All cameras showing offline, but communicating with WiFi

[SipasDad]

All my devices at one location are showing offline. But, checking the WiFi, they are all connected and communicating regularly. Started with just one camera last night. Spread to all this morning.

anyone else?

[SipasDad]

Looks like the ISP VLAN issue strikes again. (Solved: Pro 4 cams appear disconnected when on a different... - Arlo Community) I called the ISP and asked them to move me to a different VLAN to troubleshoot. Voila. Cameras back onilne.

This is the oddest thing. I wish Arlo would look into why this happens. Different VLANs on my ISP's end causes the cameras to appear disconnected, even though they're communicating with the WiFi network. Changing the VLAN resolves the issue. Wonder how many other folks have issues caused by the ISP, but don't know it....

[StephenB]

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@SipasDad wrote:

Looks like the ISP VLAN issue strikes again. (Solved: Pro 4 cams appear disconnected when on a different... - Arlo Community) I called the ISP and asked them to move me to a different VLAN to troubleshoot. Voila. Cameras back onilne.

This is the oddest thing. I wish Arlo would look into why this happens. Different VLANs on my ISP's end causes the cameras to appear disconnected, even though they're communicating with the WiFi network. 

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This is odd.  I am thinking the vlan tagging is done by the router/gateway provided by the ISP.  Arlo cameras and smarthubs should be assigned to the same vlan used for normal internet access.

Did you try rebooting the router/gateway (and modem if you have one) when the problem happened?  Changing the VLAN likely would have required restarting these devices.

[SipasDad]

Hi Stephen B,

yes - I’ve rebooted the router a number of times over the last 2 years when this happens. Never has any effect. And, BTW, I don’t have to reboot them when the ISP moves me to a different VLAN. The cameras just start coming back online one by one.

I’m no expert, but I’ve always suspected it has to do with a timeout setting in the Arlo side. If the cameras aren’t responding within so many milliseconds, it decides they are “offline”, even though they are still on the network and talking. It’s conceivable to me that the different VLANs have different properties that are more or less in the window of the Arlo expectations for making the determination of offline/online.