Please read

[Gotcha]

Today I learned that a single (and portable, it appears) wifi jammer can block video recording. While the neighbors weren't our sole focus (we wanted an extra set of eyes so to speak). Said neighbors noticed it and we believe got some sort of jammer as most of their comings and going went without recording after we had been recording just fine when we had it hidden. Luckily we were smart enough to have other security measures as back up (and we advise you to do so too) but we were very disappointed to find this out.

If anyone has thoughts or advice, we'd truly appreciate it.

Thank you.

[TomMac]

Simple... yes it is possible But I don't think this is your case... prob just settings.

First, they would have to spend some good coin. Second their shipping was super fast as you just recently installed.  Last, all your normal wifi would prob be effected to a point.

The easy test is if you can stream the camera live, the signal is fine and something else is going on.

[Gotcha]

We have many tech stores so I believe they could've gotten something quickly. Is there no way to circumvent this? Nowhere was this potential problem mentioned.

[TomMac]

can you live stream the cameras?

ps edit;  believe it would be illegal for  a tech store to sell 'blockers' re the FCC

[jguerdat]

+1 on the streaming test. -1 on the likelihood of being jammed. Start with the basics and eliminate possibilities.

[Gotcha]

I truly believe they have something. A friend claimed those jammer devices are illegal but I saw a number of places online that sell them - and they are specific for "white noising" wifi security cams. Anything else come to mind?

[TomMac]

Like i said... it's possible but not likely.

The streaming test is the easiest thing to do...if you can stream, they're not blocking record... it's a setting or location

[JustLearning]

An illegal jammer is in use in my neighbourhood. The mobiles and wifi just stopped working and noticeably when there was a suspicious noise outside and I tried to live stream - there has been criminal damage, theft and more. The telephone lines possibly have been disconnected in the past but this has been happening more in the last few years. Has anyone found a solution?

[jguerdat]

I suspect your only recourse is to contact police and the FCC. Locating the jammer is key.

[JustLearning]

Thank you for your reply. The police I spoke to did not seem to know about jammers and suggested they could only do something if a person was caught with a jammer. The U.K. equivalent (I think) of the FCC, OfCom was not able to offer advice when I called.

[TomMac]

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JustLearning wrote:
An illegal jammer is in use in my neighbourhood. The mobiles and wifi just stopped working and noticeably when there was a suspicious noise outside and I tried to live stream - there has been criminal damage, theft and more. The telephone lines possibly have been disconnected in the past but this has been happening more in the last few years. Has anyone found a solution?

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May not be what you want to hear, but, In this case if true, the only solution is a fully wired camera.... this would not be effected by a jammer.

[jguerdat]

Also, possibly finding a local ham radio club could be useful.  These guys may have equipment that would help identify where the jammer might be located.  Of course, it could also be a ham operator that's broadcasting, perhaps at an illegal strength, causing the problem.

[JustLearning]

Thank you! Is there anyway of making this private? If these pages are available to anyone even without an Arlo system, reading this might make Arlo easier to defeat.

[jguerdat]

The only way to make this private here is to use private messaging which, of course, eliminates everyone except the two people chatting.

Any system can be defeated. Local storage can be stolen, cloud storage can be blocked by cutting the Internet connection, pretty much everything can be defeated by cutting power. Sure, there's ways around specific issues but nothing's perfect. While the police may not have been helpful so far, there's always ways to elevate the issue to someone who will listen, maybe by taking it public, as in a newspaper reporter. 

[JustLearning]

I would like to rule out other possibilities:
Wifi on and showing a strong signal, base station and cameras on and armed, yet app shows cameras greened out. People were in range of the cameras at the time and would normally trigger them to record. Someone climbed on my roof at the time the cameras were not working, this is not a coincidence. The speed seems to vary quite a lot but is this something nearby devices could affect? I have seen a jammer so that remains a possibility! Does anyone know how to find out what exactly is happening?

[TomMac]

there has been criminal damage, theft and more. The telephone lines possibly have been disconnected in the past but this has been happening more in the last few years. Has anyone found a solution?

Someone climbed on my roof at the time the cameras were not working

If the above is going on ,sorry to say but you have more problems then just a jammer signal.

I jammer with any range woild effect the cameras AND all wifi to other devices in the same area... simple test is to use a wifi device ( phone ,tablet,etc ) when you think someone is jamming the cameras.

As i said before, contact police, stay safe and add a wired camera ...simple. The Arlo cameras while good are used best as a supplement to another home alarm system.

[JustLearning]

Thank you for your reply, that's helpful and I will do. In the meantime, I still do not see how it is possible for Arlo to be disabled selectively when the wifi is still working, but sometimes the wifi also stops working! Perhaps it is bandwidth some of the time?

[TomMac]

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JustLearning wrote:
Thank you for your reply, that's helpful and I will do. In the meantime, I still do not see how it is possible for Arlo to be disabled selectively when the wifi is still working, but sometimes the wifi also stops working! Perhaps it is bandwidth some of the time?

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Not selectivly disabled , it would jam all in range or not..  if one camera is going out at times, its prob going to be another problem or interference... heck even microwave ovens can cause problems to wifi....telephone in the 2.4ghz bands , etc.

[JustLearning]

Interesting. Sometimes it has been all, but not recently. It might be a telephone, but could you elaborate? What other problem might there be? It would be great to solve this!

[TomMac]

Anything that uses or generates a signal in the same frequency that the arlo's use can cause interference.... many cordless phone use the 2.4ghz freq range and even tho not an exact freq, some devices put out spurious interference