Very Bizarre Technical Support Interaction

[pjbakhtiar]

Just had a very bizarre conversation with support, suggesting that I remove walls for better signal to my outdoor camera, cameras should be 10 ft from the base station, and 5 ft from each other. While technically removing barriers between the base and cameras would help, I'm not sure that's solid advice for a use case involving outdoor cameras. My goal is to find out if Arlo has a device that can increase the signal quality of the camera-to-base connection. Their advice was to get a Wi-Fi extender, but my home Wi-Fi is not the issue and if the camera communicates with the base station (to my understanding) adding an Orbi Satellite, for example, wouldn't help me. Note, my WiFi signal from an Orbi AP is fine at the location of the outdoor camera, but the camera signal is still showing weak from the base station.
Any suggestions?

[TomMac]

The ONLY way to really expand coverage is with multi bases.... you are allowed any number of bases on any account level.

Then you assign the closest cameras to each base unit so all have a good signal

Run a base from the Satillite and one from the main Orbi... it should cover quite a bit of area... if you need more then either an extender ( with etherent port ) or another Satellite and base combo

[pjbakhtiar]

Thanks for the reply. Does this mean that I'd have to arm/disarm 2 or 3 base stations individually? I would've thought Arlo would have addressed this somehow. I feel like for the average house size you're already pushing base-to-camera connectivity to outdoor units. An extender for the base would be a huge plus. Oh well. If the 2-3 bases operate independently, but under the same subscription, that may not be an ideal setup for me unfortunately.

[Dannybear]

@pjbakhtir
What makes you think that you need better signal strength?

[TomMac]

Yes,  it does mean you would have to arm/disarm more than one base... it's really not bad to di as it's hit the 'back button" and then the next base.

An extender for the base prob lowers the security level,  so I don't think it's going to happen, who knows

But the real advantage to me is multi schedules... I split up cameras to inside / front/ rear.... this allows the different areas to be run on their own time frame ( normally you can only run one and need multi modes , and gets confusing )

[TomMac]

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@Dannybear wrote:
@pjbakhtir
What makes you think that you need better signal strength?

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in tho OP, it was stated  "but the camera signal is still showing weak from the base station.
Any suggestions? "

[pjbakhtiar]

Convenience, primarily. I have 2 (of 5 cameras) on opposite sides of the house outside with 1, sometimes 2 bars of signal strength. Those cameras appear to lose battery much quicker than the other 3 and there's much less "traffic" to set off motion detection and recording. Unless 2 of 5 cameras are just defective, and happen to also have the weakest signal, I think a stronger signal will help. A lot of variables can impact battery life, none of which I can see on the app, so, it's more of a trial and error unfortunately. I think the response that there is no such "base station" extender answers my question. I'll just have to live with swapping batteries on the cameras more frequently until I find a product that satisfies what I prefer and maybe give these to my parents or something.

[Dannybear]

@pjbakhtiar
The distance you mentioned in the first post is obviously incorrect if these were intended to be maximum distance for expected operation. You should have 100ft line of sight capability. My furthest camera is 30ft from the base and travels through two walls and a floor and gets two bars on the App for the camera. The closest camera is 6ft from the base.
The base station wifi channel piggybacks on your local 2.4Ghz wifi channel, if present, so if you are in a busy wifi area then this can cause the camera’s to be desensitised and work harder.
It might be worth getting a true wifi signal scanner app on your mobile and identify if you have other wifi sources about near the camera. If you do then you can identify the wifi channel that is the least busiest and force your local wifi modem to that channel, power cycle the base to make it change also. I have even moved all my dual band smart devices to the 5Ghz band to free up the base wifi to reduce lag time.
If you only have iOS devices you can use the apple airport app to scan the wifi signal but you need to enable the option in the iPhone settings for the App to be able to scan the wifi channel signals.
Hope this helps.

[TomMac]

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@pjbakhtiar wrote:
 I have 2 (of 5 cameras) on opposite sides of the house outside with 1, sometimes 2 bars of signal strength. Those cameras appear to lose battery much quicker than the other 3 and there's much less "traffic" to set off motion detection and recording. Unless 2 of 5 cameras are just defective, and happen to also have the weakest signal, I think a stronger signal will help.

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Yes, a poor signal to the cameras will increase battery drain as the camera looks for the base .... sort of like a cell phone constantly looking for a cell tower