Arlo basestation offline issue after reboot

[allen_rong]

I am not sure if anyone is experiencing the same issue since last week, I have been using Arlo for a long time and it directly connects to my router always without any issue except Geofencing issue with iOS, which I have opened another case here. I have got daily reboot schedule configured on my router every night. However, since last week sometime my Arlo base-station remained offline after router reboots itself. The internet light on the station was in orange and my internet was good as usual. I was not sure whether the firmware of base-station was getting updated automatically or not.  To get around of it, I had to manually turn it off and turn back on to resolve the issue.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else is having the same issue.

[Securitystupid]

I'm going to just put in my two cents here as well. This is a major deficiency of this fine product. Makes no sense for the camera not able to reconnect to the base when power loss happens. I understand the work around but this was not disclosed on the packaging that we would need a power back up to wifi and base unit to allow for power loss. Most devices that I have reconnect to the wifi when hot again.  I experienced this today as I had two brown outs. If I had not been home office to reconnect the wifi by pressing the black button the back of the base unit. I would be out of luck for monitoring. A urgent Firmware update is recommended for the the consumers who purchased the device on good faith they would have monitoring services with power intact because your packaging or instructions does not warn of this giant and frustrating flaw of the equipment. Why not solve this with an software engineer immediately to prevent liability issues against your company? Because I can tell if my home business gets vandalized and I can't identify the perp's because of power interruption then your legal department is going to be talking to my legal department on why this flaw wasn't disclosed.  Thank you for listening to our concerns.

[necoblitz]

Well I'm going to throw in the towel and switch to another system, possibly Nest. Tech support has been more than useless. The last suggestion was that I have a high wifi environment near the camera. It's actually three cameras and no, that's not the problem. They seem to have buried their heads in the sand about this issue which is clearly present based on the Community conversations. Obviously the chats are either not monitored by Netgear or they don't want to get involved as they have no solution. 

[Fuzzy_Melon]

Here's what I believe I am understanding as my issue and how I believe it is related to this issue.

After any power outage and return of power, both modem and Arlo base station come alive. A router or modem takes awhile to get connected so that it is on the internet and has the ability to let other devices go thru to the internet. This is especially true for cable modems, which can take up to 5+ minute startup time.

Now here comes the boot up sequence for the Arlo base station, which only takes approx 90 seconds. It requests to get on the internet from the modem/router and if it does not get on, it appears to just gives up and never connects unless the Arlo is manually shut down and restarted. This also would probably be the issue for the modem auto reboot scenario.

This can all easily be solved by Netgear adding a conditional loop for their IP client request code. If it does not connect or is not connected, simply keep trying at intervals until satisfied. Should be a very easy firware fix.

An alternate temporary workaround for my issue will probably be to purchase an uniterruptable power supply solely for the modem and the Arlo base station. That gives maybe a couple of hours uptime during outages.

[allen_rong]

Thanks for your reply.

That is exactly what I suspected. There must be a change or code difference in the basestation firmware, which was released recently. It was working perfectly before and now it is broken. My reboot schedule on the router has not been modified for long long time.

[steve_t]

Has everyone on this thread with this issue opened a case with support?

[Fuzzy_Melon]

Don't know about anyone else but yes, I got as far as tier 2 with a support case number.

[Fuzzy_Melon]

So....what happens now? Does Netgear support read these, or is this just for our enjoyment? Do we need to take this somewhere upstream or is there someone already doing that?

Just want to make sure that this doesn't go away and i should probably return it if this scenario is not going to be addressed quickly. The camera is being used to monitor the door of a senior in Hospice and the next power outage is usually just around the corner, so.... 

[manfredz]

this forum is not a part of netgear support.  There are some very knowledgeable users that are very helpful, and a netgear rep but this is a user forum, not netgear support.  There is a button on the bottom of every page that gives ways to contact netgear support

[steve_t]

Once you've opened a support ticket, they'll be looking into it. Obviously, the more people who open tickets, the more important it becomes for support to sort it out. Hopefully everyone who has this issue has opened a ticket and it can get sorted pronto

[JamesC]

I have escalated this topic for further investigation. I will post an update when I have more information.

JamesC

[Sccappy1234]

This is my issue also. So every time the cameras go off line which is way too often I have to pull out the ladder. I find this totally unacceptable. Why is there not another way

[manfredz]

another fix is one i use.   An IP on/off switch between your base station and power.   With it you can remotely reboot your base station when you can't remotely access it.  Of course your internet modem needs to be up as well as your internet to access the IP power switch

[Fuzzy_Melon]

That's a good workaround, as long as the IP on/off switch will continuouslyt request an IP address on reboot until it connects...

Which is what we would like the Arlo base station to do, lol! 

[allen_rong]

That's funny. It was included in the previous release of firmware as it was working perfectly since I purchased it long time ago and for some reasons it was taken away within the latest release.

[NemoDog]

The Model Number is VMB4000 - Arlo Base Station

Internet Service Provider is Comcast

Operating System is Windows at Home. The Arlo App Downloaded on my cell phone is iOS 10.3.3

When I am away from home and the Power goes out and then comes back on, the Arlo Pro Base station knows to reconnect automatically. HOWEVER?

The problem is when I am away from home and the Internet Connection goes out and then comes back on, the Arlo Pro Base station Internet light stays “Amber” and the Arlo Pro Base station does not know to reconnect automatically.

So when I go to My Arlo Account and go to > Settings then > My Devices then > Device Settings > The “Restart” Button is disabled. Does Not Work.

What good is a “Restart” Button if when you need it, it is Disabled. The whole point of a security sytem is to protect your home when you are away from home.

