Why do I see VMB3500 devices on my router connected by WiFi?

[BarryLL]

I understand the VMB3500 base station created a closed wifi ARLO_VMB_numbers, and I see that. On my router, I also see the base station device hard-wired, and can confirm by the MAC-ID (I only see MAC-ID on unit, unfortunately do not see that info in app).

What I'm confused by, is why do I see "VMB3500" devices on my router connected by wi-fi? Two, showing different signal strengths, so I thought would be the two cameras.. but I can disconnect them using my router, yet still turn on live camera feed. (No MAC address on cameras, so I can't correlate the MAC address or IP address the router shows, to anything). So I don't understand what these connections are. Can someone please explain!

[jguerdat]

The base station is basically a stripped down router, creating its own WiFi network for the cameras. This is for security purposes. Thus, you'll only see the base station connected to your router and not the cameras. You'd need a WiFi sniffer to see the cameras but that would only be to see basic information since the stream is encrypted.

[BarryLL]

Thanks @jguerdat, I understand that about the base station. I do not have a sniffer, and I'm saying that I *do* see 2 connected WiFi devices on my router, both named VMB3500. I'd like to know what they are!

[jguerdat]

Guess it's possible that rebooting the base still shows a second address assigned earlier. What happens if you reboot your router?

[BarryLL]

I always see the base, hard-wired, correct MAC address. These are two distinct MAC & IP addresses. Because of the different WiFi signal strengths I can't help but think it's the cameras.

Router has rebooted a number of times since I've noticed this. I also think that sometimes I only see one WiFi device (and pretty sure but not positive there was only one before I set up the second camera).

[jguerdat]

Unless you have 2 bases, there's no reason to see 2 hardwired Arlo devices. Do you have any newer Arlo cameras that can connect via WiFi instead of the base? The only other thing I can think of is that you're using a WiFi app and you're looking at the Arlo WiFi SSID as well as the the wired connection in your router display.

Or is this what you're seeing (this is from my Netgear R8000P - see the attachment)?

[BarryLL]

Sorry if I was unclear.
* I see one hard-wired device, he base station. Confirmed the MAC address on the base matches what the router shows.
* I see two wirelessly connected devices. They are distinct, each with their own MAC address and IP address.

This is the 2 camera kit Arlo Pro 2 VMS4231P-100NAS. The base station is VMB3500, the cameras are Arlo Pro 2 VMC4030P.

My router is a Netgear, which shows all connected devices, which are wired and which are wireless.

When I need to recharge the batteries, I'll power off the cameras to confirm the are (or are not) resulting in the wireless connections.