:Connection Fail Error on Web Portal

[markvorlando]

Whenever I run the web portal and click the play icon on one of the cameras it gives me a :connection failed error. Works fine in the Phone app. I have tried both Chrome and IE11. Any ideas?

[jguerdat]

Sometimes it seems to be a server-side problem. You can try logging out and back into the page to see if that helps.  Other times it seems like something is going on in the background that you have no control over and time will resolve it. Make sure your browsers and Flash installations are up to date since that can be the root cause.

[MyArlo]

I'm seeing the same issue - whether with Firefox or IE 11. Home or at work. Something changed with the "click play button" on the application side to enable live camera viewing via the browser. It worked two days ago, and has worked since I purchased my four cam Arlo setup three months ago. Cache cleaned, device turned off and on, network works, base station rebooted. The only activity I don't appear to have performed is jumping up and down vigorously whilst tapping my head. How about a real solution please?

[jguerdat]

What firmware versions are you seeing on cameras and base?  Should be 1.6.2_4344 for the base and 1.2.2688 for cameras.

[bkemperga]

Amazing! Who's monitoring or moderating here? I have the same issue, and I don't see that anyone has a handle on it. I'm all up to date with software updates on flash, etc. I have a good connection. And I have IE and several other popular browsers. 

I can stream on my phone and tablet without a problem.

So, who knows anything about the Web Portal issues?

[hokeysmoke]

The same issue happens to me quite often (maybe 50% of the time).  If I press the play button, let it error out, hit it again, then let it error one more time, it works on the third try almost always.  I'm not sure this will work for everyone, but it does for me.  I assume it is some sort of firewall-related timeout issue.

[jguerdat]

I've had timeouts but it always works on the second try.  I wonder if different servers have differences?

[ptownsend]

Seriously, when does this web portal issue get resolved? I came here looking for a solution and find there is none? After working for many months, it is now failing for me 100% of the time on Win10 Chrome and Edge across multiple machines. Works fine on Android phone and tablets. Repeated retries after "Please wait... :connection failed" don't resolve. Resetting the base station works for a short time (couple of days). The only thing that has changed on my network is adding additional cameras, which I'm now questioning due to this issue and no IFTTT promise date.

[3v3ntH0riz0n]

Hmm.. I experienced this the other day. I used my app to check if the kids came home from school and it said cannot connect. I was freaking out. Lasted for a while. That interruption in service was unsettling. #CloudComputingFail Wondering if Netgear is collecting data on this and working on building better redundancy / load balancing.

[JamesC]

ptownsend,

Are you still experiencing this behavior? Are you trying to login from https://arlo.netgear.com/#/login

Please let us know!

JamesC

[robespierre]

Like others, I find that clicking on the "Live" arrow button in the Cameras section causes the "...Please Wait"  notice to appear for about 30 seconds, then " ...connection failed".  This problem has seemed to be intermittent: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Can you help?

[ptownsend]

Hi James

Yes, still experiencing the issue and that is the portal login URL.  This morning I got a different error message using Chrome: "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server".  Worked fine via the Android app a few seconds later.

This afternoon it doesn't get beyond "Please wait..."

Hope this helps to resolve and thanks for following up!

Peter

[3v3ntH0riz0n]

I had issues connecting to my system via the Iphone app this afternoon about 4 PM.  Then a few minutes later it worked.  I don't think Arlo backend is beefy enough to handle demand.  I suspect NetGear under engineered the back end, or their provider doesn't have the ability to spin up enough resources on a as needed basis to handle peak demand times/loads.

If I could some how simulate their back end hosting and have my cameras report to those servers, I could test this and figure out if the issue is with the cameras or the backend, but having worked in IT on applications that undergo heavy demand at peak times (Exchange and AD) I would suspect the issue lies in the back end where this data flows through.

[Schorschi]

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3v3ntH0riz0n wrote:

I suspect NetGear under engineered the back end, or their provider doesn't have the ability to spin up enough resources on a as needed basis to handle peak demand times/loads.

---

I don't know about that. Netgear uses Amazon's cloud service as the backend. That should be beefy and scalable enough to handle most anything you throw at it. Unless, of course, we're talking about a DOS attack.

