Arlo Video Doorbell installing with Dual band router

[eitherofus50]

I have an Arlo video doorbell wired.  I just insttalled a new TP-Link AX11000 tat supports smart connect (one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz bands).  The router selects which band the device is on, therefore my phone (5 GHz) and the doorbell (2.4 GHz) would most probably be on separate bands. 

Has Arlo or anyone tested under this scenario?  I assume the doorbell would connect to the 2.4 band.  Has this been tested?  Any suggestions as to how to proceed or a workaround?

I see two possible solutions:

1. Turn off smart connect.  As a permanent solution this would be unacceptable, I would be losing a significant feature of the router.  Has any one tested turning smart connect off short term to complete the connections then back on after?

2.  Open up a 2.4 guest connection with a secure password to use the "guest Account" for the connection.  Hide the SSID after connection (I have read the discussion on security and hiding an SSID.  Any attempt helps).   

[StephenB]

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@eitherofus50 wrote:

I assume the doorbell would connect to the 2.4 band. 

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It has to, since it has no 5 ghz radio.

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@eitherofus50 wrote:

Any suggestions as to how to proceed or a workaround?

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FWIW, my Orbi also has a single network SSID for 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz and has no way to disable 5 ghz.  So far I have been able to onboard my cameraas from the app.

General advice is to disable 5 ghz if you can (though if disabling smartconnect lets you choose to connect the phone to 2.4 ghz than that is enough).  This is only an onboarding challenge, once you have onboarded you can just re-enable 5 ghz and smart connect.

The guest network might be a problem, since often the router isolates the devices on it.  In that case, the phone and camera wouldn't be able to "find" each other.

FWIW, in my opinion there is far too much friction in this process, Arlo needs to find a more robust way to onboard.

[jguerdat]

I have separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs and have no issues connecting cameras which must connect to the 2.4 band while the phone is always on 5.  I suppose specific routers may have issues but that would be hard to prove.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

I have separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs and have no issues connecting cameras which must connect to the 2.4 band while the phone is always on 5.  

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And it works with Orbi with a single SSID.

But different routers do take different approaches when it comes to distribution of broadcast packets.

[eitherofus50]

Thanks for the reply.  It took several attempts and efforts, however I was finally able to set up the doorbell.

The router I use supports multiple bands, one 2.4 ghz and two  5ghz.  The SSID is not by individual band, that is there is not one SSID for eah band, but one SSID overall.  The device then decides which individual band provides best perfromanc.  Depending on load and other factors that can change over time.  I was not sure if that would affect the connection with the doorbell.  I assume that it will stay assigned to the 2.4ghz band since that is the only radio the doorbelll has. 

After much trial and error, I was able to connect the doorbell to the new router.  I could not connect to a new wifi by using the change wifi steps.  For some reason that failed every time.  I could get the chime indicationg reading the QR code, however it would not find the doorbell and the connect would time out.  I ended up deleting and readding the device.

Another issue I had was using a VPN on my phone.   When I had my VPN on, my phone could not connect to the doorbell.  I had found deep in the documantation about turning off a VPN while performiong the connection.  In addition, when doing the new device setup I had to power down the doorbell (disconect the bell wire) in order to reset the doorbell.  When I followed those steps, the doorbell did connect to my single SSID and now shows up as a connection on the 2.4 ghz band.