having the time of your life. But where should you start? We asked the experts at Cox Homelife to explain the technology that’s available, and how it can help keep your home—and all your stuff—safe.

Smart Locks

Roughly 30 percent of bur­glars enter a home through an unlocked door, and about 34 percent enter through the front door.

Smart locks allow you to remotely control the doors to your home from your smartphone (and, of course, make sure you locked the door when you left the house!), but they can do so much more. Smart lock features such as those available through Cox Homelife automation and security services include voice com­mands, customized chimes to recognize certain visitors or family members, activity logs and integration with other smart devices in the home.

You can even set up special codes for house sit­ters, dog walkers and deliv­eries.

Smart Lights

Don’t waste energy or money leaving the indoor or porch light on all day to keep away would-be bur­glars. Turn individual lights in your home on or off using your smartphone or tablet with Cox Homelife automa­tion features.

You can also set auto­matic lighting timers if you want to turn the porch or living room light on at a certain time. As for that four-legged family member—Cox Homelife’s lighting control function means your pet doesn’t have to be in the dark if you’re going to return home later in the evening.

Home Cameras

Want to check out your home while you’re gone? The latest home monitoring services offer remote live video viewing, profes­sional monitoring, video re­cording and customizable notifications, allowing you to keep an eye on your loved ones and your home even if you’re not there.

Next Generation Internet Connection

Just as important as the smart home technology you select is the internet ser­vice you choose. To get the optimal ex­perience from your smart home devices and technolo­gy, make sure you have the right internet speeds for your household.

Cox Gigablast offers next-generation gigabit internet speeds (1 gigabit is equivalent to 1,000 mega­bits per second) and can connect dozens of smart devices in the home simul­taneously.

When it comes to smart home technology, Cox of­fers a variety of internet speeds to fit the individual household need. Take a short quiz on the Cox speed advisor to determine which speed is right for your home.

Learn more about smart home se­curity and automation at cox.com/homelife.