"There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server"

[cyberjunkyfreak]

Frequently get the above message when attempting to connect to any of the wireless cameras, and I can't find anything about this message online.  There is no rhyme or reason as to which camera(s) get this message at any time.  I have to re-attempt in order to connect, sometimes it connects and sometimes it does not, it fails to connect more often (failure rate is about 75 percent if I had to guess).  Sometimes I'll just get a "please wait" message that 

I have 4 cameras and 1 base station, brand new batteries (just installed the system yesterday).  The system appears to have the latest firmware installed:

Base:  

FW Version

1.4.2627

HW Version

VMB3010r2

All 4 cameras are same:

HardwareVMC3030

Firmware1.1.2074

I have done a hard reset of the base and resync'ed the cameras and same issue occurs.  Sometimes it appears to be connected to a live stream however if I walk in front of a camera it does pick up the movement (as if the video is paused - although it does not show as paused in the web browser).  This does not give me a good feeling when I will be monitoring remote! 

The furthest camera is less than 40 feet from the station (between a couple walls).  All 4 cameras show as full Wifi bars and full battery life when viewing in the web browser.  I'm viewing on a Mac with Yosemite (10.10.4) and Safari (8.0.7).  I have re-installed latest version of Adobe Flash... no help.    I don't suspect any Wifi interference issues (I live in a very rural area).  The base station is set for channel 7 (not sure if I can change this? I haven't been able to figure that out yet) and is hard wired to the router.  The router has it's Wifi channel set for channel 1 (it was set at 6, i changed it 1 as part of my troubleshooting, no difference).  

One thing I do notice is the beacon interval for the base station is reportedly set at 31?  Does this sound right?

I'm wondering if it's a network issue outside of my network (ie, is the message "problem establishing a connection to the media server" refer to the cloud?).  However, I would think if this were the case, more people would be reporting the issue.  I've been troubleshooting these connectivity issues for 6 straight hours now and am running out of ideas.  I really want to like this product, however these connectivity issues have me resting uneasy at the moment.  I don't want to go thru the hassle of returning it, if there's a fix to get stable streaming connections to the cameras, perhaps a firmware update???

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

[ValiantAp6]

Same thing happening here (I'm in Australia). 

The cameras are decting motion, but will not record and you cannot watch the live stream either.

[Cheryl23]

I know! Sooo annoying especially now - I recently had someone do some damage to my property with signs that they may come back, and now the stupid thing wont let me view my house 😐

[Retired_Member]

Hi ,
I recently purchased a three camera Arlo system yesterday and installed it in my home and direct connected it to a netgear router .

Was working fine from yesterday to this morning , now when i go to view live stream on 3 different Samsung Android devices , 1 IOS devices and on PC with internet explorer and google chrome i keep getting the following error message "There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server"

I have restarted the arlo base station twice by power and twice through login in on PC and the error still occurs .

There are no firewall issues as it was working fine up to a few hours ago .

Can some one please contact me to rectify this issue asap

[palmbeach]

When you sell a product, especially one for “security”, then you really need to make sure it works. If capacity on the servers is the issue then it seems like a lack of “capacity planning” to handle the peak load. You should provide a status update on the Arlo website to let customers know there’s an issue with the servers, instead ion letting them flounder around trying to understand what the problem is. Very disappointing!

[ValiantAp6]

All working now (Australia)

[Retired_Member]

thanks seems to be working on my end as well

[BC1956]

Just logged back on and fond that the system is now back up and running.thanks all for the feed back.

Bruce C

[WilsonFlyer]

Give it time. It ain't fixed yet.

[jogeau]

thanks for all the feedback confirming that many people have the same issue as me. 

- some seem to have managed to resolive it -. would be good to understand how concretely. 

- towards netgear I am beginning to  be really  impatiant for concise error and solution feedback. 

the general statements are not good enough after so many days. 

best regards 

[KristynM]

Hello Community Members,

We understand that a handful of users have received this error throughout last night. You may have received this error while server maintenance was performed last night to increase capacity.

Please let us know if you continue to see these errors.

[jgravert]

I am personally still getting these errors.

I can get FireFox to connect without the "There was a problem establishing a connection...." if I clear browser history and go back to the page. But I can get that error to come back if I log in and out enough.

When I do get it to connect and I try to VIEW a LIVE STREAM on any of the Cameras I recieve this error. "Adobe ShockwaveFlash plug-in disabled!"

Adobe Shockwave Flash Plug in is NOT DISABLED. It is ENABLED and updated to the latest version 18.0.0.209.

However if I use the ANDROID Arlo APPLICATION on either my Galaxy S4 or my Galaxy Tab S I have not had any connection issues to the cameras or viewing them.

The only issues I have had are with PC Web Browsers.

I really need the PC Web Browsers to work as I need to configure the Macros and configure Scheduling.

Please advise. Thanks.

[StuBee]

I'm surprised Arlo cannot duplicate these issues.  If they are end-users like us and have this product in their houses...you think they'd run into the same issues.

Today I could actually login via Chrome without clearing everything (unusual).  Able to watch one camera live....the second one just hung with "please wait".  Had to go back to MODE, then Camera again and the live stream worked.  

Also the time delay between hitting Play and the live view seems excessive for a security camera.  7-8 Seconds.   The android app takes 4 seconds (wifi)

I'm willing to work with netgear if they wish to contact me.  

[TomMac]

Funny you mentioned Chrome...

Had a delay on all cameras " waiting status " with Firefox.  Waited about five second and closed it down and opened Chrome.

