Need recommendation for Wifi Extender for Arlo Base Station VMB4540

[txboki]

 I recently purchased an Arlo Pro3 with base station VMB4540 with (2) Pro3 cameras. In setting it up, I noticed  my cameras is on the other side of my home (about ) would consistently connect and disconnect from the base station. 

I read the support blogs and it seems I need a "Wifi Extender".  My wifi network is 802.11ac 5GHz throughout my home.  

With the need for the base station (VMB4540) requiring an ethernet connection to work, can you advise which product would you recommend for this base station?

FYI - I have already tried Linksys Wifi extender (AC750) and it failed to connect to my network. I found a Netgear (at the time I found one without a ethernet port) so of course it didn't work with VMB4540. 

Can someone recommend Arlo's recommended solution for this problem?

[tony_2018]

You can try a powerline adapter which will give you an ethernet port to connect your base station.  Do not get the wifi powerline adapters, those are not what you want.

[jguerdat]

Use of an extender, powerline or WiFi, is definitely a recommended option but remember that the base/hub has to be able to have good communication with all cameras. If moving the hub to a new location causes issues with other cameras, the only solution is a second base/hub so some cameras connect to each. 

[squid101]

I use a Linksys Mesh router system.  My house is 6,000 sqft and there are 3 nodes.  It works well but I do have 1 camera that just makes it to the base station.  I am having issues where the cameras go off line but I have narrowed that down to the Arlo base station, and Arlo support is useless.

[jguerdat]

The mesh network doesn't help connections to the base other than to allow you to position the base optimally for all cameras. If that isn't possible, a second base is needed so the weak cameras are connected to the new base.

[squid101]

Interesting that you can have multiple base stations.  That means you probably can setup more than 5 cameras.  But the issue is not the mesh network.  The issue is the base station loses connection to ALL cameras and then will not reconnect.  Technical support keeps talking about opening up ports between the base station and the firewall.  I have to keep explaining to their support staff that ALL ports are open between devices on the same sub-net.  But they have no clue what I am saying.

[tony_2018]

Having multiple base stations will help but if wifi is still weak to those base stations it might take long to get live view to come up. 

[squid101]

In my case I think everyone is missing the point.  The WiFi signal is very strong.  And I am recommending getting a Linksys Mesh network for your home.  My issue is the wireless from the base station to cameras, which is strong for 4 our 5 cameras, just stops working on ALL cameras and will not reconnect unless I turn it off and back on.  Not a very good security system if it just stops working.

[tony_2018]

A bit more detail would help, whats the signal strength of all your cameras when you pull up the arlo app? 3 bars?

[squid101]

No, 1 has 3 bars, 2 have 2 bars, 2 have 1 bar for a total of 5.  But my issues is, if the Arlo loses connectivity to 1 or 2 cameras, I know I have to address that, but to lose all 5 cameras and for days not reconnect and the only solutions is to restart the base station and all 5 reconnect no issues is unacceptable.

[tony_2018]

When you do this what color is the LED on the basestation?  Is your base configure to have a static IP. 

I run aimesh at my moms and designate certain devices to not roam between the aimesh network.  

[squid101]

The LED for the cameras is off when the system hangs.  The top 2 LEDs are solid green.  Before I moved the unit away from the Mesh node it used to lock up the node, so I spent a year diagnosing that!  We have come to find out it is the Arlo base station with the issue and not the mesh network.

[txboki]

I never updated my case once I figured out to solve the problem.

First thank you all for the advises and responces.

First conditions.

I didn't want to buy more "base stations. Basically this would me base stations for each camera. But this offers another complication.

The Basestation VMB4540 requires a physical ethernet cable connection to my internet. Well, I have one location where my internet comes into my home. I then extend via 802.11ac 5G throughout my home.

Which means that I would need a "extender" but not just any wifi extender in the market,  Wifi extender that supports 802.11ac 5G AND (very important point here). allows for a ethernet cable to be plugged into it there it takes that signal to the internet.

So in otherwords  

[VMB4540]GigPort -->GigPort[WIFI Extender]<<--- via 802.11ac 5G --->> [MY Wireless Router] -- > Public Internet

#1 - the thing I found was the following. Very tough to find WiFi extenders in the market that offer 1G port access (although I found VMB4540 autonegiotiated to 100Mb with the right extender) then extend that signal through my Wifi network.

#2 - I found that most "Wifi Extenders" in the market today are for Wifi Mesh. Wifi Mesh and 802.11ac are very different and not compatible wifi technologies.

