What is the best practice for using the Alarm.com Gateway and Alarm.com SVR? Is it okay to use both or does that defeat the purpose of having a SVR? In tandem, things seem to be working. Just curious to what would be the optimal setup. Thank you.
The gateway is used as private network for ur alarm.com cameras like a private router now the svr is a local recorder which also allows view ur cameras at once from tv or monitor providing that you plug-in in the hdmi cable
I’m also curious about this. I have the SVR and it works well, but I’m also going to get the Gateway. The SVR records and stores camera video, while the gateway is just an second wifi for the cameras.
The SVR is directly connected to my router (as per instructions). For the SC130, it will also be connected to the router via ethernet. How do I then proceed? Do I have to delete the camera’s then add them back in (using the WPS/learn button) on the gateway? and just to confirm, there shouldn’t be any issue with the SVR seeing the camera’s once the SC130 gateway is installed and see’s the camera’s? thanks
You would just need to connect the cams to the SC130 via WPS and they would then use it as the access point.
As long as the Gateway is connected to the same LAN that the SVR is connected to you can record to the SVR.
Thanks. Do you have an idea of how the range is on the Gateway? Better than a router?
No, it uses 2.4 only and would be comparable to a router.
The main purpose is not extreme power or range, in fact it doesn’t use a gigabit ethernet port and a max of 4 cameras are recommended to connect to it. It is more of a easy plug and play solution which lets homeowners separate their cameras from reliance on their own wifi.
Wifi changes occur, new routers, SSID changes, network key changes, etc., which can then bring down the cam network if you do not consider it when making the change. With the Gateway you have a dedicated network for your cams which just plugs into your router.
This is good to know. So if someone has 8 cameras than they would need two of them? Would the account and system would be able to support two of them? I would just have to Learn 4 cameras on one Gateway in 4 an another Gateway.
Also does the doorbell camera add to the Gateway?
Technically you can add more than 4 cameras to one Gateway, but it can affect performance. ADC recommends 4.
Yes, you can add another Gateway. However, if you have enough cameras and are thinking of adding multiple Gateways, you may be looking at range issues if you just centrally locate the gateways next to the router.
Yes, the doorbell cam can be added to the Smart Gateway.
Thanks Jason. I have ethernet ports around my house, I was thinking of putting the Gateways at strategic locations so that it’s closest to the pair of four cameras. The ethernet ports lead to the router.
Yep, that should work out well then. FYI each Gateway randomizes its network key when paired to your account, so if you delete one of the Gateways, like during troubleshooting, you would need to re-add all the cams to it again manually after re-learning the Gateway.
Got the gateway, instructions are very vague.
I installed the gateway (I added the MAC address) when I went to add device, it found the gateway, and I clicked on install. Then it gave me instructions to unplug the gateway and plug it back in, and it stalled at 5%. THe LEDs on the gateway were escalating (indicating it updating firmware), ok. Then after 10 minutes, they stopped escalating and went back to normal operation (page was still stalled at 5%). I pressed refresh devices on the alarm.com page and the installation procedure disappeared, but I noticed the gateway lists as an installed device. So, I assumed it installed.
I’m now going to add cameras, I pressed the WPS button on the gateway, WiFi was flashing, then I pressed WPS on a ADV-522 and it was blinking blue. Both were blinking for a few minutes, then they stopped, and went back to normal operation.
Just wondering, how do you know if the camera has connected to the gateway (rather than go back to my home wifi)?
How do I connect the FrontDoor bell to the gateway?
Also, the gateway doesn’t seem to have an info page to see information and to future updates/upgrades, is this by design?
thanks
Update: Looks like something did happen, as the SVR doesn’t see the cameras I added to the gateway (if I infact did add them), but all the lights are green on the SVR? Do I have to delete and add the SVR to account now?
Just wondering, how do you know if the camera has connected to the gateway (rather than go back to my home wifi)?
The Gateway doesn’t really have any settings to alter, it is intended to be pretty plug and play, and the details are dealer-facing at the moment. Your dealer can view this info in your video device settings. They’ll be able to confirm the SSID each device is connected to.
How do I connect the FrontDoor bell to the gateway?
