spotlight wired wifi issues weak antenna

faulkkev · May 11, 2020, 2:11am

I am trying to put a spotlight cam up wired on my garage corner. Needless to say it fails to connect and at random sees my wifi. I have got it to connect if i bring it in closer in an area that does not meet my needs for where i need coverage. I have ubiquiti access points in my house 4 total all tuned particularly for 5hgz and 2.4 is turned down to low power. While installing the spotlight cam the closet access point is about 25 feet away above where im mounting it. I turned the access point power up to full and my iphone showes 100% signal but i can’t ge get the spotlight cam to connect and half the time it sees nothing, but sure sees all my neighbors who are farhter away than my access point. I have had issues in the past with what i beleive are weak antenna on some of the the ring devices. In this case i am feeding it power via a 120v outlet so there is no reason it shoudln’t be able to blast 2.4ghz signal and receive like wise. My house is just wood with modern sheething on the sides so there is no reason it can’t access the AP on 2.4ghz. I tried on other end of garage and pretty much if the spotlight cam is not in line of sight of my first floor AP liternally thorugh a window it fails to work or doesn’t work for long. I have 5 other ring cameras and have had some issues like this before, but im frustrated as something isnt’ adding up the expectation can’t be you have to be right on top of the darn wifi for these devices to work on dc power. I tried other access points by turning their power up but realized it really only could see two of them, but that is fine it only needs one to work. I am quite discouraged that the likely answer will be buy extender, which doens’t sit well with me as i have more than enough access points placed and can’t manipulate their broadcast power and still the ring camera will not work on 2.4ghz and buyiung another product to subsidize the spotlight wired antenna seems unfair.

My cameras are

another spotlight cam battery on solar panel “has issues with weak signal when ap is 12 feet away through window”, but does work.

two indoor cams they work well as the AP is right in line of sight.

floodlight cam "works well and seems to have decent antenna.

Doorbell pro "works but realy grumpy about signal and AP even if only 15 feet away. Antenna is picky on this one and had lots of issues with transformers, but figured that out a year ago been working since.

Open to ideas and feedback, but frustrated with the limits the 2.4ghz is exhibiting when it pretty much should go right through a house.

Chelsea_Ring · May 12, 2020, 7:04pm

Hey @faulkkev. Thanks for detailing out your experiences that you have been having, the trial and error you have experienced, and then run down on how the other devices are communicating in your home! Since this Spotlight Cam Wired is going in the corner of your garage, I’m assuming that maybe the materials in the garage and metal could be the interference your camera is running into, and thus not connecting. While I do recommend a Chime Pro, as this is a wifi extender that is an exclusive network for Ring devices, I know you stated that is not the route you would like to go.

What I have seen some neighbors find relief in is making a separate guest network on their router that only displays the 2.4 Ghz frequency without worrying about the 5 Ghz switching over and affecting the device from staying connected. You could try this, and have all Ring devices, or maybe just the ones that are spotty, connected to this. If you find that this does not work well, I do still recommend a Chime Pro on top of your wifi extender pods that you already have, as it seems maybe the interference from the garage could be causing this connection lapse for this camera. Let me know if you give the guest network a try, and if you go down the Chime Pro route, I recommend buying it from us at Ring directly or Amazon. That way, in the event that you find it may not still help, you can return it within 30 days.