So can someone at Netgear in the Development Team, or an Administrator reply and state if it is technologically possible to re-write the coding script for the “Restart” Button so that when the above happens the “Restart” Button is “Enabled” and I am able to remotely get the Arlo Base Station reconnected to the Internet.

There is a lot of talk about this issue in your Community section but no answer to the problem.

[TTArlo]

The Basestation fails to obtain an IP address and connect to the servers after a power outage or Internet Service provider problem. The Base station attempts to acquire an IP address from the cable modem DHCP server before the cable modem is ready. The Base Station then gives up and remains offline.

ARLO is marketed as a security system! This behaviour is completely unnacceptable for a security system.

The addition of a simple watchdog in the base station software should easily address this problem.

Every N minutes (N=5, 10, settable?) the watchdog should check the base station connection status. If the connection is good, reset the watchdog timer. If the connection is bad, attempt to connect. This could be a call to the process(es) to regain a connection, or a soft reset of the base station.

This should be a simple fix to implement and have the patch rolled out ASAP.

As i said earlier. ARLO is a security system. If you're away from your home or business and the base station goes offline because of a simple power interruption and you can't phyysically do a power cycle, what good is it?

[jguerdat]

While that should be seemingly easy to add, a UPS for your modem, router and base also solves most outage issues.

[traderjohnny]

I have been offline now for over a week.  Nothing seems to work.  Tried rebooting, reset, log out and in, you name it.  The on light is a constant amber color.  all the lights light up green on initual turn on but the amber light comes on afterwords.  I have tried support but there is none!

 What to do?

[steve_t]

---

traderjohnny wrote:

I have been offline now for over a week.  Nothing seems to work.  Tried rebooting, reset, log out and in, you name it.  The on light is a constant amber color.  all the lights light up green on initual turn on but the amber light comes on afterwords.  I have tried support but there is none!

 What to do?

---

When you first power up the base, the power light can stay amber for up to 2 minutes while the base boots up. If you're not leaving it long enough, you may think it's malfunctioning. If you've left it for more than 2 minutes and the power light stays amber, either go back to your retailer or contact support. The contact support tab is at the bottom of the page. I find chatting to a netgear agent is the easiest but there are alternatives too. When you say there is no support, what do you mean?

[BrianDuddy]

I agree 100%. This issue is clearly related to an update. I have been using my system for at least 2 years at 3 different houses and have never had this many issue's until the last 2 weeks or so. While I understand some of the suggestions about having a UPS backup etc, something like that should be considered a " Nice to Have" not something required to remedy what was evidently a poorly tested software update forced onto the system. At the end of the day, for many folks who use these cameras they are not toys or just a fun gadgets to have. They are relied upon heavily for security and monitoring and protection, when something like this happens and you cant rely on the system any longer to do what its supposed to is how you lose loyal customers. Dont become the " Chipotle" of the smart home security market. 

[SunriseSunset]

Power went out, came on a day or so later. Cameras were offline even after internet came back on.  Had to re-add the base to my app  and then re-sync all the cameras.   Basically do a fresh-out-of-the-box install. 

Can the settings for the arlo base station and cameras be saved somewhere so when the internet comes back on it knows what to connect to? Is there really no memory in the base station to allow simple internet settings to be saved?  Is this an issue that Netgear is aware of and is actively trying to patch? 

Please don't suggest a battery backup, that may work for an hour or two but not a real outage.  Besides, it seems like a problem that could be fixed on Netgear's end since other companies don't have the issue. My Smarthings base station works fine after the internet comes back on. 

[GearNetRouter]

If what you say is true then given NG is a router company at its roots, then its gross incompetence not to factor that into the design of the base station. After all, their routers can reconnect after an outage without resetting the router. Are you sure your case is as simple as you described? Set it up and then pull the cord on your modem and tell us what happens when you plug it back in? Are you sure its not the modem?

[jguerdat]

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SunriseSunset wrote:

Please don't suggest a battery backup, that may work for an hour or two but not a real outage.

---

That all depends on the size of the UPS. You can certainly get many hours out of reasonably priced UPSes - my 750VA unit calculates out to maybe 18 hours.

And I do understand what you're saying.

[pc2k17]

I'm pretty sure all your settings and cameras are saved in the cloud within your arlo account.

You should NOT have to start over from scratch after a power outage. I have rebooted my entire network before, cutting power to modem, router, smartthings, arlo base, and as long as I wait to turn the arlo base back on after the router is fully up, I have no problem at all. It all connects up right.

Now if I power on the arlo base station before the modem or router is ready, before I actually have internet, then arlo won't see the internet and needs another power cycle.

So in a power outage scenario, it is most likely that your arlo base will power up before the internet is ready. Worst case is you power cycle the arlo base and you're good to go. What happened to you is not typical, something went wrong, but not sure what.

[SunriseSunset]

I appreciate the replies everyone.  I was hoping just unplugging the base station, waiting, then plugging it back in would work. Sadly, it didn't.

I have tried powering the arlo base down, unplugging everything and then waiting for everything else to come up 100% then power on the base. Still no luck. 

From searching the forums this is a somewhat common issue. The battery backup isn't really a solution, more of a workaround in my opinion, and it wouldn't have saved these incidents from happening.  I have 2 sets of cameras/base stations, one at my house and one at my relatives.  Same thing happened at both locations, so it seems to me it's a netgear thing. Hoping they chime in, I've opened a ticket but the replies are very slow. Sadly I'm outside the 30 day return window (little over 60 days) so returning isn't an option, otherwise they'd go back.