Arlo Pro - extended range

[MelSF]

My Base Station is in my home office, and too far away for a strong signal to cameras at the back of my house.

There is not very clear info in the site on how to extend the wireless signal.

So.... I understand there is not a way to extend the signal from the powerbase to the cameras, so I would need to move the powerbase closer and central to all cameras. 

If I unplug the Power base from the router, and instead plug it into the range-extender placing it in a more central location.... will this work? Or... will the base station only work if its hard-wired into the router?

Assistance will be appreciated!

Thanks.

[brh]

I believe that one router must be connected to the router to be able to communicate with Arlo's servers over Wifi. But the range extender, if wireless, does not need to be physically connected to the router but you will need another base station that must physically connect to the range extender. There is no limit to the number of base stations you can have.

In my case I have the original base station with 3 original cameras and one Pro camera wirelessly connected to it. To extend the range to the other end of my house I purchased a wireless range extender that simply plugs into the wall and purchased a second base station, (Pro model), that physically connectes with the range extender by an ethernet cable and have one Pro camera wirelessly connected to it.

Brian

[MelSF]

Brian thank you kindly for trying to help.... but it has still left me somwhat confused. If I can revert to my bottom line question of.... 

..... If I unplug the Power base from the router, and instead plug it into the "range-extender's" ethernet port,  (placing it in a more central location).... will this work? Or... will the base station only work if its hard-wired into the "router"?

Thanks ...

[brh]

I tried to respond earlier but had a temporary internet outage. It should work then. Sorry, I did not completely understand your question.

Brian

[jguerdat]

As long as the base can be connected by an Ethernet cable to an extender that has Internet access the system will work fine. I've used various extenders, WiFi and powerline, with no problems.

[MelSF]

Thanks!!! One last question.....

By unplugging my base station from the router and re-plugging into the extender..... Will I have to re sync each camera again with the base station?

Thanks!!!!

[jguerdat]

It should just work after moving the base. If you have problems, it may be worth reinserting the batteries to try to get the camera to connect. Removing and resyncing would be a last resort.

[MelSF]

So if I am understanding you correctly, by unplugging from the router, then replugging into the "extender".... It should "not" be necessary to "re-sync" the cameras, right?

My cameras are on the exterior of the house, attached to a wall mount about 18 feet up !!! If I had to resync... it would not be fun!!

Thanks again for your help, very appreciated!

[brh]

I have never tried that, but I do not think you will have to re-sync everything. I don't believe the base stations have battery back-ups so hopefully someone that knows a little more about that than I do can answer that for you. I think we all misunderstood the bottom part of your question.

Brian

[steve_t · Accepted solution]

Yes, the base station being placed centrally in your house with respect to the cameras is a great idea. Using a wifi extender is a good way to do this but ensure you have enough speed at the wifi extender.

Alternatively, you could get a second base station. There is no limit to the number of base stations you can have on your account. You're still limited to 5 cameras if you want the free plan. A second base allows some cameras to sync to it. These cameras, however, cannot interact with the cameras on the other base.

You should not have to resync the cameras after you move the base but do try move the base as quickly as you can as the cameras spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to reconnect to the base.

My recommendation would be to have the cameras mounted in positions that are more accessible, especially if they aren't on permanent AC power (which they shouldn't be if outdoors currently) or on solar panels. Getting them down to recharge or change the batteries is a pain when they cameras are too inaccessible

[VancouverBC]

I've tried both wifi extenders and powerline ethernet extenders. I found the powerline extenders worked more reliabily, just plug in, sync and forget. The wifi extender (a Netgear product) often needs to be turned off and turned back on. I had to put the wifi extender on a remote switch I can operate from my cellphone to turn the extender back on. I run both the wifi extender to bring wifi to distant parts of the house and powerline extenders to devices that demand reliable Internet (i.e., my wife's PC). If you use powerline extenders get  the fastest ones your budget allows, like 1000 Mbps. 

[steve_t]

Don't forget that powerline extenders require both outlets to be on the same circuit

[VancouverBC]

If you mean on the same run of household wire served by the same circuit breaker, i've run the powerline extender between different wiring runs and across circuit breakers. I have a detaiched garage (a separate building from the house) with a powerline extender out there and the garage is definitely on a different circuit with its own circuit box too. My understanding is as long as there is no transformer (like the ones out on the power poles) between two powerline extenders, it will work. 

[steve_t]

Oh cool. You're right. I haven't looked in ages. One caveat though is that on different circuits, the speed is significantly reduced, possibly down to not working. I guess YMMV but it's not an absolute no as I had previously thought

[MelSF]

Thank you everyone for your help! Great community spirit!

MelSF

[michaelkenward]

I have a similar setup, powerline between two separate mains circuits in different buildings.

I haven't tried the Arlo base station on it, but my experience confirms that @steve_t is right to warn "that on different circuits, the speed is significantly reduced".

I have out Arlo cameras on local powerline plugs and they work as expected.

Maybe I should play with that on the separate circuits too.

[Steve511]

I bought a Netgear PowerLine PLP1000 so i could move the base station to a place that was midway between my 2 cameras. It's on a different electrical circuit and the Pick A Plug LED on the adapter shows red which the manual says is "Link rate < 50 Mbps (good)", which is the lowest of the 3 link rates available. I was concerned at first that this would not allow adequate connectivity of the base station to my router. However, I've not had any issues what so ever. The base station internet light always shows green.