How to Improve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Signals for Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge

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Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge works with your Yale Smart Lock, so you can operate the lock when you're away from home. Your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge acts as a "bridge" between your Yale Smart Lock's Bluetooth connection and your Wi-Fi router's Wi-Fi connection. That's why the Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge needs to have a reliable connection to your lock and home network.

The placement of Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge can have a significant impact on its performance. Since Bluetooth has a shorter range than Wi-Fi, your Connect Bridge will likely need to be positioned much closer to your Yale Smart Lock than to your Wi-Fi router. We recommend placing the Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge within 4.5 meters of your Yale Smart Lock for optimal performance.
The distance to your wireless router depends on many variables, including the model of the router, its distance from the Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge, the overall speed of your Internet connection, physical obstacles, and so on. As a rule of thumb, make sure your smartphone displays a full set of Wi-Fi bars at the Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge location.

If you're experiencing connectivity issues when trying to operate your Yale Smart Lock remotely, you can follow the troubleshooting steps in this article to optimize the performance of your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge.

In order to get an accurate picture of your Yale Connect’s Wi-Fi Bridge current performance, you can check the signal levels of both the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. These level readings are located in your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge’s settings.

How to check the signal levels of your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge:

iOS
From the Lock tab screen, tap the “Settings” gear icon and select “Connect Settings” from the list. Here, you can view the signal levels of your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge. The two items to take note of are “Wi-Fi RSSI” for Wi-Fi signal, and “BLE RSSI” for Bluetooth signal.

Android
Tap the top-left menu icon and select “Settings”. Choose “Connect Settings” for the house and door your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge is attached to. Select “Signal Strength” from the list. You should see a list of signal readings, the two items to take note of are “Wi-Fi RSSI” for Wi-Fi signal, and “Bluetooth RSSI” for Bluetooth signal.

Both signal strengths should read either “Good” or “Excellent” for optimal performance. If they indicate a poor signal for either reading, moving your Connect to a different AC power socket may improve performance.

The signal levels are listed in the app in the event that you are experiencing an issue with your Connect. If everything in your system is working fine, but the signal levels in your app are poor, disregard the signal levels.

Since Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge can be positioned wherever there is a working AC socket, there may be locations in your home that facilitate better connectivity.

If functionality is poor and one or both of your Connect Bridge’s signal levels are poor, you can move Connect Bridge to another working AC power socket closer to the weaker signal. The goal is to find a position that gives the Connect Bridge both a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connection strength of “Good” or “Excellent”. (Occasionally a socket slightly further away will work better - for best performance, try more than one nearby socket and compare the performance).

When moving your Connect Bridge to a new location, unplug the unit from its AC socket and plug it into a new one. Make sure NOT to press the button on the front of the Connect Bridge while plugged in - this will factory reset the device and you will have to set it up again to work with your Smart Lock. Once the Connect Bridge is plugged into a new socket and the green LED has stopped blinking, check the signal levels. You may repeat this process with a new AC socket until your Connect bridge’s signal levels are improved.

If you can’t find a position that has a good signal to both connections, make sure to position the Connect Bridge so that Bluetooth has a good connection. There are further steps you can take to improve the strength of your Wi-Fi connection.

If Connect Bridge fails connecting to the network at setup, find the closest socket to your router and try setting up the Connect Bridge there. If you are able to get your Connect Bridge online when it’s closer to your router, this indicates a network issue.

Connect Bridge placement tips

• Whenever possible, plug the Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge into your socket right-side up. The top and sides of the Connect Bridge provide the strongest bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals.
• While the location closest to you lock and/or router will usually result in the best signal, this may not always be the case. If your signal needs improvement, try several sockets in the general area and compare the best signal results.

Depending on your current setup, moving the location of your home wireless router closer to the location of your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge may dramatically increase its connection strength.

Try moving your router as close to your Connect as possible. You can then check the Wi-Fi connection strength in Connect Settings, and adjust your router’s position if necessary. If you are unable to position your router to sufficiently raise the Wi-Fi connection, installing a Wi-Fi extender may greatly improve performance.

Install Wi-Fi network extender

You can improve the performance of your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge by extending your Wi-Fi network’s range. We've tested a few Wi-Fi extenders that work well:

• TP Link N300
• Netgear N300

Connect the device to the correct frequency

Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge only connects to a 2.4GHz frequency network. If you are having issues connecting to the home Wi-Fi and you have more than one Wi-Fi band in your network, ensure that you are connected to the 2.4GHz one. One of your networks may be 5GHz and the Connect will not work if connected to a 5GHz network. Go to your router network settings to update your network frequency.

If you are trying to connect to a 2.4GHz frequency and you continue experiencing issues, try resetting your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge as well as rebooting the network. To reset your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge, leave the unit plugged in and hold the round button on the face down for 5 seconds. Next, ensure your phone is connected to the same 2.4GHz network you are attempting to set up the Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge with.