Signal Booster Arlo Ultra

[PhylumT]

This issue needs serious consideration, with a signal distance I understand capped out at 300', with loss of strength seriously degraded when you aren't even 1/3 that range, with consideration of obstructions such as trees, walls, furniture, placing the Arlo Router in the front of the house but trying to secure camera's around the entirety of the outside of your home plus on structures such as shops or watching entry points to your property or your mailbox at various locations of your home... ARLO MUST provide boosters.

t-Mobile for example has provided a FREE booster for cell signal at my home, prior to that AT&T, however I would for a reasonable price purchase signal boosters if it meant I could without concern place cameras in any location on my property whether I was on a small piece of land or more than a half acre.

it is clear to me that the new Arlo Ultra cameras I have, while they do have improvements over the Arlo HD, does lack the same signal strength that the HD system had for some reason. Additionally; I have now dead zones due to poor strength that didn't exist previously. That said, even with my Arlo HD system, I still had a strong desire to have a booster, I don't want a 3rd Party, I want an Arlo design and tested product that will work seemlessly.

A wireless booster would be excellent. Please resolve this.

[michaelkenward]

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@Sparky8151 wrote:

I thought you could only operate one base per app / login?

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It is the Arlo account that matters.

You can attach several bases/hubs to a single account. Then access them with a single login to that account.

At one stage I had two Ultra hubs and a Pro base station, before I shelved the spare Ultra hub,

[Corey3204]

@michaelkenward - are you based in australia do and do you want to sell your ultra base?

[michaelkenward]

I'm in the UK and the history of my hub makes it unsuitable for other uses.

[kenairiver]

Firmware = 1.12.3.2_134_185068d

Camera signal issues even if I put your hub in a central location I experience signal issues to one or both cameras. If I get more that 30' from the base with a camera while still in house with standard wood stud and fiber board walls the signal becomes weak to point video quality is unusable. I have no issues with standard wifi signal from router to wireless devices like smartphones and tablets unless I get 150-200' from my router which means I am outside heading down the street. I have tried changing channels on my routers 2.4G radio to 1, 6, 9, 11 with no change. After reading conversations on this forum it seems Arlo failed in development of their ultra base. I have an 1100 sq foot house so should not be experiencing signal issues like this. Tells me your product would be worthless to people with large homes. It is shocking that Arlo's, especially since Netgear has been in the router business for decades, solution is move your base station closer to your cameras. That would work if all cameras were positioned no more that 30' from each other. Arlo did test this product in a real world environment right? Seems you did not. I live in a ranch that is longer than wide. The center of my home would mean I need to place your base in a living room or dining room neither of which are ideal locations. Currently the one camera I have in use is 30' or less from base the showing only 1 signal bar. My second camera is not usable as where I need it I cannot get sufficient signal without causing issues with first camera if I reposition the base. It is almost like the engineers that developed your Arlo product made no consideration for the environment these devices would be used in and the limitation of radio signals when it comes to structures the materials used in homes. That fact that Arlo does not offer a repeater is unreal. Is it that the receiver and transmitters in that cameras are underpowered to conserve battery? Perhaps Arlo needs to consult or hire engineers from Phillips as their hue product works flawlessly as result of their engineers taking the need to extend signal into the design of their product. See - https://www.usa.philips.com/c-f/XC000008645/how-far-i-can-place-the-devices-from-the-hue-bridge

[Bodez]

I have just purchased this system yesterday. Happy with the image but extremely disappointed with the signal strength and delay in actually getting a picture when the is signal. I am so disappointed I want a refund. Or this issue needs to be remedied. My furthest camera is 12 meters away, well with in the specs and I have little to no signal....very poor considering the price was quite rich

[JamesC]

Bodez,

Is your SmartHub near other WiFi devices (routers, baby monitors, etc.)? If so, these could be causing interference. Try to put some distance between the SmartHub and any nearby devices that could be causing interference issues and that may help improve the signal strength.

JamesC

[Smb66]

I have just ‘upgraded’ my system to Arlo Ultra. I now have 3 ultra cameras, 2 pro and one go (cameras did an excellent job during a break in and he has been arrested - but one pro cam was stolen). I am having signal issues with one ultra camera. I have moved the base to run on a Power line adapter Which is very close To the camera (admittedly not the best signal on power line and will try and find a better spot). I have one pro camera next to the ultra to cover the large front yard (the existing camera didn’t capture entry to the property during break on). Would this be causing the issue? Three bars on pro and one on ultra. Really need to be able to benefit from router wifi. I have an outdoor Wifi satellite that doesn’t , but really should, help in this situation.

