Camera signal strength- does anyone get a full 3 bars?

[Kammfam]

I have never, ever, ever gotten a full 3-bar signal strength on any of my cameras- not on my Pro2 cameras, and still not on my new Ultra cameras (in fact, the signals seems to be weaker on the new Ultras.) All of my cameras are outside, and the closest camera is 12' from the base station, with one exterior wall between them. Even that camera has only 2 bars. The cameras out farther in my yard alternate between 1 and 2 bars, depending on the day. I am frequently having issues with the cameras disconnecting, and now more recently, the Ultra batteries draining in days, I assume because they are constantly trying to get a signal from the base station.

How can I get a better signal?! I moved the base station from my desktop near my monitor to the top of my desk hutch, thinking that putting it a few feet higher might help, but that made no difference.

[JamesC]

Kammfam,

Elevating the SmartHub may help in some environments. If you're still having issues, try to move the SmartHub as far away from other WiFi sources as possible. If there is a router nearby with strong WiFi signal, this could be interfering with the SmartHub, reducing stability of the connection with your cameras. Another suggestion is to move the SmartHub closer to the cameras experiencing issues, eliminating obstacles between the SmartHub and the cameras.

JamesC

[Kammfam]

I do have a good router, but there's really no way to move my base station further from it, as it's in the center of the house.

So I'm assuming that other people normally see the full 3 bars, since no one has answered here?

[Retired_Member]

Did Arlo not think most people would have the 5 ft ethernet cable provided in the box going straight from their wireless router to their smarthub? Sounds like bad product engineering if that's the case. 95% of homes aren't going to have every room in their house cabled with ethernet. If this was the case, I would think they'd use traditional IP cameras vs wireless.

But I have a crappy signal as well. But I'm sure Arlo has an extender up their sleeve. Why else would they not hide the SSID for the hub? There is no need to have it visible except in the case that you're adding an extender to it and you have to identify it. It's a money grab to me.

[KRask]

Just saw this post.  Initially had Pro 2 camera's, had 3 bars all around.  Added 2 new Ultra camera's, never seen 3 bars again, added a second ultra base station, one for each side of the house, still 2 bars everywhere and intermittent connectivity on some camera's.  Frustrating...

[Kammfam]

Yeah, I still don't ever get 3 bars. I have a camera 4 feet from my base, just on the opposite side of the wall (with windows), and it still only has 2 bars.

[LandJS]

I usually get 3 bars on one of my 6 cameras, just not always the same one lol.  I also use to get only one bar on 1 or 2 of them until making one little change after 5 months of messing with them.  My hub and router are both on top of a full wall entertainment center, one day I simply switched the two without changing anything else and have not had less than two bars on any of them since, go figure.  One possibility between the pro2 and Ultra may be that Ultra uses both 2.4 and 5ghz.  I may be wrong but I don't think the pro2 does.  My interior is 28 X 68 and in some areas the 2.4 is stronger than 5ghz, in some equal and in a couple 5ghz is strongest.  The hub does the choosing.  Unless there is something I don't know about you have no input on what it chooses.

[brh]

@KRask,

What you are seing is normal. I have 6 Ultras, 2 Pro2s and 2 Pros on my Ultra hub and all of the cameras only show 2 bars. Using an Orbi mesh system with satellites on either side of my home with Pro bases connected to each of them, I have 3 internal Pro cameras attatched to them. Still 2 bars on each of these cameras, although I did get 3 bars on them before adding the Ultra hub which these 3 cameras are not attatched to.  2 Bars should be more than adequate.

Brian

[KRask]

I agree, I thought it would be more than adequate.  Yet, on 3 of the 5 camera's, I'm probably hitting about 50% in terms of being able to get connected whenever I log in to check them.  Given the good performance I had with the Pro 2's for about a year, it must be the ultra hub's that are the weak link in the system.

[StephenB]

Part of the problem here is that the signal strength can vary over time.  Another is that signal strength is only one aspect of connection quality.

Personally I'd like to see a better tool to track connection quality over time (including connection drops, and corrupted recordings due to loss).

