Spotlight Camera Internet Requirement

I was considering two Spotlight cams on my property, one in the back, one in the front. However, some info I found in a post is very concerning. The spec recommends a minimum upload of 1MBs, 2Mbs recommended.

With the Modes feature, My plan was to only have the cams active at night when asleep, or when I am away. It looked like the Modes will do that.

The recent answer from ring in the post stated that even though the caneras are inactivated with Modes, they are still using the WiFi connection and at the full upload bandwidth.

When my upload at best is 3Mbs, and could handle that when asleep or away, but not when I am making use of my connection during the day and at home.

Can someone confirm how the cameras are using the WiFi connection when they are disabled using modes?

Thanks for any info.

Hey @Wally. In order for the cameras to remain online and active, they must have that stable connection to the internet, which requires the minimum and recommended numbers that you have stated. Therefore, even when in the Modes settings to disable the cameras, the cameras will need at least the minimum to remain online. Without the minimum, they may fall offline or not capturing any events, as well as be unable to go into the Live View. In addition, even if they only get the bare minimum upload/download needed, you may see video/audio quality concerns from a poor connection.

I recommend giving them a try to see if it works out, but considering that other devices in the home will be connected to the internet as well, I would also recommend looking into seeing if you could upgrade your speeds even ever so slightly to accommodate.

I would like to open this again with a clarification.

Because of where I live I only have one internet service option.

Let me try again. I understand that the cameras require a stable connection.

So, here is the situation. I am home and disable all cameras while I am in a Zoom meeting or doing some data intensive internet activity. Only enable when away or asleep and all compters are off. I even do my updates manually.

Are the cameras still transmitting/receiving data and tieing up my internet connection while they are disabled thereby causing me issues with internet activity and causing Zoom meeting issues or other issues OR are they just in a standby mode and not transmitting/receiving a LOT of data until I reenable them when I am no longer doing internet activity. If they are not clogging my connection when disabled that is acceptable. I can control that.

@Wally Happy to follow up here! I got your question over to my advanced technical team to ensure I was getting the right information on this specific type of situation. If you have the devices set not to detect or record motion through a Disarm Mode and also do not enable the Snapshot feature, then the bandwidth usage from the devices simply being online would be negligible. Therefore, in theory, this may work out for you. They will still need to transmit some data in order to stay online, but it shouldn’t take up too much bandwidth for when you’re using the internet otherwise.

In all, this could work for you! I will say again that if you’re getting 3Mpbs download and upload, then you will fall in the middle of what we require and what is recommended, as you will have two devices and need 2 Mpbs download and upload as the requirement and then 4 Mpbs download and upload to have optimal performance. You can learn more about how having a poor connection may affect your devices, by giving it a high RSSI value, in our Community post here. Hope this information is helpful to you!

Thanks, that is exactly what I need to know. That will work in my situation.

Appreciate the fast response!

Wally

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