Sidewalk is a low-bandwidth long-range wireless networking protocol.
Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing.
While I was reading some tech news today I came across something that I hadn’t heard of. Have you heard of Amazon Sidewalk? Sidewalk is a low-bandwidth long-range wireless networking protocol that was developed by Amazon Inc. that helps network devices work better. It is operated by Amazon and offered to their customers at no charge. Sidewalk can help simplify new device setup, extend the low-bandwidth range of devices and help the devices stay online even when they are outside the range of your Wi-Fi. Sidewalk uses a small fraction of your home’s Wi-Fi bandwidth to pass wireless Bluetooth and 900MHz radio signals between compatible devices which will offer greater distances that the Wi-Fi is not capable of on its own. Amazon is estimating that in some cases it could reach as far as a half a mile. This is done by Amazon designating many of its Echo and Ring devices as Sidewalk Bridges. These bridges will use a small amount of your home’s Wi-Fi bandwidth and will transmit it to all of the Sidewalk-compatible devices. However, these Sidewalk networks work a little differently that your current home Wi-Fi. The network is not just available for your enabled devices but your neighbors enabled devises as well. Because of this some people are worried about privacy and security and may want to turn this feature off. This is something that you will have to do manually because the feature is being pushed to all compatible devices and is turned on by default. If you would like to turn this feature off until you can do further research, it can be done by opening the Alexa app on your phone, tap More, tap Settings, tap account Settings, tap Amazon Sidewalk and swipe the button next to Enabled to the left. Below is a list of Amazon devices that are able to become Sidewalk Bridges:
- Ring Floodlight Cam (2019)
- Ring Spotlight Cam Wired (2019)
- Ring Spotlight Cam Mount (2019)
- Echo (2nd Gen, 3rd Gen, 4th Gen)
- Echo Dot (2nd Gen, 3rd Gen, 4th Gen)
- Echo Dot (2nd Gen, 3rd Gen, 4th Gen) for Kids
- Echo Dot with Clock (3rd Gen, 4th Gen)
- Echo Plus (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
- Echo Show (1st Gen, 2nd Gen), Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, Echo Show 10
- Echo Spot
- Echo Studio
If you are looking to purchase new Wi-Fi equipment or devices and would like help researching available options, feel free to contact SafeSourcing. We can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide which one meets your needs. If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative. We have an entire team ready to assist you today.
