RING doorbell owners have been urged to make a simple yet essential Wi-Fi check to ensure their video cameras can catch home intruders.
The home security gadgets use Wi-Fi to record live footage of what’s happening at the front door and send video notifications to your smartphone.
But a weak connection could scupper this.
Ring recommends having at least 2MB of download and upload speed at your front door – or wherever your video doorbell is.
“Ring products are designed to work with your home Wi-Fi network. Your Ring devices will not work with a mobile phone hotspot,” Ring explains in an FAQ.
“By hooking up to your Wi-Fi, Ring products use the free Ring app (available for Apple and Android devices) to alert you whenever someone approaches your door or comes in a range of a security camera.”
To ensure your connection is strong enough, you can download a speed test app for your smartphone and test it.
Stand at your front door, make sure you are connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the doorbell, and then run the test.
If your signal is slower than recommended, there are a number of speed-boosting Wi-Fi tricks you can try.
Free speed test apps you can trust:
Make sure you download a speed test app you can trust.
- Ookla (free)
- Meteor by OpenSignal (free)
- Fast by Netflix (free – even without Netflix subscription)
Boost Wi-Fi
Changing your internet speed settings from 2.4GHz to 5GHz is a quick way to increase speed.
But Ring warns that while all Ring devices are compatible with 2.4 GHz networks, only a handful of gadgets are able to use 5 GHz networks.
The company does not specify which devices work with each network.
If you have employed that internet speed settings trick to boost your connection, you may want to revert back if your device isn’t connecting properly.
Try these three other tricks to improve your connection:
- Restart your router– this can refresh your connection and potentially improve your speed.
- Move your router– watch the video above for the places to avoid.
- Get a Wi-Fi booster– you can sometimes get these for free from your internet provider.
How to stop over-active Ring doorbell alerts
IF your Ring video cameras are a little over-active you should try this trick.
Turn on the Geofence feature, which is a virtual perimeter or invisible boundary around a specific geographic location that you define.
- Open the Ring app, and go to the menu, which is the three lines in the corner
- Now head to Settings
- Select Geofence
- Here you can adjust the position of the Geofence as you see fit
- Tap Confirm
- Now set up Auto-Snooze
- Choose which devices you want to snooze notifications for
- You can also set a Snooze duration
- Tap Continue
- Then check the Arm/Disarm Reminders – these will alert you to change your Mode when you enter or exit the Geofence
- Tap Continue, then Finish & Save