I have the ring door bell 2nd gen & 2 stick up outdoor cams, one of the outdoor cam is not getting a very strong Wi-fi connection! I’m thinking I need a ring Wi-fi extender do I need a base station for the Wi-fi extender to work?
Hello @NattyB ,
Just to clarify, the Ring Alarm system (with Alarm Base Station) “talks” to the all it’s alarm sensors with a “Z-Wave” frequency, and your Doorbell and Stick Up Cams “talk” in “Wi-Fi” frequency. The two frequencies are different.
When you stated, “Do I need a base station”, I wanted to make sure you were not referring to the Ring Alarm system, or if maybe you were looking at the “Alarm Range Extender” (a Z-Wave Extender) on the Ring website. This Alarm Range Extender bridges the signal between the Ring Alarm Base Station and it’s alarm sensors only, and it is not what you need in your situation.
In your case, you are looking for something to extend your Wi-Fi range/strength which is what your Ring Video cameras use. The “Ring Chime Pro” has a built-in Wi-Fi extender and will work for your Ring cameras (only extending Wi-Fi to Ring cameras/doorbells) and should be placed about midway between your current Wi-Fi Router modem and your camera, acting like a bridge between the two. Or you can purchase any reliable third-party Wi-Fi Extender to do the same (with at least 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connection @ 2.4GHz to work your Ring products and other Wi-Fi devices). Also, most Ring camera devices function best when upload and download speeds, for your current Router/modem and any Wi-Fi Extender, are around 2 Mbps or greater.
So, the answer is “no” that you do not need a base station (the Alarm Base Station). You want either the Ring Chime Pro (which extends Ring Wi-Fi) or a third-party Wi-Fi extender. Some Wi-Fi extenders do come with their own Wi-Fi base station, but there are plenty of ‘stand-alone’ Wi-Fi Extenders/Repeaters that simply plug-in to your electrical wall socket, as does the “Ring Chime Pro”.
I hope this is helpful to you. 
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For cameras and doorbell, you will want a wifi extender, but not the Ring extender as that is for the alarm only. Just type “wifi extender” into Amazon and there will be loads available. All they do is extend the range of your current wifi signal.
Awesome to see you neighbors working together! There are certainly many wifi extender options out there, so I wanted to provide some links to ours.
@NattyB, our Chime Pro is a great option for extending wifi signal to your Ring Cameras and Video Doorbells, as described above by @Boone.
The Base Station is only for the Ring Alarm security system, which is a great addition to any “Ring of security”. If anyone here happens to have an Alarm, the Range Extender is great for extending the Alarm signal. I should add, that we’ve recently made an announcement on the Alarm 2nd Generation for our UK neighbors. I hope this helps! 
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