Outdoor Base won't connect to WiFi if 5GHz network exists

Cameras
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Hi Tanderson,

I feel your frustration. Wyze products are a pain in the a$$ and seem to think that Security and customer needs are second to meaningless features.

From an IT security standpoint… it’s recommended that you create a separate network for IoT devices. I’ve never used Unifi, but I suspect you can setup multiple “Guest Networks”. For example, on my Tri-band ASUS, I too use a single SSID for the main network. It uses the 2nd 5GHz band as the backhaul (connections between nodes).

For each band, I can setup a guest network. I name them using my main network and append the following for easy identification:

  • “NAME-IoT24” for inferior IoT devices like Wyze (2.4GHz)
  • “NAME-IoT51” for non-inferior IoT devices (5.1GHz 1st band)
  • “NAME-G51” Main Guest network for family and friends (5.1GHz 1st band)
  • “NAME-PRNT” for my legacy HP printer that can only use WPA1. It’s the only device on that network and uses MAC Filtering to only allow that one device.
  • I’ve even setup a onetime network for service personnel. You can even set a duration that the network is available. When done, just disable it.

Now back to Wyze:

There’s literally NO reason for IoT devices of TODAY not being 5GHz compatible. 5GHz was introduced in 2014.

I’ve seen posts where people defend this limitation as an “industry standard”, and that statement is synonymous with “just because”. The definition of “industry standard” means too many companies are providing inferior products today… so, therefore we should just accept these inferior product as “leading edge technologies” even though they are deliberately neutered products… so they can later brag about New Features for their products… even though NEW FEATURES have been available by other companies for years.

On the comments I’ve seen about looking to the router as the issue… that’s another flawed approach. If companies like Wyze want their products to connect to a home router… then it’s their responsibility to ensure compatibility. Not the other way around… even though routers are already backwards compatible. Most, if not all routers of today support technologies going back two DECADES.

There is literally no excuse for Wyze having so many security flaws and poor customer service and selling inferior products that can’t even meet the demands of TODAY’s consumers.

One example is password changes. You need to fully reinstall all Wyze products if you change your network SSID and/or password!? This is a security flaw and completely unacceptable. People need to change their security settings for a variety of reasons. Compromised passwords are one of them.

I have a Schlage deadbolt that I can change the network credentials within the app connected directly via Bluetooth. It took me less than a minute.

People who own a Nest thermostat can change their network credentials right on the thermostat itself… for several years now.

Long story short… Wyze sells inferior products that lack security and features consumer’s demand.

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In the app, if I hit change connection, I get a pop-up that says simply unplug your ethernet cable, and it will connect to Wi-Fi automatically. The blue light flashes for a minute, goes black, then it comes back on flashing vigorously and does this nonstop. I will try creating a separate Wi-Fi net work and see what happens. That of course means I need to change all the other devices to use that net work just to get the outdoor base v1 to work.

23

It did not work in my house where I have a Google nest Wi-Fi mesh system. That system does not allow you to separate 5G from 2.4 GHz.

I walked over to my other house, where I have a Netgear nighthawk router. those networks are separate and have both a 5G and a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi.

In the app, I told it to connect to the 2.4 GHz Netwerk, and it worked just fine.

This is not what I would call an issue with Google nest Wi-Fi devices. The device does broadcast in both frequencies, it just seems that whatever reason the Wyze device must be failing to connect to it. I should point out that the other 40+ Wyze devices on the nest system work great. I also have WPA 3 enabled on that system, and all the other wise devices work fine.

That’s older Netgear does not support WPA3, but it does appear to work with the Wyze outdoor base.

Now that I am thinking about it. I ran into this problem in my other house overseas also with a Google nest Wi-Fi system. I got around it by plugging in the outdoor base devices into the ethernet port. It is now all making sense.

Has anybody successfully been able to get the Wyze outdoor V2 base to work on a Google nest Wi-Fi device? if someone can confirm this, I will try using an outdoor V2 overseas and see what happens.

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This is a long-standing bug. Does the Nest Wi-Fi allow you to create a guest network that’s 2.4GHz only? Switching your base station to that network could solve your problem (it did mine).

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Thank you for asking.

No, the nest does not…it allows you to create a guest.

I ended up going to another house with the Wyze outdoor base + cameras to see if it would work there. Older Nighthawk 7400 model router. That router has a 2.4 GHz SSID and a 5 GHz SSID, both with different names, so I tried to connect it to the 2.4 GHz and it worked.