[brh]

@KRask, 

You might need to experiment with the Wi-Fi channels on your router. As new Wi-Fi devices are being added by my neighbors, sometimes I have to change the channels to a less crowded one. Theoretically, the Ultras are supposed to look for the best signal strength so if the 5g signal is weak then it should change the camera to 2.4g which would give it more range. Arlo engineers might need to tweak these settings if there enough complaints. 

I have one hub in the middle of my house with Ultras on each corner of the house, (furthest one being about 50 feet away from the hub through a couple of walls), and I get two bars on each of the cameras.

Also bear in mind that building construction materials can play a major factor here. What works for my home might not work for your home.

Also if you do a positioning test in the camera utilities, the bandwidth bar is a better indicator of signal strength than the number of Wi-Fi signal strength bars.

Brian

[michaelkenward]

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@brh wrote:

You might need to experiment with the Wi-Fi channels on your router.

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How do wifi channels on the router influence the signal strength on cameras?

Cameras and bases do not talk to the router's wifi. Cameras communicate with the wifi on the hub and that is wired to the router.

Are you saying that a router's wifi can interfere with the hub's wifi?

[StephenB]

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@michaelkenward wrote:

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Are you saying that a router's wifi can interfere with the hub's wifi?

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Exactly so.  If the base is very close to the router, you might try increasing the distance between them.

[LandJS]

As pointed out, even the traffic at your nieghbors can have an effect and why you sometimes have to change the channels on your router.  The router however has more importance than just that.  Your Arlo hub is a client on your router and therefore subject to the capabilities of your router such as through put.  Also maximizing your router (when possible) for video streaming can help.  When going to 4K for most everything I can I even swapped my cat 7 cables for the highest speed cat 7, about 5 times the through put of standard.  Since I even stream my TV after dumping Dish and Direct they made a difference in buffering times.  Though it seldom happened it was still irritating to me.  But be sure to try moving things around as mentioned.  It took a lot of tries but I found the sweet spot.

[Dbensette]

Honestly, I believe it’s just a flaw in the system firmware somewhere.

I have had for over a year now 5 arlo pro 2’s, with 4 of them having full signal strength shown the whole year.

With one of the last updates, I instantly noticed that all cameras showed 2 bars of signal suddenly.

Everything works as before and nothing has changed, so I would assume it’s the firmware update that changed it.

[StephenB]

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@Dbensette wrote:
Honestly, I believe it’s just a flaw in the system firmware somewhere.

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Certainly changes in firmware can result in changing the number of bars - especially with the ultra base, where you are also potentially switching between 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz.  I think they've also addressed inconsistencies in the presentation from time to time (e.g., sometimes the app showed a different number of bars than the web interface).

Honestly, I think we pay too much attention to the 2 vs 3 bar thing.  If you aren't missing recordings or seeing connection drops, it's not an issue.  If you are seeing connection drops, it's an issue even if you see 3 bars.

[OMSA83]

I agree with this, I haven’t changed anything in my setup, haven’t added new devices to the network and after recent updates, I only get two bars. I brought a camera inside and put it next to my hub and it gets 2 bars. Everyone blames the network because it’s easy to blame the signal strength.

[Kammfam]

Really strange.... I suddenly have 3 bars on all my close cameras. And at the same time, the connection went down to 1 bar on my farthest cameras, which previously had 2 bars. I wonder if they have changed something in one of the recent firmware updates?

[n11]

@Kammfam 

I've gotten 3 bars on up to 3 of my 4 Ultras. This just started for me in the last day or two. I'm not sure if it's made any difference in performance so it may be just cosmetic (more bars to make people happy).

[LandJS]

I was looking at mine this afternoon because 4 were at 3 bars 1 at 2 and one dropped to the red 1 bar.  Everything was still working fine and I went to the camera positioning to look and it said that camera had a strong signal and showed about 3/4 up the scale.  So if it's working not sure I'd put much store in what shows in the device battery icon..

[JamesC · Accepted solution]

The development team identified an issue with the accuracy of the signal strength icons and resolved the issue in the latest app updates. The icon should now more accurately reflect WiFi signal strength based on the environment.

JamesC

[Kammfam]

Interesting. I guess that's why all of mine are different now?

[KRask]

Assume so.  Mine have now gone from all 2-bars to 2 3's, a 2, and 2 barely one bar.  I guess time to move the camera's again!