Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras
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srkaiser
Aspirant
Aspirant

Let me say, I'm new to Arlo, and, I've researched many IP cameras, including some doorbell cameras which I still pay an annual fee for, however, throughout my research, Arlo is certainly 'second to none' when it comes to total wireless cameras and still get good picture quality, with that said, my house is somewhat built (oblong), no second floor. Three of the most important areas of coverage for me is the driveway, the side of my house, and my backyard along the fence line, however, only one camera is getting really good WIFI. I have ordered a second Arlo Base Station to place in my attic, connect it with an Ethernet to a WIFI Extender, and allow for the camera in the driveway to receive a much better signal, however, the camera along the fence line also needs a base station to increase it's signal at the backyard. My question is, may I use (3), three Arlo Base Stations on the same network and dedicate them to their own camera while using the Arlo Base Station that's already directly connected to the main router, and use that station as the 'main base station' for viewing all the cameras, or would I have to switch to each base station to view the recordings, thanking you in advance, as always, I am.

 

Very Truly,

Scott  

2 REPLIES 2
jguerdat
Guru Guru
Guru

The number of bases is unlimited. The only limitation is the total number of cameras per account.

brh
Master
Master

@srkaiser

As mentioned in the above reply, you can have as many bases as you wish but there are a couple of things to think about for long term reliability and happiness with your system. I have three base stations to get even signal strength on all my cameras. Using Wifi extenders worked well for me until I purchased my Skybell HD Trim video doorbell, (no monthly fees). The signal strength was not strong enough to reach my main router and it did not like the fact that the extenders will have a different network name than your main router name. For example, say your wifi network name from the router is Netgear 5576. The extenders will have a name like Netgear 5576 - 2.4 ext. Skybell did not like that at all. 

So I looked into mesh network routers, (and there are several good ones out there), and settled on the Netgear Orbi Router with 2 satellites. The main reason I chose the Orbi, (while quite expensive), was that the router has 3 empty ethernet sockets and each satellite has 4 empty sockets. The second reason I chose Orbi was that the Orbi system reserves one channel to be used exclusively for backhaul communications.

The second problem you will encounter with more than one base station is that each one must be armed/disarmed seperately which can be a real pain. So, I went with a Samsung Smartthings hub. After pairing your Arlo cameras with the Smartthings hub, Smartthings will control the cameras and does not care which base station is doing what or what cameras are linked to which base station. You simply leave each Arlo base station in the Armed mode and let Smartthings do the rest. Plus, Smartthings gives you a lot more options, such as using other compatible with Smartthings sensors to trigger video recordings giving you more flexibility and overcoming any lag in the cameras recording after detecting motion.

You might not wish to spend the money or time to use my suggestions, but at least look into them in case you wish to improve your overall experience in the future.

 

Brian