And that’s what he was referring to, the distance of ethernet between router and base station. Not sure what the point of your response was.
I was trying to think back to before I made the purchase, and I think I just assumed it was a wired base station when they mentioned it had to have a base station… which was kind of a put off for me, but I wanted one anyway.
I’m actually more disappointed at the fact that the base station ports (power and ethernet) point UP. With the mounting holes situated the way they are (only ONE way to mount it,) The wires are going to dangle in a very unappealing/unintuitive way. Other companies do this too… When wall mounting routers and such, I always want the wires to plug into the device from the bottom. Much cleaner looking.
Could be solved by just having two mounting holes much like what they did on the camera mount itself. you can install it in either direction. Do that to the base station too please =)
The point was that you implied that the limits on length for Cat5, 5e, and 6 are different and they are not. The standard for certification of any of the three is 100m,
$50.00 vs $160 to $300.00
In the literature this issue was mentioned. I read all info when purchasing any new product.
The point here is cost for a nest cam. Amazon doesn’t need any more of my money.
I received the outdoor cam a week ago and it works great.
The dashcam utility also works good with NO wifi.
I didn’t have any signal loss anyplace I set the camera throughout my home.
I wouldn’t hesitate to use a $30 extender if needed rather
than spending that much.
An 8 port switch/router only costs $25.
I don’t understand all of the confusion.
It was well documented that the base station would need to connect directly with a router.
I have mine connected to an extender that is already in place.
My only gripe is that the battery seems to run down quickly and I will need to recharge more often.
Perhaps in future version, a swappable battery pack might be a better solution, rather than having to bring the camera inside to recharge.
I have a switch.
But I need to put the base station closer to the cameras and I can’t run wires.
Some of the confusion is due to marketing of “WiFi Extenders” as a blanket term for anything that allows you to expand your network coverage. There are many ways to extend your WiFi coverage, but they work in different ways and have unique advantages and drawbacks. Not comprehensive but here’s a quick reference:
- Wireless Repeater
- Involves no ethernet wires at all.
- Connects to your existing WiFI network as a client (like a phone or laptop) and rebroadcasts its own WiFi (with the same or a different SSID) which expands the WiFI coverage
- Pros: Easy to set up, just needs power
- Cons: Has to be located close enough to your primary router to get a solid signal so you’re limited in how far you can extend your WiFi, cuts your maximum speed in half because it has to split its time talking to clients and the primary router (dual- and tri-band repeaters don’t have this problem because one band is dedicated for the backhaul to the router)
- Wireless Access Point
- Requires an ethernet cable from your primary router
- Connects through the ethernet cable to your primary router and broadcasts its own WiFi (with the same or a different SSID) which expands the WiFI coverage
- Pros: High-speed and reliable ethernet backhaul to the primary router, can be placed anywhere you can run ethernet (up to 300 feet without an intermediate switch)
- Cons: Requires ethernet cable which can be difficult to run through walls/ceilings/attic depending on distance
- Wireless Ethernet Bridge
- Requires no ethernet cable from your router, but provides network access via ethernet cables to connected devices
- Connects to your existing WiFI network as a client (like a phone or laptop) and shares that connection to all devices attached to it via ethernet cables.
- Pros: Convenient way to connect non-wireless devices to a wireless network (printer, desktop PC, older gaming consoles, WCO base station)
- Cons: Has to be located close enough to your primary router to get a solid signal so you’re limited in how far you can place wired devices, all connected devices share the single wireless backhaul to the router so speed isn’t as good as a wired ethernet switch
- Wireless Repeater Bridge
- Combines the functions of a Wireless Repeater and a Wireless Ethernet Bridge.
- This is what most “WiFi Extenders” are by default if they have at least one ethernet port
- Mesh WiFi
- Typically involves no ethernet wires at all.
- Mesh nodes communicate with each other on a dedicated WiFi band while also broadcasting the same SSID on all nodes and passing data through the mesh network back to the “primary” node that’s connected to your internet.
