★★★★★ 4
Just a Toy
This is a snippet from a review I provided for the Ring doorbell...
"The absolute showstopper is the horrific problem with wi-fi - a problem so consistent and acute that it renders this product useless. The doorbell and the cameras are constantly going offline, and the only way that they can be brought back online is for the user to be onsite and physically reconnect the devices. Talk about unclear on the concept! The whole idea of home security is that you want it working when you're AWAY, Amazon, not just when you're at home.
"The slightest network glitch causes the system to completely blow up: a slight power interruption, the router temporarily losing network, etc. However, every single device in my household is smart enough to come back online once the connection has been restored, except...the Ring system. Sometimes, eventually, the doorbell "figures something out" and comes back online, but the cameras? Never. They would be better off as paperweights."
I realize that there are reviews here that claim to offer fixes, but that's not the point. These cameras should behave exactly like any other wi-fi device in the house, bar none - but they don't. The signal in my house is not "weak" - I have repeaters all over the place. I have perfect signal strength on my tablets, phones, laptops, and TVs, yet the Ring software claims that - sometimes - my wi-fi signal is "weak".
Note the emphasis on the word "sometimes". Although the rest of my devices see my wi-fi signal exactly the same wherever they are, these cameras are different. I've seen indicators that have displayed everything from full signal to no signal to everything in between even though the units are positioned in the exact spot every time, no exceptions.
Besides, these reviewers need to read the part I've written here about having to be onsite to bring these units back on line. THIS...is ridiculous.
Last, but certainly not least, these cameras BLEED battery. I've had cases where I've been away a week and the motion detection has never come on and when I get back, the batteries are almost gone. This is less of an issue when the cameras have gone offline, of course, but then what's the point of having a camera with some battery left if it was never working in the first place?
If there is a way around all this, I'd like to know it, but it should come from Amazon - the vendor, not from product reviewers.
UPDATE 8-20-2023: After some great help from a customer service rep (including a replacement door chime), preliminary tests have shown that the cameras now stay online. Of course, only a long-run evaluation will do, but it does seem like things have improved.
At issue was a phemomenon called "node hopping" where the cameras seem to randomly seek out other IP addresses on the subnet then attempt to reconnect. Usually node hopping occurs when there are more devices attached to a subnet that what a router is configured to handle, but in my case, even when all my devices are attached, there are plenty of leftover addresses for the cameras to use. This is especially true when we are away where as many as six devices are actually removed from the network.
With my new Chime Pro, however, that doubles as a subrouter, the cameras are linked to this device exclusively, so node hopping is supposed to cease.
The other issue I had was due to the unusual battery drain on the cameras that I noticed when they are not active and recording. I had not anticipated that they have to remain "alive" for the user so that user can wake them up when needed, or that they wake themselves up when motion is detected. Evidently, this process requires more battery power than I had first believed. Lesson learned is that unless you want to disconnect the cameras and remove the batteries after each use, then be prepared to make sure they are fully charged up before you go away even if they have been little used previously.
Thanks again to Melissa for the support and I hope that other folks can benefit from this information.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2023
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