Arlo Wired Doorbell

[MJFin]

I installed a Arlo Video Doorbell (wired) in December and things had been working fine except for about the last 4 weeks.  Now about every other day I have to turn off the breaker that controls the power to the Arlo doorbell, let it sit for about 30 min and turn it back on and it seems to fix it for another couple of days then I have to reboot it again.   Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Mike

[jguerdat]

A signal strength/quality issue could cause this. What is the WiFi icon showing for the doorbell? What is the house construction (stucco, stone, brick, cement all have blockage issues)? How far away is the router? 

[MJFin]

The doorbell WiFi strength is showing full strength.  The front of the house is Stucco but the other 3 sides are plastic siding.  The router (base station) is sitting in a loft area right above the front door which is totally open.   

[jguerdat]

My supposition is that it's the mesh behind the stucco blocking the signal causing this. You mention a base station but also call it a router (it is in a limited sense) but to be clear which is the doorbell connected to? Moving the router/base closer may be the best option or connect the doorbell to your WiFi if that has a stronger signal at the doorbell.

[MJFin]

The doorbell is currently connecting to a VMB4000 base station, which as mentioned earlier, is sitting right above the doorbell in an open loft area.  I'm not sure it can be placed any closer.

Is it better to connect to a base station or is it better to connect directly to a WiFi router.  I use a Google nested system for my wireless environment with 1Gb Google fiber internet connection.

Thanks..... 

[jguerdat]

But if the signal has to pass through the mesh (the camera is outdoors and the base is indoors so the signal must pass through the wall and a steep angle would increase the distance the signal has to travel through that wall.

It would be interesting to try the WiFi connection to see if that helps.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:

But if the signal has to pass through the mesh (the camera is outdoors and the base is indoors so the signal must pass through the wall and a steep angle would increase the distance the signal has to travel through that wall.

It would be interesting to try the WiFi connection to see if that helps.

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If the direct signal path is going through the stucco wall (or if there is a pipe chase or something similar in the wall), then that can block the signal.  A wire mesh can form a Faraday cage, which unfortunately is very good at blocking wifi.

If you have an Android phone, you can use a free WiFi analyzer (there are several out there) to look at the signal strength at the doorbell location - and compare it with the mesh wifi signal while you are at it.

Unfortunately, the Apple API doesn't support those analyzers, so you can't do this with an iPhone or iPad.  However, you can run a speedtest (ookla app) at that location to get an idea of the signal quality you have from the mesh at that spot.  If you are getting several megabits (up and down), then switching to the mesh would be a good test.

Note if you have a laptop, you could similarly look at signal strength - more awkward than using your phone, but definitely possible.  Netspot is one free analyzer for windows.