Once I got it to work, I tried moving the outdoor base further and further away from the Nighthawk. Surprisingly, it got a great ‘3 bar’ connection (3 out of 3 in the UI). Was very happy about that.

Then I tried to connect the cameras to the base, which it did just fine from within 10 feet away. 3 bars on the outdoor cam connectivity scale.

Then I moved the cameras 20-25 feet away from the base, and got zero or 1 bar. I wanted them about 35’ away from the base, but could not get them to stay connected after numerous attempts.

I then moved the Nighthawk 7400 to the same house as the Nest Wi-Fi mesh system, just so I could get the outdoor base to connect to the network. That was a success, but there was probably too much 2.4 GHz power, and it started to cause problems with the pan scan v2 cameras that were working fine before I introduced the Nighthawk to the house. I was able to get the outdoor base to connect just fine. I then went on my roof and installed the wyze outdoor cameras themselves – about 15-20 feet away, but I just could not get a reliable connection. I tried putting the base outside. I put it on the edge of my deck railing. I put it on a table below the eves of the house. I tried moving antennas in various positions. Just could never get a strong signal even from 15’ away.

I removed the wyze setup, removed the nighthawk setup, and my existing cameras on the google nest network started working better.

It was a 3 hour experiment to find root cause/confirm that the wyze outdoor base does not work with the google mesh setup, and to confirm what I already suspected might be the case…the outdoor cameras would not work well regardless of where I placed the outdoor base – inside or outside.

The testing was a success as it confirmed the data I learned earlier this week…wyze oudoor and google nest mesh do NOT work together if you are trying to get the base to connect via Wi-Fi. The Nest does have an ethernet port, which is how I use it in my other house, but I am in the process of replacing the outdoor cameras with a Wyze v3 or OG – currently just $24 or something – and work much better for me.

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Um…I asked whether it allows you to create a 2.4Ghz guest network, so I don’t understand that answer. I had continuing failures to connect between the camera and the base until I set up such a network; that fixed it for me. I have a Synology mesh setup.

Anyway, how many devices are on your local area network? In THEORY, Wi-Fi routers support up to 254 devices. In practice, much over 20 and you start running into problems. Newer modems are better at supporting more devices, but even they have problems after about 40 or so.

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I think you meant to say “Newer routers” as we connect to routers, the router connect to the cable modem. Even so on combo devices, its the router side.

Since you brought up the device count issue. I agree. So many routers even mesh routers have a cap/ceiling that must be a consideration. I was just looking today, at a highly discounted WiFi 6 model that was about 1/3 its original cost, the count per router was 40. And even if you count/multiply the router limits together, most, or none, have a tool, that allows us to shift/transfer/force a device over to a router where there’s room for that device.

I’ve been playing around with this problem using some ASUS routers. I added a AIMESH compatible router to my mesh, to “pull” some device away from the main, to reduce the number attached. I’ve found that by using distance between the main and sister node, or inserting another even lesser capable node between the main and node I can help the main to reduce the number attached and shift some to another node. I would not call this balance, because its not optimization, its simply unmanaged moving away from the main. Think of it like a sliding bar, but physically changing the distance between the main and node by adding another node and adjusting the distance from from the main for the 3rd unit. No scientific, just hit-and-miss.

In the ASUS granular 2.4 and 5 GHz band, there’s some settings that allows the system (that’s both the main and nodes) to authorizes or permits a device to wander over to a stronger node where the signal is stronger. I can’t remember now, its name. None of these setting names are meaningful any more. Gotta look their definition up every time, I forget them. Much to be said for a slimmer set of WiFi settings like the Google/Nest WiFi Pro 6e system where we are burdened by granular settings to play with.

28

Sorry for late reply – traveling abroad.

It allows you to create a guest network, yes it can.

However, just like the main network, after you give the SSID a unique name like “Guest_Wifi”, it will broadcast that same SSID name across both the 2.4 and 5 GHz spectrums. Therefore, you cannot create a guest network just on the 2.4Ghz network. It will be broadcasting on both frequencies with the exact same name.

So creating a guest network does not help at all with the Google Nest Wifi setup.

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Too bad…my Wi-Fi’s web page allows the option of making the guest network 2.5 or 5GHz, or both. Are you sure there’s no such option?

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Very sure. Widely discussed on the Google forums on Reddit as well.

Though it is very hard to blame Google for a problem that has to do with the Wi-Fi on the wise device?