Only one of 4 cameras is working and connected?

[Triggs67]

Only 1 of my 4 cameras is up and working and connected. They are all charged, have right network name and password. Turned of VPN, turned on blue tooth? Turn comp, and iPad off so no wifi interference. They chime when in front of QR code. But phone can't find them?

[RegularJoe]

I've had the same issue when I first tried setting things up. I've got 9 cameras.

   Sometimes I think it's the luck of the draw if the cameras link to your computer or not.

  I have 3 wifi " signals at my house. I have the 'primary', 'seconday' and 'tertiary", and they're named as such. Pri. and Sec. are right out of the wifi router itself. The tertiary signal is actually a ethernet cable wired "Wifi Access Point"... (Netgear WAX214). It's not a "wifi extender", which just repeats a wireless signal and sends it farther off.. this thing is putting out signal direct from the router. No loss of signal power and no lag.

  Anyhow, first got the cameras and not all of them would link to the primary signal. Frustrated, I tried linking them to the 'secondary'... and WHAM, they'd link right up!!!! In the end, I had about half pri. and half sec.
  
  Well, just yesterday I finally figured out the AP...(I'm technically challenged, lol) and got it all powered up and the setup completed... it was putting out signal.
  Today, I took the plunge and took one of the cameras that's in the house and removed it from the pri. or sec., whichever it was linked to... and tried linking to the Access Point. Failed about 3 times. 3rd time was a charm. In the end, I got all 9 of them linked and operational.  Lot faster response time....and they've all got a full signal.
  Moral of my story is.. if you can figure out how to set up a second/guess channel on your wifi.... maybe try that.

[StephenB]

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@RegularJoe wrote:

The tertiary signal is actually a ethernet cable wired "Wifi Access Point"... (Netgear WAX214). It's not a "wifi extender", which just repeats a wireless signal and sends it farther off.. 

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FWIW, you are a bit off on what an extender does.  A WiFi extender can act as an Access Point (connected with ethernet to your router), or it can connect to your router over its wifi.  In the latter case it is not repeating the wireless signal, it is acting identically to your AP - just not using ethernet.

A wireless repeater is an old technology approach, which hasn't been used for some years (for good reason, it didn't work very well).  

That said, there's nothing wrong with your choice of the WAX214, it's a nice product intended for small business use.

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@RegularJoe wrote:

  Today, I took the plunge and took one of the cameras that's in the house and removed it from the pri. or sec., whichever it was linked to... and tried linking to the Access Point. Failed about 3 times. 3rd time was a charm. In the end, I got all 9 of them linked and operational.  Lot faster response time....and they've all got a full signal.

  Moral of my story is.. if you can figure out how to set up a second/guess channel on your wifi.... maybe try that.

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I'm glad everything is working better.  Connecting to the strongest WiFi signal is definitely the best approach.

This can also be done with a mesh solution (In the case of Netgear, using Orbi or one of their Nighthawk Mesh products).  With a mesh, the camera should connect to the strongest mesh element automatically (the network only has one network name/password).

But using APs is a fine approach also, just (as you found) more complicated to set up.