Returning my 4 Camera Setup, Here's Why:

[AgroCragg]

I got a 4 pack a litte more than 2 weeks ago. I am returning the entire system due to reliability and basic coverage flaws that make the use of this system worthless.

Let's first start with my 'setup';

My house is 3,500sf, mostly on one floor. I have an SBG surfboard router/wifi, and a brand new Netgear AC1200 extender. I wanted a camera for my driveway, front door, back patio and back yard. My router was in my office, and the extender was near my front door. Due to my garage being out front, I had to find the 'middle' ground for the base as I spent a few hours positioning the cameras to try to find the 'sweet spot'. The base was placed next to my extender, near the front of my house. So, after daily use for 2 weeks, here are the major flaws. To me, the entire system is still in beta mode, and should have never been released as a 'true' security system.

Flaw #1: Base Range. The stated "300 feet" is bull. I had all cameras that were 80 to 100 feet from the base, and the wifi signal was down to 1 and 2 bars depending on the day. Of course I didn't have a clear shot (unless you live in a barn), but by no means do I live in a bunker. Typical residential construction for my region. Block walls, metal stud. I also have a normal family with a few wifi devices, but nothing out of the ordinary to distrupt the signal. There is no way for me to extend the range without maybe getting another base. That's a huge problem to not get full bars for all of my cameras for a typical home.

Flaw #2: Recordings not posting to my library with various 'trigger' rules. I spend hours, surfing the forums and trying to troubleshoot. I restarted, I resyched, I reset, I did everything that folks in the forums mentioned. No luck. I honestly don't have time to call netgear for a simple setting within the app or web that will not work. Here was the issue; I had my driveway cam (1) and front door cam (2) record on motion. I then set up a rule so that when 1 detected motion, it triggered 2. I did the inverse as well. Problem was, camera 1 would detect motion, I would get an alert on my phone that 1 and 2 were recording (great!), but only 1 of the recordings would show up in my library. That's a problem, since I miss 50% of the action.

Flaw #3: Delay. This is the fatal flaw. I read all of the articles about positioning (yes, they detect better side to side then front to back), and mounting heights. I had my 8 feet off the ground, typical for a home. Above a door and above a garage door. They would detect motion, but the 5 second delay was enough to not pick up the critical video that I was seeking. But that's not the worse part. OK, so say I'm OK with the 5 second delay, on a 20 second recorded video. The worst is that camera will not start back up again (if the motion continues) until the 20 second video is done recording. That second delay is unacceptable. So, I miss the first 5 second, and then some other TBD time (5-10-15) second of motion. What good are these cameras if for 45 seconds of motion that it only records 20?

Flaw #4: Sometimes 'connection' error, when trying to access cameras. So, I'm at work, and want to check in on my property. Randomly, I have to close my app, or keep hitting view for it to work. And the cameras I'm accessing have full wifi signal.

Flaw #5: Resolution. I'm not looking for 1080, nor did I expect it. But the resolution buffers, and goes in an out and is well below 720 as stated on the box. This is with the cameras that have full wifi signals. 

So, those are the deal breakers for me. I bought this for a security system,as the title of the product is "wireless security system", however it is totally unrelaible for this use. If you want to buy this to monitor your baby, or have a 1 cam setup for something that really is not that important, then this is the sytem is for you. Yes, this system is a snap to setup, the alerts are great, the quick downloads are great, the cloud storage is great, and it's very user friendly. But the most imporant thing, to me at least, is the reliablity to be able to 'catch' the event. This system may catch 1 in 5 events, and that is not good enough for me.

System is arleady taken down, boxed up, and shipped back. I had high expectations for this product, especially with the great reviews, but I guess I had to experience it first hand. I'm a pretty rational person, and homeowner who just wants to be able to view his property during an event, and this product fell well short. Maybe another 2 years of upgrades I may revisit the product. So long for now.

[JamesC]

AgroCragg,

I am sorry to hear Arlo was not a good fit for your needs. I will forward your concerns to the product manager.

Thank you for the feedback!

JamesC