Arlo Keypad Sensor Hub SH1001 not connecting to 2.4GHz network.

[GGarrison]

Does anyone have any suggestions for me, please?

I have been unsuccessful at getting the Arlo Keypad Sensor Hub SH1001 (part of item SS1201-100NAS) to connect to my 2.5GHz network. Following posts from others, I have disabled the VPN on my cell phone (the VPN on the router is already disabled), the 5GHz band, and disconnected and powered down 2 SmartHub VMB5000. I have and a TP-Link Archer AX11000 router and powered down the TP-Link RE215/AC750 OneMesh Wi-Fi range extenders and TP-Link Powerline AV1300/WPA8630 so that no other device is broadcasting besides the rebooted router. I unhid the SSID for 2.4 GHz band. I have gigabit fiber into the house and average ~900Gb down & 630Gb up at the router and ~75Mbps down and ~50Mbps up on my cell phone while on Wi-Fi. The router is enabled for both IPv4 and IPv6. Through each attempt, I execute a reset by holding the plus and check buttons until the device blinks 5 times in order to start afresh.

What strikes me as odd from the installation instructions is that they make no mention of the Arlo app on my Android Samsung Galaxy Note10+ asking me to connect to the temporary network of the keypad sensor. I have always selected Continue but then get an error that it is not connected to the network. When I have selected Cancel, it just loops in the app workflow. One time the startup sequence did ask to select from the available networks and did not display my network. I manually entered it, but that did not work. Since then, that particular sequence of the installation process has not occurred again.

I thought I read somewhere that someone went into Android to "Forget" their prior network setting and created it again while only the 2.4GHz band was enabled and visible, so I did that too.

[GGarrison]

Full Arlo inventory to date:

1. Keypad Sensor Hub (not yet connected to network)
2. All-in-one sensors x 10 (not yet connected to the Sensor Hub)
3. SmartHub VMB5000 with 4 Ultra 2 Cameras connected
4. SmartHub VMB5000 with 4 Ultra 2 Cameras and 1 Pro 3 Floodlight Camera connected
5. Essential Wired Video Doorbell connected directly to 2.4GHz network (tested at 20 V AC on the circuit)

Thank you very much for your help. 

[GGarrison]

I forgot to add that someone suggested using WPA2 for security and not WPA3. On my router, the options are: WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP], WPA3-Personal, WPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK[AES], WPA2-Enterprise, and @WPA/WPA2-Enterprise. I am using WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP]. I would prefer to use stronger security, but it seems that Arlo does not support those. I would love to be incorrect on that. 

Thank you. I hope someone else is able to benefit from this exercise and save themselves hours of testing and frustration.

[GGarrison]

I tried again to add the keypad sensor while my family is out, and I can change router settings. I did the following:

1. Disable IPv6 on the router
2. Reboot the phone.
3. Reconnect the phone to the router Wi-Fi (Guest network is disabled for this exercise, normally running)
4. Confirm that phone VPN is off
5. Run speedtest on phone, Ping 9ms, 109Mbps down, 112Mpbs up
6. Start Arlo app
7. See notifications that all devices except wired doorbell are offline
8. Follow install instruction here to step 12.
9. Manually enter Network Name and Password.
   1. I've tried this using 1Password and copy and paste to ensure no fat fingers and
   2. Manually typing this while revealing the password to ensure no mistakes
10. Continue
11. App displays "Home Connecting... This may take several minutes."
12. Keypad sensor blinks twice quickly and makes a sound - bup bup - then goes back to pulsing.
13. "Your Hub could not connect to Aaaaaaa99_99-99. Make sure your network is online and the password that you entered is correct. Try Again / Need Help?" [Network name is representative where A is a capital character between A and Z and a is the same  in lowercase; 9 is a number from 0-9. There was mention of no punctuation in the network name, but the screenshot shows that other network names with underscore, and scrolling down including dashes, do display.]
14. Attempt 1
    1. Press Try Again
    2. "Connect to device? ..." (screenshot)
    3. Connect
15. Attempt2
    1. Press Need Help
    2. Speed Test Results
    3. 2.4GHz network not detected

Photos

  

 

 

 

[StephenB]

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@GGarrison wrote:

 I am using WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP]. 

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Not sure that particular option will work.  Did you try WPA2-PSK[AES] (with ipv6 disabled)?

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@GGarrison wrote:

I would prefer to use stronger security, but it seems that Arlo does not support those. I would love to be incorrect on that. 

---

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that they are rolling out WPA3.  But until all inventory has firmware that supports WPA3, you have to start with WPA2.

It would be good to get more information on Arlo on which of their wifi-connected devices support WPA3 with their most recent firmware.

[GGarrison]

That is an excellent suggestion but not an option it seems by itself. In the router, the only options are below.

Having disabled IPv6 and thinking that "WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP]" is the weakest and the Arlo Essential Wired Doorbell AVD1001-100NAS is using it, I thought that the keypad sensor would use it as well. Alas, it is not seeing it so far. I greatly appreciate your reply and advice though. Thank you so much. 🙏 😁

[StephenB]

Did you already try WPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK[AES]?

[GGarrison]

I did not but will do so and report back. Thank you for the suggestion. I have to hurry before my wife returns home and expects a normal network. Thanks again.

[GGarrison]

Short version. It worked briefly.

Changing to "WPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK[AES]" does allow the Arlo app / Keypad sensor to see the 2.4GHz network after VPN, IPv6, Smart Connect*, 5 GHz, and Guest network are disabled, numerous reboots of the router, and removing ("Forget") and adding the network back to the cell phone. 

What was odd was that the app would show briefly as a connected client on the router when accessing the router via a browser. Then it would drop. Likewise, the Arlo app on the cell phone would notify of the keypad being added and then offline. (screenshots)

I am at a loss for words. Thank you SO much for your suggestions.

/ * “Smart Connect allows each of the router’s wireless bands to use the same wireless settings. The router can balance network demand and assign devices to the optimum band.”

[GGarrison]

Expanded notifications attached.

[ShayneS]

Hi @GGarrison 

Are you still experiencing this issue? 

[GGarrison]

Yes. I had to step away from it for a while due to higher priorities. I will return to this.

Because of other devices experiencing difficulties with TP-Link SmartConnect*, I have disabled it on the TP-Link Archer AX11000 and renamed the 5GHz bands something different. I will try to reconnect using WPA2/WPA3-Personal security setting to see if that works. If not, then I will unhide the SSID to see if that works. Then, I will post an update here.

Thanks for checking on this.

[ShayneS]

@GGarrison Thank you

[mtcac]

I am also having the same issue as you, and just like you Arlo support is of no help.

They keep asking about my wifi, but I know my issue is not wifi related, because I was able to onboard a brand new out of the box Arlo home security system with no issues!

I was able to do this without messing around with my wifi settings.

Factory resetting of the problematic keypad is of no help. I do see it broadcasting the temp. wifi network of Arlo_XXX, but it never connects, it's as if the app doesn't have the proper password to connect to the keypad, and without this password I get no where.

Where you able to resolve this ?