Network stability, unstable, solid, strange things happening

[rdilauro]

This covers more than one ARLO Lan Base and multiple Network Modem/Router setups, then add on the NAMO WiFi extenders.

Up until several weeks ago, all of the ARLO sites on our property that I maintain have been solid. Their internet provided constant service, so it was rare I had an ARLO problem.   From time to time, I would get that a particular set of cameras behind a LAN base was not reachable/offline.  Few minutes later, its back online, no changes.

Things seem to be changing a bit.  We have Spectrum providing most of our Network services, but also have Frontier on some of he old buildings, plus Frontier coming in setting up Fiber throughout part of our community.

Our Lake CLub is in two towns. (Brookfield and New Milford CT).   The Fiber is being installed on the Brookfield side.  One of the major reasons is to create a state mandated well water monitoring system.   We have about 6 wells providing water to the community plus for the golf course.

Since this work has start, I have notice strange things from the ARLO configurations (Modem/Router/Lan Base, etc)   Some areas will be offline for 20 minutes at a time, then come back online without any changes.  I am seeing this mostly from the one building that is furthest from our LAN connectivity.  When I first set this up,

I had adequate bandwidth and throughput to handle the cameras.   Now, that the season is under way, this one area, Tennis has been irratic.  I spent some time reviewing that area.  There were dozens of people with cell phones connecting to this network, plus the were streaming TV so they could watch Tennis matches.  That is the area that the internet goes up/down sideways and such.  I had them run some tests to limit cell phone connectivity to the network and reduce the streaming of music and tv.  This has helped.

In addition to all of this, the areas that have been rock solid are starting to have problems.  The ARLO Lan base units are going into Orange blink mode frequently.  We reset them, they get back to sold Blue, but happens again and again.   In my house I have a tests ARLO configuration with its own LAN Base and install new cameras from there.   I have about 10 cameras running now with the objective to remove them from my network and install them into the appropriate configuration.

I do not believe this is ARLO related, our cameras are the victims of outside changes. The addition/modification of Frontier Fiber along with Spectrum changes I think is created a havoc for us.      

From a pure ARLO point of view what would be the causes for:

1. Constant cameras going offline and then coming back online without us doing anything.

2.Why are our LAN Bases units going ORANGE often, then back to solid BLUE.

I realize this is beyond the scope of the ARLO community to digest, but this community has offered so many

suggestions over the past year which .

Now, I am trying to determine what my next action should be..... How should I be contacting...

[StephenB]

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@rdilauro wrote:

From a pure ARLO point of view what would be the causes for:

1. Constant cameras going offline and then coming back online without us doing anything.

2.Why are our LAN Bases units going ORANGE often, then back to solid BLUE.

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(1) and (2) likely are different symptoms of the same root problem.

It could be that the network upgrades are disrupting your internet service (resulting in the base not being able to reach the Arlo Cloud).  You'd need to contact Spectrum/Frontier to resolve that.

It could also be something going wonky with the RF (WiFi interference).  Base stations with only one LED would go orange if they lose a camera connection, but also go orange if they can't reach the Arlo Cloud.

If you have access to a WiFi Spectrum analyzer, it might help sort out the RF possibility.  It would be easier to check your internet connectivity (using ethernet).  There are a couple of tools that will do repeated "ping" checks, and graph the results.   PingPlotter is one - paid, but I think the trial is free.  You could set that up to reach dns.google.com every second (or any site that responds to ping), and see if there are any failures.

[rdilauro]

Stephen,
I use a Spectrum Wifi analyzer and for the most part things look fine. I do have a few weaker spots. As I have mentioned in some of my earlier posts, we have a WiFi extender that goes from our Club house down to the lake which is about 700' away. We connect and have strong signals. Then I've added Ultra cameras North and South of that central point. Going North, 300' I still connect without problems. The next one about 200' feet further still connects, but does go offline from time to time. Biggest problem is that the battery life on that one goes very quickly. Now to the South, I have gone 400' feet and the connection is still ok and the battery life is fine. I was going to go with the Go2 Celluar service cameras, but so far WiFi seems to be ok. Just have to deal with cameras indicating that they are offline. Couple of minutes later they are back online, then offline, etc. But the video captures in LIB do exactly what we need. Just seems that the real time views may be hit or miss.

But what has impacting us is this Frontier/Spectrum sort of take over of our community. Frontier is running alot of Fiber in our neighborhood., some of it is to monitor the 7 water wells we have. The CT state required ongoing monitoring of the wells, water pressure, flow, etc, so Frontier Fiber has been the solution. But that has also caused some disruption in our Spectrum services.

It can all get very complicated. So , I need to weed through what is networking problems vs what could be ARLO camera situations.
I just wish ARLO provided more diagnostic or monitoring tools/aids to check on the utilization of the cameras.

[StephenB]

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@rdilauro wrote:
I just wish ARLO provided more diagnostic or monitoring tools/aids to check on the utilization of the cameras.

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Me too.

I still think running a connectivity test on a PC might be useful, as it sounds like this might not be related to wifi.  Though if Frontier is doing construction, you could have a wifi interference problem when they are using some of their equipment.