[3v3ntH0riz0n]

Do you happen to know the details of how NetGear is using AWS?   AWS is one of the premier cloud platforms, but even I can buy servers and host my own apps in their cloud, doesn't mean I am buying a package that offers on demand resources to match client requests.  There are tiers of service within most cloud offerings and paying for on demand capacity, I would suspect, is going to cost NetGear a pretty penny.  So even if they are using AWS, they may have made some gross underestimates of their product adoption and use.  I haven't used my system very often to check what is happening at my house, but I would say a quarter of the time I am running into random issues.

[hokeysmoke]

The only detail I know of is that Arlo uses the eu-west-1 endpoint, which is in Ireland.  This is what you get back when you ping arlo.netgear.com:

ArloProdLB-1815857678.eu-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com [52.16.17.159]

I'm not sure what "elb" means, but it could refer to Amazon's Elastic Beanstalk or Elastic Load Balancing service.

[ptownsend]

Yes, still experiencing the camera "Connection Fail Error" on the web portal confirming the URL.  Fails 100% of the time across 3 Win10 machines on Chrome, IE, Edge, and Firefox.  Home and work networks.  

Android app works 100% of the time across 3 phones/tablets.

Peter

[JamesC]

ptownsend,

Do you have cookies disabled on the browsers? Some users have had issues when running security/anti-virus software. Disable any you may have and make sure cookies are enabled for your web browsers.

JamesC

[ptownsend]

Thanks for the reply James

Yes, cookies are enabled and my anti virus/malware is not getting in the way (see below).  I of course would not disable virus/malware protection as an exception to run your portal.

The web portal is functioning more frequently for me now - maybe 50% of the time the live view works just fine with no time out.  Would indicate a back-end issue, yes?  Your operations monitoring tools should lead you to root cause and remediation.

Great product - I just hope (for all of us) you invest in and architect the appropriate infrastructure to be successful.

Peter

[jguerdat]

---

ptownsend wrote:

Yes, cookies are enabled and my anti virus/malware is not getting in the way (see below).  I of course would not disable virus/malware protection as an exception to run your portal.

The web portal is functioning more frequently for me now - maybe 50% of the time the live view works just fine with no time out.  Would indicate a back-end issue, yes?  Your operations monitoring tools should lead you to root cause and remediation.

---

Antivirus such as BitDefender HAS gotten in the way.  The suggestion to disable it was never meant to be a permanent "solution" but to be a test.

The fact that you have any connection indicates that it's not AV software or firewall - it would either work or it wouldn't - so the point is moot.  Yes, it could be a backend problem or still something about your installation.  It could be a number of things including a bad base station. Others here have reported various issues that cleared up with a replacement base.  Some went on for months until a trouble ticket led to an RMA.

[agmed74]

I am having the same problem. Just installed the system, I can view it from 2 phones, my wife can view it from her Macbook. 

I cannot view the live feed from my laptop with chrome or IE. All are up to date. Flash and adobe are up to date. I have no extensions or anti virus running. I get a 30 second loading message, then a no connection message. I can still view it on my phone when the computer has a no connection message. I cannot play videos from library on my computer under any browser. Any help is appreciated. 

[JamesC]

agmed74,

If you are able to view on other devices but not your laptop, there must be something on your laptop causing the issue. Bitdefender (anti-malware) commonly causes issues like you describe. You could also try the FireFox browser to see if you get the same results.

JamesC

[kef]

I see that this thread ended in April but the problem continues. I just hooked up my Arlo Q Plus camera and updated the firmware. It was working fine until I spent an additional $99 on the CVR option. Now all I get is ": connection failed" over and over again (BTW, great error message...very helpful). As others have noticed, it works on my iPhone but not on my MacBook Pro using FireFox or Chrome. Here's a screen shot:

Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks...Kevin

[jguerdat]

Try clearing the browser cache.  That has solved various issues in the past.  Also, is it possible that a security setting in your computer's antivirus/malware and/or firewall could be an issue?  There have been problems on Windows computers using BitDefender that need a setting to be changed (maybe whitelisting netgear.com?).  Especially if you've made changes to security settings, that could be an issue.

[Buteomont]

I would like to add my frustration as well.  I'm running Ubuntu Trusty with Firefox and this was working last time I tried it (a couple of days ago), but now there is nothing I can do to view the live stream on any of my cameras from my computer.  My Android tablet and phone can view them just fine.  I've cleared cache, logged out and back in, clicked three times, and all other suggestions but nothing helps.  This is my home network, with no firewalls or antivirus involved.  My phone and tablet are using the same network.

It's obviously a bug in the web app.  How long will this go on before Netgear fixes it?