- Many mesh nodes also have one or more ethernet ports that let you connect wired devices (like the base station) to your mesh WiFi network
- Pros: Easy to set up, no ethernet cables required, high-speed wireless network with flexible and expandable coverage (most have 2-3 nodes, but can expand to use more)
- Cons: Usually expensive, some wireless devices get “confused” by mesh networks and can’t connect, most mesh products are proprietary and can’t interoperate with other brand mesh nodes
In the case of the WCO base station, you would use the Wireless Ethernet Bridge capability of a WiFi Extender to provide the base station with a wired ethernet connection without having to run an ethernet cable to that location. You wouldn’t really want the Wireless Repeater function enabled since that would just be another WiFi radio to interfere with the base station.
Problem is marketing for the pre-sale. There were no videos at the time and marketing did not talk about mandatory ethernet connection for a “wire free” camera. The box is deceptively hiding the ethernet connection and the box has ethernet cable in the section “what’s in the box” in some rather light small print. The v1 v2 and pan cam are truer to the term wire free than the outdoor cam.
Now I play the RMA wait game. Once they get this to be the real competitor to cameras like Blink I will consider purchasing. I should not have to buy another product and reroute my home network for this to work. If I wanted to spend extra money and time, I would buy a proper(expensive) security camera system and call it a day.
IDEA: how about improving on the v2 and consider less light pollution by switching to 940nm IR and add a battery back up. This way if power goes out it can continue recording to the SD card.
[Mod Edit]. It was included in early information and has been discussed repeatedly.
Thanks for this background. I expect my Outdoor Cam any minute now from FedEx.
If my Base Station does not provide a strong enough signal from the remote location where my router is, I’ll need to try my Extender. Mine is a TP-Link RE305 and I am not sure yet if it has a Wireless Ethernet Bridge mode - I don’t think so - I think it has a repeater mode and an access point mode. Need to do some reading.
Thanks again for the info!
- bjk
[Mod Edit]How many patents do you have under your belt? Mine range from satellite imaging systems, fuel polymerization, crop pesticide application systems, electronic signatures and so on.
I responded to the legitimate question with a detailed response. Read it. I was not snarky in my response.
Your comment does not add value to the discourse. If you want to add something valuable, do so. [Mod Edit]
The point I was making with the “technical” comment was, I would have picked up on ‘ethernet’ being anywhere in the marketing materials or documentation. It was buried 2/3 down the last tab on the product page on the website.
I plugged my extender base into my router but it just blinks blue and never goes to solid. Have done the troubleshooting (updated firmware, used other cable, changed ports, reset, unplugged for days). Does anyone have any ideas. I have emailed support twice but no response. Also sat on hold for a long time before I gave up so basically, my camera is a brick.
Maybe I am in the minority, but this is awesome. I try to get everything that I possibly can off of wifi and hardwire it. The more bandwidth for things that actually need to be portable the better. I wont buy another camera that doesn’t have hardwire capability.
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Other people have reported this. I’d try and get a replacement unit.
Thanks so much for making it clear that this is not a product I’ll ever buy. In the world of everything being IoT , why would I ever want to crawl and find my switch again?
If and when this becomes a true wifi device, I’ll buy one, as I love my other Wyse devices!
Ethernet maximum CAT 5 or 6 cable length is 100 meters, which is 328 ft.
You say that as if you only have 1 switch. In the world of everything being IoT, your wifi bandwidth is going to become rather full of things that have to be wifi. Anything that can be hardwired should be taken advantage of…
Good luck with that. After almost 2 weeks and 1 boiler-plate email that didn’t address my request for an RMA at all I attempted to go through Amazon Pay earlier today.
Imagine my surprise when the email that Amazon Pay sends to the merchant on your behalf was answered by Wyze support with a note to the effect of it being an un-monitored email address. So, in effect Wyze is avoiding the terms and conditions of the Amazon Pay merchant system by avoiding any contact with customers.
A call to Amazon Pay resulted in a claim being filed on my behalf and I am told that I will have a result in 7 to 10 working days.
Disappointed and slightly disgusted with Wyze over the product and more particularly over their customer service. After multiple orders and buying every product Wyze has made I am very likely done with them at this point.