Not only does the doorbell pro’s chime broadcast its SSID AND use WPA2-Personal, its outright blasting its p2p connection to the doorbell when plugged in 3 feet from the door where the doorbell resides. To make matters worse, its doing this while interfering with my home network on the exact same channel. I’ve tried repositioning it, unplugging, resetting, etc. but this is the continued behavior which leads to make me believe it was, for some reason, designed this way. I will likely be using Kali to test for vulnerabilities next, like KRACK. I noticed this being mentioned by others in the past so I think at this point it should really be pushed up on the priority list for Wyze to correct, especially after the entire September fiasco this year and the 2022 Bitdefender report. Wyze needs to take issues like this more seriously.
I have often asked for this to be fixed. I reported it here in a Fix-it-Friday event back in Summer 2022:
But not very many users agreed (voted) that it should be considered a priority high-impact issue compared to others.
I suspect that this is partially because a lot of people don’t notice, and for those who do, many don’t see that it would make much difference. Technically, Wyze could “hide” the SSID name broadcast like I’ve been asking them to do, but the reality is that this doesn’t actually make it more secure, it just makes everything LOOK a little more clean. It is best practice because it is not an SSID we will ever need to select to connect to manually, so it shouldn’t be showing up that way. However, even if they do hide it like we’ve been asking, it won’t change the fact that it is still broadcasting WiFi that can add to signal interference (just like every other single WiFi device does. That issue will remain.
Please do. Keep in mind that if you learn anything and report it to their Bug Bounty program, they will actually PAY you for whatever you discover. Bug Bounty: Wyze Bug Bounty - Bugcrowd On the other hand, you could share what you find here instead, but you won’t get any financial compensation for it. 
Though I would enjoy reading any findings.
We could try submitting it to Fix-It-Friday again like I tried before, though I suspect that like the last time I tried, we wouldn’t get a lot of the community to agree that it’s a high-impact priority.
As for the channel number, I am not sure they can change that. Since the Chime is connecting to the Router, it has to be using the same channel as the router. If they changed the channel, then it would stop having any internet connectivity and stop functioning. 
For my doorbell pro, it’s conflicting with my orbi router wifi 5GHz channel 157, This has lead to reduced wifi throughput, enough so that I can no longer watch youtube via wifi and switch to 5G and use up my phone data plan.
Why can’t I change this channel?! Do I need to junk this doorbell and use a competitor’s doorbell?!
If your Orbi cannot handle competing wifi to the point that not even youtube will stream, sounds like you need to change router brands. Or just change the channel on your orbi.
All modern wifi from N (Wifi 4) onwards is designed to manage spectrum congestion and interoperate with other networks.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your feedback. However having internet access at my home is far more important than having a doorbell camera. I have over 10 different wyze products, over the course of the past decade but having one that I can’t change the wifi channel will cause me to switch to a different doorbell camera.
I have a few different routers that I have switched channels on but this wyze doorbell chime does not seem to have an interface where I can change the wifi channel. If there’s a way to change the channel on the wyze doorbell chime, I’d be very interested in learning how to change this.
Thanks,
-Alexei
I’m not saying to give up your internet access.
You don’t change channels on client devices, you change it on your router, and clients learn that channel from your router (or access point).
If you want the doorbell and chime to be on a different channel, you’d have to get a second router or access point and dedicate that to them. They will match the channel of the AP they’re connected to. Even for communication directly between the two, since they only have a single wifi radio in them, and it can only have one channel active.
What about swapping them to use 2.4ghz so they don’t affect your 5ghz network? The channel being used most likely has nothing to do with the speed decrease, it is likely due to the fact that the doorbell is outside, so it has a weak signal and slow speed (5ghz does not penetrate walls, especially exterior ones, well). Wifi is a “lowest common denominator” technology, so that slow link speed to the doorbell is dragging down the speed of your other devices on 5ghz.
Again though, you can’t change the channel on the doorbell or chime, they will always be the same channel as the wifi they’re connected to, that’s how wifi clients work.
Some routers do not allow you to the change the wifi channels.
The vast majority of Wyze devices use 2.4GHz instead of 5GHz.
My router is 9 feet from the doorbell camera and the chime is 12 feet from the doorbell camera and 3 feet from the router.
Purchasing a dedicated router for a doorbell camera, when there is no indication of this issue is not realistic.
Wasn’t suggesting that you get a dedicated router. Just saying that you can’t change the channel on any client device, that’s not how it works.
How about wyze publicize this limitation of this doorbell camera by putting this information on the box and the description of the camera by stating the chime is a wifi hotspot that is 2.4GHz and is locked to channel 11, This is so that customers can be informed, before they buy something they can’t use.
Why can’t you use it?
Even if your home wifi is locked to channel 11 also (seems extremely unlikely) any wifi standard from the past 15+ years can coexist on the same channel. It isn’t ideal, but they share bandwidth and I’m guessing the doorbell/chime isn’t taking much.
Not sure what you mean by a wifi hotspot though, it isn’t using cellular I’m sure. If the chime acts as an IP or a wifi direct device and sets up its own wifi network to communicate with doorbells, not terribly surprising, though one would think it would either use the LFR band or just connect to your home’s wifi. But in reality, like I said, not a huge deal. I would guess it isn’t actually locked to 11 and probably scans at startup, but I’m not familiar with it so can’t say for sure. If you have a neighbor using 40mhz channels on their wifi (or you’re using 40mhz on yours) it is not uncommon for devices to pick channel 11 as the only one that looks usable. They never should have made 40 an option on 2.4ghz, terrible idea. If you’re having wifi issues, it is much more likely to be due to something like that than from the minimal traffic between chime and doorbell.
Yes, it is, for my fastest and primary.
The chime is locked to channel 11 at 2.4GHz. It interferes with my router. There should be a warning about this in the instructions.
FYI, I’m a software engineer. I started developing software in 1989 using cassette tape drives for data storage. So, I’m not a new user of cameras, networking, software, or hardware.
You said your router does not have the ability to change channels but now you’re saying you’ve locked it to 11. So lock it to something else, or just leave it on auto which for most people is the best, unless you want to constantly monitor your wifi environment and adjust your channels as needed. Your router’s wifi chipset is able to see interference and spectrum availability that you can’t see without special hardware.
I don’t know how Wyze would “warn” about this. We aren’t even 100% sure it is locked to 11, maybe it is seeing that 11 has the most bandwidth available/least interference, even though your home wifi is also using it. If your router cannot coexist with another wifi on the same channel, it is your router that has problems. I’m not saying it is an ideal situation, but it should not be causing detrimental impact to your wifi.
Also not sure how software engineering or old technology has anything to do with networking or wifi. I’ve been doing networking professionally for over 25 years and I’ll be the first to say that I don’t know much about software/programming.