In Chrome, all cameras were up in less than a second AND the strange part was that I was able to stream 5 cameras at the same time and after 2-3 hits got the sixth streaming live too.

First time I've seen that lately wtih the last  couple of sw versions...  thought was it closed down at a max of 4 streaming now.

(btw, plenty of data rate here with 30mb down, 10mb up this morning )

[armoredsaint]

I am so tired of this stupid message about 75% of the time when I open up my Chrome browser, then I need to hit reload. 

"Your base station is not connected to the Internet. Please make sure it's powered on and connected to your router."

[KristynM]

armoredsaint,

We understand your frustration and our engineers are working hard in investigating this issue and working towards resolvings it.

Has this only been occuring through Google Chrome?

Has this only been occuring while accessing the WebUI on the same network that your base station is connected to?

[StuBee]

Q1.  Has this only been occuring through Google Chrome?

A1.  Yes

Q2. Has this only been occuring while accessing the WebUI on the same network that your base station is connected to?

A2.  yes. But thats the only place i try it from other than my android phone.

[KristynM]

Stubee,

Thank you for providing the information.

Has your Google Chrome been updated lately? A simple troubleshooting step for the browser is to clear your cache and cookies.

In the mean time if the above did not resolve your issue, I suggest using another browser such as Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer while our developers investigate further regarding this.

[BC1956]

This has happened again guys. Please have another look at your servers. I have been without serveillance all day.

Bruce Crocombe

[jguerdat]

Are you sure it's the servers?  Have you tried a different supported browser or app?

[jogeau]

hello, just wanted to restate that I have teh problem using Safari or the IOS app interface. thus it is not related tio Google Chrome only. 

[bally]

Same issue in Australia. I've tried clearing caches, 3 different browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari) without any ability to video stream. I get the "problem establishing a connection..." error or just "connection error"

It sometimes works (after pressing the "play" button multiple times) on an iPhone.

Please help resolve this issue. Just bought an Arlo with 3 cameras and its very frustrating to have these major issues.

[KristynM]

bally,

Kindly try the additional troubleshooting steps that I have provided out in a similar topic that you have posted: Getting Error that Can't Connect to Media Server.

I'm looking forward to your response and results.

[jgravert]

I changed out my Router today from the Netgear WNDR4500v2 to a pfsense SG-2440.

Same issues exist on the new router. It is not my internal network.

As before Android APP either Internal Network or External Network it WORKS.

Web Browser regardless of which one and regardless of which PC I still get the "Your base station is not connected to the Internet. Please make sure it's powered on and connected to your router." error.

tracert results are the same on both Netgear Router and pfsense router.

Internet is Business Class through Comcast with Static IPs.

Yes, I have tried it on a FRESH PC and I have cleared cache and yes I am running the latest versions of every software (i.e. flash, browsers, windows updates, etc.). Doesn't matter if it is on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Why is this so bloody difficult for Netgear to diagnose and fix?

[bally]

Thank you for your response KristynM.

To address your suggestions:

My firewall at home is set to allow all connections and the problem still exists.

Download/upload speed at home is 100mbits per sec and 2mbits/sec, respectively. Upload speed is >40mbits/sec from work.

Browsers tried:

Firefox 40.0.2 (latest version)
Google Chrome Version 44.0.2403.157 (64-bit) (latest version)
Safari Version 8.0.8 (10600.8.9)

Mac OS 10.10.5 (latest version)

ISP is: Telstra

Streaming works on my iPhone using the Arlo app, but only SOMETIMES, but even when it works, I need to click the “play” button multiple times. ie. It fails the first 3 or 4 times, and then sometimes connects a camera. It doesn’t seem to matter whether using wifi away from home, at home, or using cellular data.

The Google Chrome browser can connect sometimes, again with multiple attempts, and not all 3 cameras come on with streaming, although usually still get the “There was a problem establishing a connection to the media server” error. I also sometimes get ": connection failed”.

For example, multiple attempts resulted in 1 camera streaming and the other 2 giving errors. Signal strength and battery are all shown as perfect. After many more attempts, all 3 cameras finally came on for live streaming. Thus, it seems that multiple attempts are required whether from the App or on a computer to connect to live streaming.

I haven’t been able to connect using Firefox or Safari, no matter how many times I try. Recording and watching motion-detected video clips seems fine. The issue is the live streaming.

Looking forward to your assistance in resolving this very frustrating issue. Do I take the whole system back for a refund?

[jgravert]

I just found something that Works on one of my PC's.

Others should try this and see if it works for them.

NOTE: Internet Explorer and Chrome Still DO NOT WORK!

I was able to get this working in FireFox.

Follow these steps and report back here if it works for you as well. You will need to try this with FIREFOX Web Browser. Latest Version.

Step 1) Go Here and Follow the Steps...  https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html

Step 2) Go Here and Follow the Steps....  https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html

Step 3)  In FireFox go to  the Menu that looks like a stack of 3 hamburgers at the top right. Then click  "OPTIONS" then click "SECURITY"    Once on the Security Page click the "Exceptions" button. Add the following websites to the list. 

arlo.netgear.com

netgear.com

You will need to do them one at a time. Click the "Allow" button after typing each one. It will populate in the list below. Then Click "Save Changes".

Step 4) Close FireFox. Make sure it has closed then re-open it. I don't believe I cleared Browsing History but if I did you may have to do this also.

Now visit arlo.netgear.com and put in your username and password and see if it works for you.

Good Luck! and please post your results.