Arlo-Q WiFi range

[MHeywood69]

The WiFi range on the ArloQ doesn't seem to be very good 😞

I bought 2 Q's to add to my Wireless Arlo system and the Q at the back of the house keeps dropping off WiFi.

(They are both under the roof eaves so they are out of the weather).

I had a Wireless camera in the same spot for 6 months and it never dropped out.

I've also go Wireless cameras in the back shed which is another 15m away and they are fine on the WiFi too.

Dissappointed with the range on the ArloQ at the moment.

The Q at my front door which is near my router works fine though.

Is the WiFi range less on the Arlo-Q by design ? ( .. as they are intended for indoor use only ? )

Regards

Mark.

[TomMac · Accepted solution]

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Your sort of mixing Apples and Oranges.....

The Arlo cameras run directly to the wifi system of the Arlo base.... The Q cameras run directly to your home wifi system

I can say in my testings that the arlo base wifi DOES put out a strong signal...stronger than my own home wifi. I had the same problem where I found the arlo cams had a better range over Q due to this.

The easiest fix for this is a simple wifi extender for your own home wifi ( make sure it can handle the thru put ) as the Q camera can hook into these to extend their range just like any other wifi unit.

Another fix would be to replace your home wifi with a stronger transmitter unit or improve the antennas

So the short answer is, It's not you, the Q isn't defective, It's just that your own home wifi system is weak in some areas.

[jguerdat]

It's also possible that ambient moisture is affecting the Q cameras.  Being under the eaves helps keep rain off them but does nothing for high moisture content (think fog/dew).  I'd tend to agree with Tom about the WiFi extender being the solution but using the cameras out of their design parameters is a possible issue.

[MHeywood69]

Thanks for the feedback.

I checked with WiFi Analyzer App and the NETGEAR87 network does have a slightly stronger signal than my own WiFi outside.

Mind you, my phone and tablet both work fine in the same location on my own WiFi.

Anyway, I've updated my WiFi (Asus RT-N56U) to the latest firmware and also done a Reset and Reconfigure on the Arlo-Q camera.

So far it seems to be ok .. will see how it goes tomorrow during the day.

My WiFi router is about 4 years old, so if I still have issues I'll try a newer one 

Regards

Mark.

[MHeywood69]

Also both the NETGEAR87 Arlo WiFi and my own Asus WiFi are on channel 1.
Is this a requirement .. or would I be better to separate them ?

[jguerdat]

If the base is close to the router, the base automatically selects the same channel. This is by default and is correct. The only permanent way to use a different channel is to have the base 20+ feet away from the router so the base will choose it's own channel.

[MHeywood69]

Well it worked last night, but today when I check it from work it has dropped off again 😞

I've ordered a Linksys RE6500 WiFi Extender, will see if that helps when it arrives in a few days.

[TomMac]

Another way to test your usable range for the Q cam... ( if you have a portable battery pack like the type to recharge phones, etc ) Is to run the Q off of the battery usb port and move around... if the range to your wifi starts to get weak, the led on the Q front will start to flash (sort of ) purple ( alt blue/org )

[MHeywood69]

Set up the WiFi Extender and connected the Arlo-Q to that and it seems to have resolved the Disconnect issues 🙂

A small issue\difference is that for some reason when I view all cameras, this one doesn't seem to save the last recorded image (though there are many in the Library from this camera).

This camera always has the green box with "Press the Live button to see you new camera in action".

Perhaps becuase its on a different Wifi network (?)

When I view it live it views fine and it saves it to the Cameras page, until I logout and login again then its back to the green box with "Press the Live button to see you new camera in action".

Apart from that its all good .. and the wife is happy as her laptop works better outside too since I put it on the Extended WiFi

Regards

Mark.

[TomMac]

If you get adventurous , it's possible that if you remove the Q cam ( deleted) and bring it back as new the problem may fix ( at least for the reg Arlo cams it works )

[MHeywood69]

Indeed, removing the Arlo-Q camera and re-adding it has resolved that issue about not keeping the last image 🙂

[Bluecewe]

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TomMac wrote:

The easiest fix for this is a simple wifi extender for your own home wifi ( make sure it can handle the thru put ) as the Q camera can hook into these to extend their range just like any other wifi unit.

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Could you please elaborate on the throughput of Arlo Qs? Are there any details available on how much data an Arlo Q pushes through the network when recording or streaming?

Presumably for most networks the key bottleneck is the upload speed provided by the ISP. In my case, it would be difficult to find a WiFi repeater incapable of transmiting my upload speed, which is approximately 12Mbps. In this case, I would imagine that the key purpose of the network hardware would be to ensure that the data makes its way through the network with minimal failures. Currently, signal strength on some of my Arlo Qs is very poor, which might lead to transmission failures, delaying events and streams, although I do not know for certain that this delay has a tangible impact upon my use of the cameras.

Lastly, are there any details on the means and speed by which an Arlo Q transmits a motion or auido detection event over the network? One would imagine that it could be done very quickly, given that it only warrants a very small amount of data transmission.

[TomMac]

here the thru-put info for the Q cams. ( EACH CAMERA , SO DOUBLE FOR TWO )

[Bluecewe]

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TomMac wrote:

here the thru-put info for the Q cams. ( EACH CAMERA , SO DOUBLE FOR TWO )

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Thanks for this. I also found this page in the Arlo Knowledge Base. I was surprised at how little bandwidth it transmits for 1080p video.

I wonder how much processing happens on the server. It would be nice if Arlo were to explain how the whole system works: from camera to Arlo server to Arlo client.