[Retired_Member]

These cameras don’t have enough signal strength and/or ability to sync.  A system this expensive should have been field tested and fixed before going to market.  Other features like geofencing and alarming scheduling are not reliable.  I am an electronics engineer and have worked on this for weeks.  I’ve moved cameras, rebooted, reinstalled, updated, changed units and it’s still no go.  I would have taken it back but I’m past the return period and Best Buy just says to contact Arlo.  I’m screwed.

[PhylumT]

I agree with you. Knowing that Arlo will at some point require some subscription for this product is frustrating. At some point I’ll look for a different system, until then I will continue to use this product which has never met its advertised quality.

[LandJS]

I'll throw this in here but as my thoughts only since I have no way of knowing the internal workings of Arlo.  Others have commented on their pro 2 having better signal and I purchased my ultras before they activated 5 ghz and I believe the signal had less issues. 5 should handle the stream better but 2.4 I believe has better distance but Arlo doesn't give us the ability to decide like you can with your own router.  It supposedly chooses the best channels but nobody with tech experience would believe that actually happens.  (your windows computer is always right lol)  Can they give us that ability, don't know, will they, don't know.  If you turned off 5 on your router then rebooted your Arlo you should force it to only use 2.4 just like you can force ch. choice then turn 5 back on but that would only last until something reboots Arlo.  Since Arlo uses a wi-fi of it's own and that is discoverable on your wi-fi devices, phone, computer, analyzer, etc. a booster should work but Arlo would have to allow you to access it to set up a extender/booster.  Probably won't happen unless they can sell you their own branded booster like selling you more hubs.

[enricopozzo]

That made a big difference for my system!  Thank you!

[johnkurzman]

I had a 5 camera pro 2 setup at a solid concrete home, and it worked great with cameras 100' away going through multiple concrete walls.  So imagine my surprise when I purchased an Ultra system for a home made of plywood and 2x4's and Ultra's just 20' away could not connect.  I did, however, find a solution, which was to buy  Ring stick ups which could utilize my google wifi mesh and now are even 1000' away without issue.  The 4K spec of the Ultra was very enticing, but I really wish I hadn't bought all the mounting hardware and power supplies and cables already to keep them powered up at their various locations.  One of them also failed during firmware update and it took weeks until they could even get me a replacement, and then they kept threatening to close my case once they finally did have a spare for me to swap because I wouldn't respond immediately with access to the failed camera that I left mounted in case they pushed out another firmware update which would have fixed it.   And geofencing is very spotty, if not in the app at the time, it seems to not notice leaving or entering the zone.  What a mistake, especially if they don't address having their own wifi network that actually competes with your own wifi network for bandwidth, rather than sharing the frequencies as part of your own network. 

[kenairiver]

Thank you so much for this information. It is a shame that Arlo support is so horrible. I have been promised a support call 3-4 and they have yet to call. Next time I call I am going to escalate my signal issue until I find someone with authority to offer a replacement and I will attempt to downgrade to Pro model from Ultra.

What are Ring Stick ups? Are they wifi extenders?

[LandJS]

AMEN johnkurzman I sure wish it would use my wi-fi which I can get with my phone at the top of my driveway 600 feet away.  A better hub would be the best improvement they could make.

[johnkurzman]

i did find that 3 of my ultra"s worked in one location, and 2 didn't. One due to firmware failure that ultimately needed replacement, the other just poor reception compared to others. Swapping unit locations may help poor reception. Ring stick ups were 1080p cameras that directly used my own wifi network mesh ($100 per year for unlimited cameras) rather than had their own proprietary network that arlo uses, so all the things i did to have wifi work in a wide area helps the ring cameras, while the arlo cameras actually try to use those very same frequencies and actually seem to disrupt the home wifi network by tying up entire channels of 802.11 frequency range, competing with rather than utilizing the home network. it's like running a jammer in the same room, especially if the arlo and Google wifi (your own wifi network) are near each other, so be careful of that too.

[Retired_Member]

Arlo does not care about existing customers.  The fixes are obvious.  

They should make repeaters with a backhaul channel and provide a camera firmware update to use it.  And/or they could add an antenna to the hub. And/or they could provide a software change that would allow you to select which frequency each camera uses. They could also set up a low cost modification program where you send in your cameras and hub to be updated with better transmitters and receivers. 

They just continue to sell their overpriced crap....Arlo / Netgear never again 

[LandJS]

Can't blame Netgear, previous models don't have all these issues.  Arlo spun off as a separate company now.