Outdoor cameras failed during home break-in

@larrhurd​ I mentioned in your other comment, but no, this would not be considered 'normal'. In the ideal situation, there might be a very short lag time due to communication across the internet, but there shouldn't be a severe lag time.

Our engineers continue to work on improvements, and we've made great progress over the last couple of updates already. But there's more to come.

In the meantime, our Support team can work with you on improving connectivity - not just between the camera and your WiFi, but also between your camera and the Base Station, since both connections are required for the camera to function.

I already was talking to the support team; my connections are great to both the base station and cameras. The connection is not the problem, the cameras are!! As I told support, one of my cameras is 4 feet from base station and the signal only has to go through 1 wood wall, the other camera is 15 feet away from station and has to go through one wood wall. My signal strength to both cameras are 41 dBm and upload speed is 14 Mbps each. If these cameras need more than that then they are worthless to anyone who doesn't have business speed internet. My base station is 10 feet from my gateway and one wood wall, again it has plenty of signal and speed going to it. I have 1.2 gig download speed and 40 Mbps upload speed. Again, it's not my internet it's the cameras, be it hardware or software or both. I just want them fixed, I spent big money on these cameras and expect them to work!! As of now I'm paying for a service that I'm not receiving. These complaints have been going on for a very long time and nothing is being done about it!! All support wants to do is send more cameras to try to fix the problem but it's not working. Again a 20 second delay is not normal for a security camera; you will never catch a thief with that much delay. All these people complaining about these cameras, and nothing is being done about it is the failure of SimpliSafe not the people who are purchasing these cameras. If you can't fix them, buy them back!!   

No, based on what you've described, it's not about the connection through your WiFi router or the internet. The camera needs to link with the Base Station to activate, and that uses local RF rather than WiFi - the same connection used by the sensors. So troubleshooting the local signal by addressing interference might help a bit.

But like I said, our engineers are still working hard on improvements on our end, and even more updates are coming soon.

First of all, I have 4 cameras.  2 of which have always worked fine and are connected to the router's SSID.  My base station is also on the router's SSID.  I only had some intermittent issues.

Since, I had a degradation of the wifi signal on the further side of my house, I thought to improve the signal with an extender (same company - Netgear).  I used a mesh system thinking I could just use the same SSID.  Then started having frequent and intermittent issues with connectivity.  I separated the SSIDs to see if one of them was the issue.  The extender has worked fine with other devices.  So, I connected my cameras to the extender SSID thinking it would have a better signal.  Well low and behold the cameras continued to worked initially then stopped working.  I would turn on and off my extender - they would reconnect and then in 24 hours go out again with no connectivity. 

Simply Safe has replaced my cameras, sent me an extender (which would not have worked in any case) all of which did not work.  I believe we worked out the issue, but I am crossing my fingers - the external cameras and the base station have to work off of the same SSID network, otherwise you will have issues (which is why my two cameras on the router worked fine.  Even though I have a signal degradation of my router signal (40-50 dbm vs. 11 dbm), the cameras when switched back to base stations SSID now work.  Hopefully, more often then when on the extender.  This means that you have to connect all of your cameras to the same SSID as the base station.  I am not sure about having to connect to the base stations RF since this was not issue and my cameras which well - are much further away.   

Another tidbit I found out today is you can use the APP to change the wifi network of the cameras (even without connectivity) when you are away from your house, this sort of confirms that the base station has to work on the same SSID as all of your cameras.  Of course, this would be an issue for those who think they need an extender or do not have connectivity to the SSID that their base station is on. 

Just an FYI post.  I am getting a couple of ARLO Pro 4 cameras just in case because I use the cameras to alert me prior to some one breaking into my house and just in case my latest "fix" doesn't work very well. 

It would seem it would benefit the public if Simply Safe would publish how their WIFI/RF/base station/external cameras/communicate with protocols and recommended settings OR at least, develop a diagnostic program to pinpoint what the issues are.  The connectivity button on the app is worthless.  The frontline techs do not know this information either apparently as I have probably talked to 4-5 of them and 1 A-team each has given me a piece of the connectivity pie. 

Good luck!  

@garvey_k​ I recall answering your question before. The cameras do link through our servers, before being served up to the app on your phone on demand. But our engineers are constantly monitoring, and it's definitely not a capacity issue on our end.

The lag time as described is a side effect of the Outdoor Camera's deep sleep, which is necessary for battery life. To wake the camera up, it needs to link with the Base Station, using the same local radio connection as the sensors. That's why troubleshooting that connection like we do with sensors can help.

However, there's more that can be improved in that link through the firmware, and our engineers continue to work on it. Further updates are coming to your cameras soon.

@Jebu​ I'm really sorry to hear this. I saw your other post, and I've forwarded your case to our escalated Support team. A specialist will reach out to you soon.

Exact same thing just happened to us.  We were told that the issue was with our internet provider and we must go buy a new router for better connectivity.  Ok, so I go buy a new router and reconnect everything...guess what, same connection speed!  And Xfinity doesn't have a better option unless we go with a business package so they've assured us it's not our WiFi.  I called SimpliSafe back to explain so then they said well it has to be because your camera is so far from your router so they graciously sent us a Wifi extender, which I installed this weekend thinking that would solve our issue (our driveway camera (one out of 4) keeps detecting motion but not able to record, aka "No Video" or when I try to connect live I get an error).  It worked for about 24hrs then back to the same problem today.

We've had this system for years.  After our house was robbed the day after Thanksgiving and our system captured NOTHING, I even ended up buying more SimpliSafe products to add camera's, window alarms, etc. But, now that their "fix" still isn't working, my trust in this product and company has faded beyond disappointment. 

@eazyeazy​ I'm sorry about this. I commented on your other post about this, but I just wanted to let you know here as well that your case has been sent to our escalated Support team. A specialist will be in touch soon to help.