Arlo wirefree - syncing unreliable and cameras drop offline almost immediately after sync

[ld123]

Hi,

I had my Arlo working with one camera fine for about 3 weeks, before I tried to add a second and third camera.  Shortly after trying, the first camera went offline (showing >60% battery life still), and the second and third cameras failed syncing repeatedly before eventually adding, but also going offline almost immediately.

Spent a while diagnosising with Netgear support, before they decided to replace the base station, as when running a WiFi analyser, the basestation SSID was showing offline after a successful sync.

Today tried to re-add the cameras to the new basestation, but having almost identical issues to before.  Syncing fails probably 90% of the time, and never managed to get more than one camera successfully synced at once.  Tried factory reset, leaving the cameras off, installing a brand new set of batteries in to the cameras etc.

Looking at the wifi analyser, I can see the NTGR_VMB SSID shows up (which seems to change after a factory reset), but most of the time it is dead/offline, only briefly becoming active for a few seconds every now and then.  When syncing, even then it only seems to come on and off briefly, with the sync mainly failing.  The 'sync' light has never come on a steady green after syncing a camera successfully (only time is briefly after a factory reset).

I've just ordered another set of Panasonic batteries for the cameras (same model as they shipped with) just in case, as I'm using an OEM brand now, but other than that I am out of ideas...  

Basestation is showing firmware 1.9.8.0_16666, and the one camera I managed to sync is showing 1.2.16720.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Adam

[jguerdat]

Are the power and Internet LEDs on the base green and steady? If not, it may be the power supply, not the base.

If steady green, try moving the base away from the router. That's helped some folks.

[ld123]

Power and internet both ok and steady green, although the internet flashes sometimes I presumed that indicates data transfer..

I’ve actually disabled the 2.4GHz radio on the router just in case there’s interference, but confirmed it was on band 11, where the Arlo was on band 6 even before. But will try it in a different location just in case.

Finally managed to get a camera to sync with new batteries, but again went offline after less than a couple of minutes. After power cycling the camera, it flashes blue once on power on, but never does the rapid blue to indicate re-connection.

Adam

[ld123]

Today I set this up at my house, instead of my mum's, and it works fine with no problems (all 3 cameras synced first time, and worked as they should).   So I can only presume it is some kind of interference taking place...  

However in the last set up, the Netgear hub was placed several meters away from anything else (to the extent that the network cable would reach!), the 2.4GHz wireless was shutdown...  so not sure what it could be!   Only other thing that changed from the one camera working ok was Virgin Media changed the cable modem/router to a new model, although nothing else has problems on the cable connection, and the internet light shows as steady (and the hub shows as online fine too).

[jguerdat]

It usually isn't the placement of the base relative to the router although some folks have resorted to that. Other sources of 2.4GHz interference, such as cordless phones, microwave ovens, etc., can all get in there.

[steve_t]

How many other 2.4GHz networks are at your house? Neighbours etc?

At your house, choose the 2.4GHz band that is least cluttered for your wifi router. Restart the Arlo base station. The Arlo base station should use the same band as the chosen 2.4GHz band. Apparently there are less collisions that way. Also, some people have suggested that Channel 6 is the best channel to avoid interference for some reason.

You've isolated the issue to interference. Now to try a few things to keep things sync'd OK