Arlo Audio Doorbell issues

[ZEC]

I've been using the Arlo Audio Doorbell for 2 weeks now, and I've found a number of issues with the doorbell and the Arlo Ultra SmartHub (VMB5000).

1) The doorbell only works with 2.4GHz wifi, so it has a lots of interferences from our neighbours - there're a dozen of wifi hotspots from our neighbours, and their signals are so strong.

2) As a result, the doorbell batteries didn't last for 2 weeks from new.

3) Believe or not, we've got 1 power outage and 5 broadband outages in the past 2 weeks. When there's a power outage or broadband outage, the Arlo Ultra SmartHub will restart and it prefers 5GHz wifi over 2.4GHz wifi despite the fact that it has a doorbell to connect. So I have to restart the smart hub a few times and hope it will choose a 2.4GHz channel without too much interference. Nevertheless, I have to re-sync the doorbell and chimes as they don't seem to have the capacity to reconnect to the basestation as the cameras.

I just feel very annoy that Arlo seem to make products for people living in dungeons without any interferences. Or perhaps, they expect all of their customers are billionaires who live in big houses in rural areas ? It would be good if they can build something for the real world.

[jguerdat]

If you can't move the hub closer to the doorbell to get a better signal, consider a WiFi or powerline extender to allow this. As for power outages, I strongly suggest a UPS for your modem, router and hub so outages aren't a problem. A ~$100 UPS will provide many hours of continued Internet access during a power outage and will prevent your need to have to reboot the hub multiple times. Of course, moving the hub closer to the doorbell may also be useful.

[ZEC]

---

If you can't move the hub closer to the doorbell to get a better signal, consider a WiFi or powerline extender to allow this.

---

---

It's not about the distance between the hub and the doorbell. It's the hub's ability to stay put at 2.4GHz given it's been paired with 2.4GHz devices. Even the hub is next to the doorbell, 2 meters apart, it still go on to 5GHz. Why ? Because the 2.4GHz spectrum is quite packed, and only one and only one channel is clean (because of the neighbours' WiFi). This is a software defect in the BaseStation.

A ~$100 UPS will provide many hours of continued Internet access during a power outage and will prevent your need to have to reboot the hub multiple times.

---

Power outage or broadband outages are expected event. The issue is the hub's ability to resume operation. It often stuck and cannot reconnect all of its devices. It's a problem of reliability, and that the smart hub is not that smart after all (compare to Ring's solutions ...)

[jguerdat]

My VMB5000 is about 12-15 feet from an audio doorbell and is connected to a high-powered tri-band Netgear R8000P router with no problems. I also have an extender operating on the second floor almost directly over the doorbell. While I'm not in an apartment situation with tons of networks going, there are enough from next door neighbors as well as my own that could cause issues but don't. I would suspect something about your local setup or even a faulty doorbell as the root cause of your problems. One thing that I don't use is a single SSID for all networks - each has its own SSID. Perhaps that's a significant difference.

[ZEC]

The VMB5000 has its own WiFi channels, and so do my other WiFi mesh access points. The SSIDs for the WiFi mesh are all the same, but it doesn’t matter as the cameras and doorbell connect to VMB5000’s WiFi with a SSID prefixed with ‘Arlo’.

I don’t quite understand how you use the extender to extend VMB5000’s range as the extender would have a different SSID and there’s only one Ethernet port on VMB5000, meaning it’s for connecting the network with the router.

[jguerdat]

My comment about the extender was just to point out that I essentially have multiple strong networks in my house - 3 for the router and 3 for the extender, with unique SSIDs for each band.

[ZEC]

---

@jguerdat wrote:

My comment about the extender was just to point out that I essentially have multiple strong networks in my house - 3 for the router and 3 for the extender, with unique SSIDs for each band.

---

if there’s enough less congested the  2.4GHz spectrum, certainly, there’s no issue. My problem is that there’re at least 3 neighbours using 2-3 nodes WiFi mesh, and I am the 4th one, so the 2.4GHz spectrum is very congested in my area and there’s only channel 6 is ok, but the Arlo base stations themselves appear to be fighting for the only available spectrum. If I have more control which channel the Arlo base station can use, the WiFi signal issue can be easily resolved.