- Put the doorbell into Access Point (AP) mode by holding the main button until the LED alternates green and red.
- Log into the Alarm.com app.
- Tap the Menu icon
- Tap Doorbell Camera .
- Tap the Configure gear
- Tap Add Camera .
- In Select Video Device , tap to select the desired device.
- Proceed through the installation wizard. This is the same process as the initial installation of the Doorbell Camera.
Do I have to delete and add the SVR to account now?
No, as long as the SVR is on the same network as the Gateway is connected to, you should be good. Might give a reboot a try.
I would recommend having your service provider troubleshoot if there is a network issue with cameras connecting to the SVR. They are the only ones that will be able to view a lot of the details.
Thanks Jason.
Is there a way to add and remove cameras from the svr without actually deleting and re-adding the SVR from the account like when you first add it to the account?
After playing with the SC130, I do not and cannot recommend having the SC130 and an SVR. As a test, I connected only three cameras to it (out of 8), 2 of them were within 10 feet and the other was about 20 feet. Connecting the cameras to the gateway, no problem, lights solid green on the cameras. Can stream the camera’s on my app and alarm.com no problem. The SVR on the other hand, connected to only one camera. Video square kept trying to connect, but couldn’t. Reset everything such as my router, SVR, even factory reseted the cameras before adding to the gateway, still the SVR couldn’t live stream all three cameras. Video timeline had plenty of black blocks on the gateway cameras. The moment I connected the camera’s back to my original wifi, the SVR live streams everything and all is good.
Bottom line, this SC130 is going back tomorrow.
The SVR on the other hand, connected to only one camera.
Are you using the SVR100 or the SVR122? Or do you have the commercial model?
I appreciate the feedback, we’ll keep an eye out for any similar results and forward this feedback to Alarm.com.
What model of router do you have? Is the SVR connected directly to the router or through a switch?
Hi Jason,
Its the SVR-122 and my router (which is decent one according to my ISP) is the Actiontec T3200M and WiFi boosters throughout the house. The SVR and Gateway are connected directly to the router (in another room of the house and I do have a switch but the SVR and Gateway are not plugged into it).
The strangest part is that despite the SVR not connecting to the camera’s in question, the cameras didn’t seem to loose connectivity (light was solid green) and I was able to live stream via the app.
Even with the this the SVR would try to load the live stream picture (on the local monitor) every few seconds a swirl would appear and then say disconnected.
Could there be some incompatibility issue or do you still think its a network issue?
Could there be some incompatibility issue or do you still think its a network issue?
I can say that ADC does not anticipate issues using the SC130 and SVR, so long as the SVR is connected to the same LAN. So this means if you have an access point with a different subnet with the Gateway plugged into the main router and the SVR plugged into the access point for example, you’ll probably have issues.
Some routers may have automatic QOS rules assigned or aggressive bandwidth management prioritizing common things like streaming services and throttling other network devices. The gateway may be impacted more heavily than individual cameras in these cases if its traffic is for some reason treated as a single source.
Thanks this is very helpful.
If I can get into the advanced settings of the router, what exactly should I be looking for and what needs to be done?
Another thing I wanted to add, when I had the 3 camera’s connected to the Gateway, I unplugged the gateway and the cameras went offline (solid red, as expected), then I plugged the gateway back in, and the cameras didn’t connect back to the gateway (even after 15 minutes, still solid red). This was the point where I decided to put the camera’s back on my home Wifi.
Did you delete and re-add the Gateway in your Alarm.com account while troubleshooting? If so that would be normal, those cameras would need to be reconnected manually to the Gateway because the network key is randomized each time you register the Gateway to an ADC account.
If it was just a power cycle, you potentially have either network interference issues, or a bad gateway or bug.
Definitely I didn’t delete and re-add the Gateway. Unfortunately on my end I cannot do that. So having said that the keys should have been the same since the beginning of the install. The only things I deleted and readded was the SVR and the three cameras in question.
So much for plug-and-play, eh?
When I first installed the Gateway, after that I WPS’ed the cameras into the Gateway. Almost immediately the svr was doing that reconnect disconnect on the camera’s.