Arlo Base Station has orange Internet LED light

[b-alvarado]

Greetings,

I just bought the Arlo system but the base station says it can't connect to the internet. Now, that LED is a false statement. After doing all the recommended troubleshooting steps and finding it is not getting fixed i decided to run my favorite packet capture software (Wireshark).

I can assure you the base station is connecting to the internet. It has received an IP address, it has successfully done a DNS request for registration.ngxcld.com (which is 52.17.193.45) and it even tries to establish a TLS connection (port 443) with the server. The problem is that when the server sends the Certificate, the base station finds that the TLS certificate doesn't match and so it responds back to the server with the following packet:

source ip: 192.168.2.2    destination ip: 52.17.193.45      TLSv1.2 73 Alert (Level: Fatal, Description: Bad Certificate)

I tried to confirm the results and i find that when opening the address https://registration.ngxcld.com in my browser, the browser connects just fine but when I try the IP directly  https://52.17.193.45  I am getting certificate mistmatch. I am wondering if the base station is having that problem somehow or if it is just that the base station doesn't even have the CA required to validate the certificate.

Anyways, as you can see the base station is able to reach the internet but it is just not able to establish a SSL connection with the server because of the certificate. So this LED is a misrepresentation of what is actually happening.

I wonder if this is something you guys can actually fix or else i will just get a refund. Which is a shame because i was really looking forward to having this camera. It was the perfect set for me in theory. 

Thank you

[jguerdat]

Not sure it would help but you can try a factory reset.  There's two methods that might be used depending on the firmware - the older firmware uses the reset button as well as the Sync button on the side.  The new firmware requires only the reset button.  In either case, press the button(s) until the LEDs flash amber.

It can also be an issue with the router configuration.  I understand that you're seeing a certificate issue but no one else is.  DO you have some sort of advanced personal configuration set up for security reasons?  Ports 80 and 443 need to be open to arlo.netgear.com but a few users have reported needing to open 123 (NTP), also, since apparently the base likes to get time info from the Arlo servers. I don't know that any of this applies to you, just a suggestion that modifications you may have made to the router configuration could have an impact.

[b-alvarado]

like i said, i have already done all the troubleshooting steps. i have reset the base station multiple times with and without the sync button pressed. It is not my router configuration because i took the router out of the way and connected it directly to my modem and it still isn't getting green light.

[b-alvarado]

Additionally, you mention no one else is having the problem. Well, i looked in the forums and many people are reporting the base station getting disconnected. It is just that they don't know why it is getting disconnected, it might as well be a certification problem.

[jguerdat]

The disconnect issue is likely due to various things, including be a simple display issue, but a certificate issue would seemingly be widespread. I had a disconnected message this morning on the app but logged out and back in with no problem.

Since you removed the router with the same result, it could be the cable, the ISP (seems to be unlikely) or a bad base.  If the system is new, exchange it for another system - it may be that simple. You could also create a trouble ticket to get support involved.

[b-alvarado]

I bet your base isn't going through the registration process because it is already registered. What if the problem is the certificate in registration.ngxcld.com which only new base stations happen to try to access?

[rmr419]

I have ten arlo cameras and every other day at least one drops off.  There are only five working cameras and Arlo support sucks.

Nevertheless, you have provided more insight than the Arlo support.

[JamesC]

rmr419,

Is it the same camera dropping offline? It sounds like there could be an issue with the location of the camera that is causing it to lose connection with the base station. This could be due to interference or poor signal strength due to range. Consider relocating the problem camera or swapping it's location with an unaffected camera to further isolate the issue.

JamesC