Connecting base station to 4G wireless router dramatically affects wifi speed

[Aussie52]

I have just setup my Arlo Pro 2 with 4 cameras. During the setup, I updated the firmware for the base station and the cameras.

I have 4G wireless internet on the Optus network. Download speeds vary from 50mbps to 100mbps with an average of 60mbps. The router has the latest firmware.

I plugged the base station into the router with the supplied ethernet cable and everything went smoothly.

The 4 cameras synced without a problem and the video from each is excellent.

However, when I attempted to watch Netflix on my smart TV which is connected to wifi, the connection speed was too low.

I did a speed test on my PC and android phone connected to wifi and the speed is less than 5mbps.

When I unplugged the Arlo base station from the router and repeated the speed tests, my download speed was 54mbps on the PC and 63mpbs on the phone. I then streamed 4K content from Netflix to my TV without a problem.

So I restarted the router and plugged in the Arlo base station only to find that the wifi speed was once again dramatically decreased.

[Dannybear]

What does the 4G router say the base station is using for upload when connected? If you are using CVR plan that could be using up your bandwidth.

Also are you using any Ethernet hub splitter devices such as Ethernet switches that can slow the bandwidth to the slowest device attached.

What wifi are you using from the 4G router, try using the 5Ghz band for all smart devices to free up the 2.4Ghz band for the arlo base to use.

[Aussie52]

Hi Dannybear,

I don't know how to check what the base station is using. I am on the free 7 days of cloud recording.

I am not using any ethernet devices. The Arlo base station is the only device on the network using an ethernet cable.

The Arlo base station is the only device on 2.4Ghz. My PC, android phone ant two smart TVs are on 5Ghz.

BTW, my model number is VMS4430P. I tried to type it into the Model field below the Subject field but it wasn't found.

[Dannybear]

I am not familiar with your 4G router, is it an Optus device? I have one somewhere from a few years ago I can try to see if it behaves similar.

[Aussie52]

Hi Dannybear,

It is a Huawei 4G Router B525 LTE Cat6 WiFi 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz supplied by Optus. It is significantly more reliable and faster than the NBN FTN which it replaced.

[Dannybear]

No I have nothing like your 4G device.

As a trial, can you plug a pc into the Ethernet port where the base is connected to see if it behaves the same.

This could be a long shot but when you connect an Ethernet cable to the 4G router it changes the 4G received signal environment and so the signal quality drops, there for, reduced connection speed. If you find that this is the case try moving the 4G router to get better speed or move the base station away from the router in case of interference.

[Aussie52]

Hi Dannybear,

The PC is on the ground floor and the router is on the first floor so I used a 30m ethernet cable. Using the same router port where the base station was connected, I did a speed test on the PC and it was 63Mbps @ 2.4Ghz and 71Mbps @ 5Ghz.

With the PC still connected to the router by ethernet cable, the wifi speed test on the android phone was 74Mbps and I was able to stream 4K Netflix content on both smart TVs via wifi.

Using the same ethernet cable I disconnected the PC and connected the base station so that it was on the floor below the router. Testing revealed that the wifi signal had decreased to less than 5Mbps. Moving the router made no difference because it was already in an optimum position on the first floor facing out of a window and displaying maximum signal strength.

[Dannybear]

Seems you’re testing has proven the base is the likely cause of the issue.

Forgive me if already mentioned, your previous internet connection worked ok?

The only other things to look at is port blocking by the router. If outgoing ports 80, 123 or 443 are being blocked by the 4G router or by the ISP then the base might be repeatedly polling the blocked port and using up bandwidth.
This is throwing it out there I know. Maybe chat to Optus support in the first instance before calling arlo support down under.

[Aussie52]

Thanks Dannybear, I'll call Optus tomorrow.

The Optus wireless broadband has been fantastic. Excellent speeds and not a single disconnection unlike the NBN50 plan that I was on.

[jguerdat]

It's possible that your upload speed is low and being swamped. You've posted your download speeds but I don't believe that the upload speeds have. Download is important to stream but there's "chatter" going on between the streaming device and the server that can be blocked if something else is also using upload bandwidth. If your upload speed is low, you can try using QoS (Quality of Service) settings in your hotspot/router to reserve 200Kbps or so to allow things to work. I had to do that when I only had a 1Mbps upload speed and was uploading images while streaming video.