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

Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge works with your Yale Smart Lock so that you can operate the lock when you are away from home. Your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge acts as a “bridge” between the bluetooth connection of your Yale Smart Lock, and the Wi-Fi connection of your wireless router. For this reason, the Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge needs to have a reliable connection to both your lock and your home network.

The placement of Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge can greatly impact its performance. Since bluetooth has a shorter range than Wi-Fi, your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge will likely need to be positioned much closer to your Yale Smart Lock than to your Wi-Fi router. We recommend placing Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge within 10–15 feet (3–4.5 meters) of your Yale Smart Lock for best performance. The required distance from 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, etc. A good rule of thumb is to make sure your smartphone shows a full set of Wi-Fi “bars” at the location of the Connect.

If you are experiencing connection issues when attempting to operate your Yale Smart Lock remotely, following the troubleshooting steps in this article will help you optimize the performance of your Yale Connect Wi-Fi Bridge.

Check the signal levels of your Connect

In order to get an accurate picture of your Connect’s 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 Connect:

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 Connect 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 outlet 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.

Move your Connect to a different outlet

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

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

When moving your Connect to a new location, unplug the unit from its AC outlet and plug it into a new one. Make sure NOT to press the button on the front of the Connect 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 is plugged into a new outlet and the green LED has stopped blinking, check the signal levels. You may repeat this process with a new AC outlet until your Connect’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 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 fails connecting to the network at setup, find the closest outlet to your router and try setting up the Connect there. If you are able to get your Connect online when it’s closer to your router, this indicates a network issue.

Connect placement tips

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

Consider moving your wireless router

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:

If you'd like to walk into a store, the Netgear AC750, available at most Best Buy stores, works well.

Connect the device to the correct frequency

Connect 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.