Chime 2 won't connect - amber light flashing when configuring

[Stroessel]

Hello.

I have Wire-free doorbell that I connected to my Base Station without any issues. In fact, I connected it to my wifi first without any issues, updated the firmware to be able to add it to my base station. Kind of weird, but it worked anyways.

Now I'm trying to add a Chime 2 unit to my system. I only mentioned the wifi connect above cos the Chime 2 wants to connect to my wifi, not my base station, which I find odd. Why not connect to my base station? I don't even get that option when trying to configure it in the app.

I scan the QR-code on the back, connect to the Chime 2's own wifi to enter configuration, enter my password for my wifi-network (YES, it is a 2,4ghz network and the password is CORRECT), the Chime unit flashes amber/orange a few times and the Arlo App says (after some time) that it could not add the Chime. The app asks me if I want to try again, I have now tried several times, both following the instructions in the app and restarting the process again.

I have tried to move the Chime unit closer to my wifi unit with no luck. I have tried configuring it with both mine and my wife's phone, iPhones. I have searched this forum for possible solutions but none have worked.

I even tried to remove my Doorbell from the Base station's wifi and adding it to my regular wifi just to see if there were some connection issues, just to make sure if the Doorbell and the Chime needed to be on the same wifi network, but with no luck.

I see alot of ppl having these kinds of issues with the Chime products, why oh why have you now improved this Arlo? 😞

[jguerdat]

Have you reset the chime?

https://kb.arlo.com/000061879/How-do-I-reset-my-Arlo-Chime-or-Arlo-Chime-2

IIRC, the Chime 2 has to connect to WiFi to get the latest firmware which would then allow you to remove it from your account and then connect it to your hub/base.

[Stroessel]

Thank you for your reply!

I actually set up a guest network with a mich more simple password and got it to work just now. I updated it and thought it would be able to add to my bade station, as the doorbell, but with no luck ☹️
I guess I will have to have it connected to the guest network since there’s no way I’m changing to a simpler password on my regular wifi 😂

[trinaj2000]

Mine continuously does this, disconnects on and off. Curious as to why the change in network/password helped? 

[Stroessel]

I found out that special characters, like "%&/"!" etc, is not supported by the chime unit. Choosing a more simple password will get it to connect to the wifi, which is totally unacceptable that you would have to have a less secure password to your wifi to get it to work.

[StephenB]

---

@Stroessel wrote:

I found out that special characters, like "%&/"!" etc, is not supported by the chime unit. 

---

This is true for wifi-connected cameras also.  Arlo should of course fix that (or at least document the characters that don't work). 

---

@Stroessel wrote:

which is totally unacceptable that you would have to have a less secure password to your wifi to get it to work.

---

FWIW, Netgear routers now default to network passwords that combine two unrelated words and a number (no punctuation).  I've seen quite a few articles from cybersecurity folks recommending multiple words instead of hard to remember characters in passwords.  So it is possible to get good security even with the issue of punctuation not being accepted in the SSID and password.

While having a bigger character set in the password does create more possibilities (providing more protection against brute-force attacks), you can get the same password strength (or better) by making the password longer. This also gives you a password that is easier to enter on a mobile device.

[Stroessel]

Before I had a base station my wifi-connected cameras connected with my current PW that contains a few special characters so maybe its just some of the cameras that don't support this.

Ah, interesting facts! I have always been under the impression that mixing up with special characters were safer. This is something that all password recommendations tell us when creating passwords on, I would say, 95% of all big sites that wants you to create an account. I think my UniFi products even recommended me using special characters when building my network.

Anyway, not supporting special characters is something that I see as a defect, having 20+ devices already on my network at I don't me changing my wifi PW just for getting the chime to work.

[trinaj2000]

Agreed. And unfortunately my password happens to not have special characters in the first place so the Chimes 2 themselves seem to be defective in some ways that even a new password can't fix 😪

[StephenB]

---

@Stroessel wrote:

Anyway, not supporting special characters is something that I see as a defect

---

To be clear, I do also.

---

@Stroessel wrote:

Ah, interesting facts! I have always been under the impression that mixing up with special characters were safer. This is something that all password recommendations tell us when creating passwords

---

Many password sites still do recommend this, but others have shifted to recommending longer passwords that are multiple words or words+number instead.  From a security perspective, users tend to use the special characters in predictable ways (for instance substituting ! for l, or putting a # between words), which weakens the strength when following the traditional advice.  Multiple word passwords are definitely easier to remember, even if the words are unrelated.

Of course someone executing a brute force attack has no idea what password strategy you are using, and having a mix of strategies out there makes the search space larger.