Base Station wifi strength

[GRzz]

Hi

We recently bought the Arlo system, and we are really concerned about the strength of the base station wifi RF radiation. The strength of the wifi seems quite powerful, it manages to surpass 50m and through brick walls.

What is the strength of the wifi of the base station ? And is it safe ?

[jguerdat]

It's about the same strength as a good WiFi router, maybe a tad stronger.  It still has to pass the same radiation standards as any other wireless device to be able to be sold.

[TomMac]

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GRzz wrote:

We recently bought the Arlo system, and we are really concerned about the strength of the base station wifi RF radiation. The strength of the wifi seems quite powerful, it manages to surpass 50m and through brick walls.

What is the strength of the wifi of the base station ? And is it safe ?

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Yes, the signal on the Arlo base is a bit more powerful than my home wifi....

And tho , not sure, I would guess the output in aprox 200mw -300mw with an omni antenna ( no real gain in any direction ) from my test meters

*** (( also FCC states max allowed is 1000mw ))

Good news is the drop off for harm to people follows the 'inverse square law'.... if you double the distance, the power is 1/4

Also, the transmiisson is not all the time, just when taling to the cameras ( heaviest when viewing/recording )

So my recommendation is to place the Arlo base away from where you sit by the lenght of the supplied ethernet cable... after this I wouldn't worry about it as you prob get more raditation from your cell phone.

If you really need , the base can be run on an ethernet cable up to 100m or it also can be used with a wifi extender ( with ethernet port ) that supports enough thru-put  and then placed where-ever.

[GRzz]

Thanks for the technical feedback.
We have actually noticed we also get better sleep when our routers wifi is turned off, hence also the reason of concern, as the base station is always on. I know this sounds pedantic, and yes I'm sure there's many other soursces all around us, but we believe in limiting the exposure at least we're possible.

Curious though, your test on it, was this with an acoustimeter, radio frequency meter ?

[GRzz]

Also, you mention that

'the transmiisson is not all the time, just when taling to the cameras ( heaviest when viewing/recording )'

Does this meant he wifi signal is not active when viewing recording ?

[TomMac]

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GRzz wrote:
Also, you mention that

'the transmiisson is not all the time, just when taling to the cameras ( heaviest when viewing/recording )'

Does this meant he wifi signal is not active when viewing recording ?

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The Arlo base pings the cameras on a regular basis to know they are still there even if in a non-active mode ( disarmed ) which is vey short pulse.

When viewing past videos, the base isn't active as the video comes from the Arlo servers back to the viewing computer/phone. ( remember the Arlo base is the wifi system for the cameras only and really only active then )

PS... both wide range and 2.4ghz radio freq meters as I was looking for strength not exposure

PPS.. and yes, the base will always be transmitting the SSID , so a signal is there but def pulses in strenght when active.

[GRzz]

Ok so would it be Safe to say the Arlo base does not operate like a typical modem router wifi, but rather its frequency is limited to search the cameras only ?

and finally if I were to switch the base off at certain times and then switch back on, would it sync with the cameras automatically or would I need to sync the cameras again ?

Many thanks

[TomMac]

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GRzz wrote:
Ok so would it be Safe to say the Arlo base does not operate like a typical modem router wifi, but rather its frequency is limited to search the cameras only ?

and finally if I were to switch the base off at certain times and then switch back on, would it sync with the cameras automatically or would I need to sync the cameras again ?

Many thanks

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To sum up....no and yes..

While it does operate some what like a typical wifi router as there is a signal emitted (like the ssid) all the time  which can be seen on any normal wifi locate app...but there are also definite higher power pulses... these pulses seem to occur more as the camera is in use, less when not.

Also there is transmission activity from the cameras themslves, which increases as the camera comes active. ( as u would expect )

As to the base power; if you switch off the base station, the camera's batteries will drain a bit faster. Like a cell phone looking for a tower signal ( educated guess here ) the Arlo cameras will pulse/ping to connect to the base more , thereby using more power than when in normal sleep/standby mode.

Also I have seen that when the base losses power for a time, the cameras at some time will stop and loose connection to the base. This can only be fixed by re-syncing the cameras to the base again. No set time for this to happen ( which is why a few users like myself use a ups on the base...and is recommended for remote locations since you can't get the camera back except by physical interaction. )

If I was concerned with exposure like you seem to be, I'd locate the base for best coverage in the home while giving max distance to the sleeping areas. Using either cable or extender as prev mentioned