Need Netgear Support for Arlo Base Station (VMB4000)

[BDHRETIRED]

I've always had good luck using Netgear Support via either email or chat. No such luck today and I can't find a telephone number either so I'm running out of optiuons other than to return the product (Arlo Base w/ 2 Arlo Pro 2 cameras).

In a nutshell, I currently have two Arlo Q cameras which were a breeze to setup, and seem to work well, so I decided to add a pair of the Arlo Pro 2 cameras for outside. I followed the Base set-up instructions it never comes up with the green power and green internet lights. Instead, it has a green power light and amber internet and camera lights. I swapped out the ethernet cable to eliminate a bad cable with the same result.

I tried to contact Netgear Support through my account and they required me to register, but I didn't see the model number for my Base Staion listed. Since they would not allow me to proceed without selecting a model number, I selected the closest model (I have the VMB4000, but selected the VMB3000 listed). For some reason they would not allow me to open either a chat or email request. I tried this multiple times and kept getting messages the 'I must enter a valid serial number' and finally a message that said 'A Netgear Support representative already registered this product'. I tried to find an 800 number for support with no luck and a Google search wasn't helpful either so I'm now at the point of sending this back for a replacement.

Does anyone have any suggestions on either a) getting my Base Station to boot up (although I am also concerned about future support even though I have a Premier Support plan); b) how to get thru to Netgear Support via chat or email; or c) have a valid phone number for Netgear Support? In addition I will need someone from Support to change my product registration to the correct model.

Sorry for the long post. Hopefully someone can help.

[brh]

Follow the Support link at the bottom of this page. It will take you to a page with FAQs at the top, but near the bottom of the page there is a green baanner that asks if you need more help. There is a button there to contact Support. Hope this helps,

Brian

[brh]

Sorry, I misread your post. Yes, the Qs dont use a base station.

Brian

[BDHRETIRED]

"Follow the support link at the bottom of this page."

Brian, I did not see any link. Can you repost it? Brian

[brh]

You might try to press the power button on the back and see if that works. As a last resort follow the instructions for a factory reset.

Brian

[brh]

At the bottom of this page is a green banner that says Need More Help with a button that says Contact Support. If you don't see that keep scrolling down and Under the Connect header You wil see, (it may look grayed out), the link to Support, It is the third link from the top).

Brian

[brh]

Here is an Arlo Knowledge Base article that tells you how to troubleshoot the installation.

https://kb.arlo.com/996/My-Arlo-base-station-is-offline-how-can-I-troubleshoot-it

Be sure that you don't have the ports listed in the article blocked by the router's security settings. You should be able to check on your pc to verify this.

Brian

[steve_t]

An amber internet light on the base station normally means your router is blocking the required ports. Sometimes you have to get your ISP to open them. What kind of router are you running?

[BDHRETIRED]

Brian, thx for the clarification. I tried both the Need More Help and the Support link under Connect. Unfortunately, both lead back to the same page I've already tried several times.. Brian

[BDHRETIRED]

Using a Netgear Orbi. I haven't set up any port blocking, so unless the Orbi comes with it turned on, I don't think that is the issue. What port does the Arlo base station require to be open? Brian

[brh]

Ports 80 and 443

Brian

[brh]

@TomMac

I see you have your system hooked up to the Orbi. Any ideas?

Brian

[steve_t]

Ports 80, 123, 443

[jguerdat]

I don't like how Netgear has "hidden" the support contact info but it is what it is. WHen you used the Contact Support link at the bottom, you get a support page and then you have to click on the Contact Support link at the bottom of that page to get going.

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

[TomMac]

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brh wrote:

@TomMac

I see you have your system hooked up to the Orbi. Any ideas?

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Not really... prob the only thing would be the same with any router...

Turn all off and bring back one at a time; modem, router, base ( in that order , allowing each to come online )

Many times failure for the base to connect is external , be it the cable service or like blocking ( virus/firewall )

[BDHRETIRED · Accepted solution]

Problem solved. For those interested... I did work through all the suggestions here (resetting, rebooting everything, etc), but with no luck. I did finally get through to Arlo support and after three hours, they suggested I contact Orbi support as they were suspicious about the port 80, 123 and 443 issue. I spoke with Orbi support this morning and after a half hour, they pointed me to my ISP suggesting that a) I needed a 'public' IP address, and b) they needed to 'bridge my modem and router'.

Well, while I was sitting on hold waiting for my ISP tech support, I was looking through my Orbi configuration and realized that I had Access Control turned on with blocking any new connections. DUH!!! I disabled Access Control, rebooted the Base Station, and sure enough, I had an internet connection. I wasted probably four hours of both my time and Netgears time on a simple oversight (then again, it was a Netgear router and if anyone would have asked if maybe I had Access Control enabled, this would have been a quick issue to solve).

One other thing... once I had internet access to the Base Station, I synced both my cameras, and even through the sync appeared to proceed correctly, the camera light on the Base still showed Amber and I could not see the either camera in the Arlo app. This also turned out to be a relatively easy fix in that support had me go back and first ADD the Base station to the Arlo app and then we re-synced and all was working. FWIW, I pointed out to them that this is an oversight in the Pro 2 Quick Start Guide as it has you a) connect the Base unit; b) get the app and establish an account; and then c) sync the cameras. No mention of ADDING the Base Station to the app BEFORE syncing the cameras.

Anyway, alls well that ends well. Thanks for all the help and hopefully my experience helps save someone else some time.

Brian