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Arlo Cloud Storage clarification

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chaoscreater
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Aspirant

I'm looking to buy the Arlo Pro, but am confused about the free cloud storage. I understand it is 7 days of free storage, but I read somewhere that it is only for people in the U.S. I'm based in Australia/New Zealand region, so does that apply to us here as well?

 

The KB article I found here says this:

 

"Note: Arlo plans are currently available in the United States, including the District of Columbia and excluding US territories."

https://kb.arlo.com/88/What-are-the-available-Arlo-subscription-plans-and-how-much-cloud-recording-i...

 

But then this link (which is for NZ) shows that it does offer 7 days of cloud storage:

https://www.arlo.com/nz/products/subscription-plans.aspx

 

Can someone please clarify? Thanks.

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Redmoonstar
Luminary
Luminary

I am in Australia and I have 5 camera's and have the basic plan which gives me 7 days of cloud storage free.  I also have a portable hard drive plugged into my base station so it records everything and keeps it. This also records if the internet goes down and the camera's were armed at the time the internet went down but it won't record to the cloud if your internet goes down. We don't have access to the smart things plans but I don't see that as a problem considering all the issues with the camera's  since the May  upgrade for the smart things. 

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brh
Master
Master

@chaoscreater

There are many users on this forum from Australia and New Zeland and maybe they will reply to you, but as far as I know the free 7 day storage plan is available there. But, at this point the Arlo Smart is not available there yet.

 

Brian

Redmoonstar
Luminary
Luminary

I am in Australia and I have 5 camera's and have the basic plan which gives me 7 days of cloud storage free.  I also have a portable hard drive plugged into my base station so it records everything and keeps it. This also records if the internet goes down and the camera's were armed at the time the internet went down but it won't record to the cloud if your internet goes down. We don't have access to the smart things plans but I don't see that as a problem considering all the issues with the camera's  since the May  upgrade for the smart things. 

chaoscreater
Aspirant
Aspirant

That's awesome!

 

Could you please also confirm whether it sends push notification alerts to your phone based on motion alerts? And does it send the photos/video to your email? I have a Dlink IP camera for indoor use and it does that, which is great. I can see like 10 frames of whatever was captured during the motion triggered event, as well as a short 10 second clip. But if it's just a push notification, then I won't know exactly what it is and it could be false positives.

Redmoonstar
Luminary
Luminary

@chaoscreater yes it does send push notifications to your phone it will also send email notifications but I don't use that feature as the emails come long after the event. When you get a motion alert on Your phone you can tap the alert ( I'm using android) and it will open the Arlo app and you can see each camera and the last time it recorded and a snapshot of what it recorded. 

chaoscreater
Aspirant
Aspirant

I see I see...

 

The reason I need email notification with attached snapshots is because I check my email regularly while at work, on my laptop. I don't use my phone as much and it's quite annoying to switch between devices. Ideally, I'd like to do everything in one device and opening an email to get a quick glance of what photo/video was taken is really quick, whereas on Android I'd have to unlock phone, click the push notification and then view the recording...

 

I have a WyzeCam for indoor use and another DLink cam. The WyzeCam is really good for its price, but it only does push notifications and IFTTT functionalities are very limited. So for my WyzeCam motion alerts, I have to constantly check my phone and it's annoying. The DLink camera is more expensive but supports FTP and mail notification based on motion sensing or sound alerts. It'll send me an email with 6 frames of photos taken at the time, as well as a video, which is great to view at a quick glance.

 

Does the Arlo support any IFTTT feature to email out photos, or achieve something similar? I've checked IFTTT briefly just now and looks like there are recipes for things like "Arlo low battery email me", but nothing about emailing photos...

 

And how is the battery life on it? Like, what's the average lifespan before you need to buy a new battery? Are they proprietary Netgear batteries (which would cost more to replace)? Or can you simply buy a AAA battery (or whatever the size is) and replace yourself?

Redmoonstar
Luminary
Luminary

Sorry can't help you with IFTTT as I don't have any, the arlo pro has a rechargable battery and drainage depends on usage. There was a problem with rapid drain but a firmware update at the end of September supposedly fixed it. I recharged my battery to 100% with a charging pod on 26th sept 18 and it had drained to 12 % on 12/10/18. As I am on holidays my camera's are armed 24/7 usually they are armed 18 hours a day. When I first got this system the first charge lasted 3 months and that was with set up and lots of live viewing, after the battery drain issue I have now got 4 of my 5 camera's connected to a power supply one has a solar panel ( I purchased this as camera is hard to reach ) and 3 have the outdoor charging cables connected as we are away for 6 weeks and the camera's would have been dead before then. I would check lots of systems before purchasing as there have been ( and still are ) mutiple issues with these camera's since the May firmware upgrade, battery drain issue started in May and wasn't fixed till end September. I would have returned mine and replaced with something else if we hadn't been going away, I didn't have time to research & get a new system before leaving.

brh
Master
Master

@chaoscreater

Several things to discuss here, so here goes:

You shouldn't have to use IFTTT with the Arlo system. The Arlo system is not for everyone, so do your research before you purchase them so that you get the best system for your particular needs. You need a little bit better internet speeds than the minimum Arlo suggests and depending on your structure materials, layout and size, the range between the base and the cameras will vary quite a bit. The original Arlo concept was to have security cameras that could be placed anywhere, including outside, and could be moved around as needed. But, that involved batteries and replacement batteries could get quite expensive. Then Arlo came out with the Pro series cameras with propriatary batteries and things improved qite a bit. Still, batteries need recharging and if the cameras are mounted where a ladder is needed to get to them to replace the batteries, getting up on a ladder gets old very quickly. Arlo had an outdoor power adapter and cable but had problems with it and recalled it. I understand that there is a new one out now, but all of my outdoor cameras are powered with Arlo solar panels and so far they have worked great for me.