You either run full Mesh or 802.11ac. I have a very robust secure 802.11ac 5G network throughout myhome. Not about to rip all that out and put in a very insecure Wifi Mesh network. 

So how did I solve it?

First I figured out . though some investigation (yeah I cheated, I'm a Network Engineer whom is a SME in Wireless so I know this stuff) that the VMB4540 extender is actually running very old 802.11b at 2Ghz wifi signal to its cameras. Even as I just bought a Arlo Pro3, the VMB4540 is running very old outdated wireless technology.

After trying out a few extenders I found Netgear was the one that successfully replicated the VMB4540  2Ghz 802.11b signal. So what I did was using (1) base station, with a signal Wifi extender and guesing at the SSID from the VMB4540 base station,  replicate the wifi signal from the VMB4540 basestation.

the cameras picked up that sign and joined.  I did find all the wifi attributes were not exactly the same between what the actual basestation sent out (in packets) from what the replicator (wifi extender) sent out to the cameras. Nevertheless .. it worked.. cameras picked up either stronger signal,  and basestation pickup up the packets processed it with no problem.

FYI,  I thought to use my wifi extender with my very secure 802.11ac wifi Access points an the new signal got rejected. Because real wifi security also is at the wavelength level between access points. So my only choice as to replicate (amplify) the signal between the basestation and the cameras.  And it worked.

In my humble opinion.. really crappy setup. The cameras should be equiped with wifi technology, join your local wifi and ride it to a cloud registration. The base station setup is antiquated and a pain. And why the cable ethernet port requirement? The base station should be able to connect via wireleass to anyone's network if you still want to keep that box. But found that box to be completely useless and in the way. You have to register with the cloud already, why not simply have everyone's camera register with the cloud directly, join the local user's wireless network (Mesh or 802.11, give buyer the choice) and there you go. But I figure Arlo wants you to buy that dumb basestation and lots of them. Not a good look when folks are becoming more and more wirefree in our world. They have to change that 

Hope this helps the next hopeless sap who bought these cameras.. only to find out they have a sizing issue

[tony_2018]

The arlo pro cameras connect directly to the base station, the base station provides its own wifi.  Thats why the base station has to be near the cameras.  

[txboki]

Hey Squid.. I feel your pain. Read what I wrote. Best best is to use Wifi extender and extend out the signal beween base station and cameras.. 

[dcfox1]

@txboki 

I agree the direct cam to wifi would be better as it would solve a lot of placement issues and Arlo is going that way on recent released cams but doesn't do us much good for those who already invested in a system already. There would be no local storage without a hub but it is still an  option on those cams. They would still be making the money from cloud storage. 

[SRouz1]

So I am not as tech advanced as any of you so I have a basic Google Mesh Extender that has worked fine until now but is what you are saying is that the Smart Hub cannot connect to the the Google Mesh? I can’t even find a place in my app that will allow me to see what WiFi network my Smarthub is connected to. My WiFi signal is strong by my camera signals are really poor despite being pretty close to my base station (my house is only 1800 sq ft). Any suggestions at all because their support service really is awful.

[squid101]

I do not have the same model Arlo as you, but the Arlo base station, as I know it, does not connect to the Mesh network via wifi.  It connects to your network using an Ethernet cable.  My base station is connected to one of my Mesh nodes directly with Ethernet cable, and then node is then connected to the main Node via WiFi.  I hope that helps.

[SRouz1]

Thanks. I am going to try plugging directly into my mesh network with the Ethernet cable and see if that makes a difference. Does it have to be the node with the router or can it be any point?

[squid101]

It can be any node.  Mine is NOT plugged into the router node.

[SRouz1]

Thanks so much! I got it to work finally. Why Arlo support couldn’t give me basic help is beyond me. Now if I could only get notifications on my phone or pick up things other than people on one of my cameras, lol.

[squid101]

What is the problem with notifications on the phone?  They work fine for me.

[Ridgeviewcourt]

Is there any way to boost the signal from the smart hub to the cameras? I have the Arlo Pro 3 and the closest camera (35') works fine and the cameras that are 100' away are having serious issues staying connected. My understanding was that there was a 300" range I am not getting anything close to that. The line of sight obviously is not direct as the cameras are mounted at the rear of the house. 

[Ridgeviewcourt]

What if you do not have ethernet to hook your wifi extender too? The only location for us is right at the hub. 

[Ridgeviewcourt]

I am having the same problem let me know if you find a way to increase the signal with out an extender that requires an ethernet connection.