Port 80 necessary?

[Streak2]

Our installation is 4 days old.

Worked great for 3 days and then lost communication to the base. All green lights were on.

I rebooted the base and the AT&T router and everything working again.

I tried to open port 80 but AT&T is blocking it. On other CCTV installs I have done, without port 80 there are no remote comms at all.

If port 80 is blocked the DVR allows the assigning of a different port that the ISP does not block. The Arlo base does not allow you to do this.

With Arlo, it appears to work even with port 80 blocked.

I don't know if this is the cause of the communication loss.

So, how important is is it to have 80 as well as 443 and 123 opened?

If there is a requirement for these ports to be opened then why is this not mentioned in the installation instructions?

[jguerdat]

Yes, it's important for port 80 (http) to be open. The issue is that some configurations not controlled by you block that portntl netgear.com for some reason. Virtually all routers right out of the box will allow these ports to all servers so it would seem that you have a router owned and controlled by the ISP. Your only choice if this is correct is to contact the ISP and have them open these ports.

The base has no user-accessible configuration so it's up to the router to allow access.

[Streak2]

As one would expect outgoing port 80 is unblocked.

Incoming port 80 however remiains blocked despite me unblocking it in the AT&T router.

I confirmed this using canyouseeme.org on port 80.

Despite this, and since restarting the base, we have had no further communications issues.

[jguerdat]

INCOMING ports, including 80, should be blocked.  The only reason to unblock it is to have a web server or similar running on your computer.  Block that port to prevent unauthorized access to your computer/network.

All the ports Arlo uses, 80, 123 and 443, are outgoing ports.  The system makes a request and gets a response due to the open session.  Some setups block those outgoing ports and that's what can cause problems.

You seem to be saying that your issue is cured?

[Streak2]

Initially when the base station went offline after working fine for a few days I thought it could be port 80 related.

In every other DVR/NVR install I have done remote access does not work unless incoming port 80 is unblocked for the IP address related to that device.

In this instance incoming port 80 is blocked and I am not able to unblock it.

However after the first offline issue mentioned above the system continued to work after I power cycled the base so I just ignored the fact that incoming port 80 was blocked.

Last night again after being up for about a week, we lost remote comms (PC and app.). to the base. Local access is fine. All 3 green lights are on on the base.

This setup is across town, we cant keep on having to go out to reset the base.

What do you suggest?

[jguerdat]

To be clear, if you're at the site where the system is installed all is fine but not remote, right?

The system sends all data to and through the Arlo servers. You never connect directly to the base or cameras like you might with an IP camera. Thus, it would seem to something about your remote connection to the servers that's the issue. Since it happens to both a PC and the app, it doesn't seem to be related to those devices but to your network connection. That could be either your network itself or something to do with your ISP. Are both sites using the same ISP? Have you tried logging out and back in as well as cell and WiFi service? If it's a WiFi issue, maybe rebooting the router would help.

[Streak2]

Both work most of the time.

There have now been 2 occasions where the remote apps. are reporting that the base is offline.

Each time the base needed to be power cycled to restore connectivity.

Today when this happened, the base power led took some to turn from amber to green, possibly doing a software update and when it did go live reported that all the cameras also needed to be updated which I have done.

Base VMB4000r3 version is now 1.8.2.3_9907

Cameras H7 is now 1.090.0.0_9945

[jguerdat]

You have the same firmwares I do.

I've had a case open about my Pro cameras recording multiple videos, only at night, based on a single motion event.  To help troubleshoot, I was asked to reset the Pro base and resync the cameras which I did Tuesday. The rest of the day was a bit odd and I can't explain it, with issues viewing and just not seemingly normal behavior.  Power cycling didn't seem to help and even had the base give me a flashing power LED after the reboot - just odd behavior.  I grabbed the wall wart for my old base since they seem to be the same ratings and was going to try that on the theory that it may have been a power supply issue rather than the base that was the problem.  I decided to try onne more thing before swapping them and pulled the wart out of the UPS for a few seconds and plugged it back in.  It's worked perfectly since.  I don't have an explanation for any of this but it helped.  

Maybe the flashing power LED was a firmware update - I dont know since I've never observed a base station update before. Once things came up, there were camera updates available which I did manually so that implies the base had been updated.  Dunno if any of this helps you, though.

[Streak2]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

The base power light flashing amber shows that it is rebooting, flashing green shows that it's getting a software update.

If you still have hassles, I would try and by pass the UPS for a while to see if it could be the cause of the problem.

I will have to monitor my situation. Besides the batteries in the 4 camera I have installed draining quite quickly (36,23,16 and 63%) after 2 weeks, it's the base losing connectivity twice during that period which is more of a concern.

[jguerdat]

Glad I didn't unplug it in the midst of the update!  😛

I'm noticing a fairly rapid drain of the batteries, too.  Interesting to note that when I reset the base and resynced the cameras, I recharged both.  They had been at something like 30-50% but after the resync they were 3% (!).  I recharged them to 100% and they dropped slightly during the day but after the update, they were both suddenly at 73% and are now down to 58% and 60% with moderate recordings (over 2.5 days).  I'll wait for my next recharge to make sure things have stabilized before making any claims.

I have yet to see an actual base offline issue other than the app/web telling me so.  Logging out and back in has shown that it's online and it was a display/interface issue.