After Arlo separated from Netgear a few months ago, the firmware and software issues started popping up and it seemed that they would take one step forward and two or three steps backwards. Lately, though this situation has quickly and drastically improved. There are still a few bugs, but I think they will be sorted out quickly. 

The advantage that Arlo has over its competitors, is that it offers the free plan of 7 day storage up to 5 cameras. All the other competitors charge you quite a bit starting with the first camera. From what I have read, the vast majority of users are still on the free plan.

Anyway, I have had my Arlo system for three years and with the exception of a few frustrations, it has been a great system for me.

 

Brian

chaoscreater
Aspirant
Aspirant

Thank you both for your detailed reply, very much appreciated!

 

I'm considering buying the Arlo Pro 2nd hand at a cheaper price. No way I'm getting these brand new, they're too expensive 😞

 

I've done a fair bit of research and am having a hard time deciding which one to get. My criterias are:

 

- Preferrably wireless, otherwise I'd have to run cables (power / ethernet or BNC) through the roof, drill through walls or underground.

- If wireless, needs to have good battery life so I don't charge it every week or so.

- Preferrably free cloud storage. No yucky subscriptions.

- Preferrably with a lot of automation features through IFTTT, but basic things like push notification and email alerts with images/videos are good enough.

 

Problem is, my wifi signal isn't that strong and I'm already using a performance router (Asus AC88U). I'm a bit of a tech guy myself and have great internet speed at home. All my devices have good signal to the router, but the router has a weak signal to the outside. I don't really want to get a signal range extender, as those are crap. I already have a secondary router that is bridged to the first one via ethernet cable. This extends the connection and does the job well. However, I'm putting the outdoor cameras quite far away from the 2 routers, so signal strength may possibly be a problem...

 

Does the Arlo base just need to be connected via ethernet? If yes, then I only have to worry about the connection for the cameras.

brh
Master
Master

@chaoscreater

Yes, the base station physically has to connect to the router/extender/satellite through an ethernet cable, so the problem you will need to worry about is the signal strength from the base station to the cameras. I ended up purchasing the Netgear Orbi system with 2 satellites. I have one base station connected to the router in the center of my house and a satellite on either end of the house with a base station connected to each satellite for a total of three base stations. (There is no limit to the number of base stations on your account and no extra fees for that. I have 10 cameras BTW). If you need to get a signal to an outside building, the Orbi system also has an outdoor satellite. As long as it is reasonably out of the weather it will extend the outdoor range quite well. You could probably get away with one satellite if your internet comes into your house at the end of the house. That would mean two base stations with some of the cameras connected to one base station and some to the other. Because the Orbi system is quite expensive you could use wifi extenders which are much cheaper, but the reason I went for the Orbi is that I also have Skybell video doorbells and they did not like the extenders.

The difference between the Arlo system vs a wired system is that Arlo only records short clips whenever motion or sound is detected while the wired systems will record continuously and you would need a system that notifies you of motion and records to the cloud in case the intruders found your system and either damaged it or stole it. If the wired system does not record to the cloud and they find it and damage or stesl your recorded videos, you will not have any proof for evidence.

Ideally you want to be notified before the intruders enter your home and also have pictures of them once they are inside.

 

Brian

chaoscreater
Aspirant
Aspirant

Hi Brian,

 

Again, thank you for providing these info and sharing your setup with me, much appreciated.

 

Just wondering why your setup has 3x Arlo base stations? Is it purely because your Arlo cameras are so spread out that connecting all of them to one base station would mean weak signal / performance?

 

I don't have a mesh network set up in my home, but have been looking into it previously. I think it'll be quite costly for me to invest in a mesh system (and I can't justify for one at the moent, as my home network is perfectly fine and performs really well. I'm connected via ethernet to my secondary router, which is connected to a powerline, which is connected to the main router). On top of that, spend quite a bit to get the Arlo system set up as well...

 

The wired system I'm looking into has push notification, so that part I've got it covered. Besides, if someone did break into my house, I already have indoor security cameras set up that will send me push notifications and also sends an email to my Gmail account, with photos and a short clip of the recorded motion event. The wired system is also cheaper, there're 8 cameras and one base station and that's about half the price of the Arlo system. The only problem is I don't have any experience with running cables through my house to the outside.

 

Decisions decision...

brh
Master
Master

@chaoscreater

I don't need all three base stations - I think I could get away with 2, but I purchased the 2 newer base stations since the Pro base stations have backup storage slots available, two way audio with the Pro cameras and have an internal siren. The third base was the original one I got when I first purchased my Arlo system. It is outdated, but I use it sometimes for testing purposes. But I do need two base stations to get adequate signal to all my cameras.

I am retired and I did not want to risk life and limb pulling cables or paying for someone to pull them either.

 

Brian