Ring Doorbell very disappointing - Nest Hello any better?

Moyglish

I first got a Ring Doorbell about 12 months ago and wasn't very impressed with it. Found it very laggy, oftentimes when the bell would go off the person would be long gone by the time you would get the love feed. Also the sound was atrocious, crackling and robotic and next to useless at times.

So 6 months later decided to upgrade to the Doorbell Pro. Very unimpressed with this also. Much the same issues, in fact, if anything, it's been worse than the original Doorbell.

Thinking of ditching the Pro and switching to Nest Hello. Whilst the specs on paper seem to be pretty similar with the two, I think Nest do seem to have the slight edge between the two.

Before I sink yet more money into another one of these gadgets, I'd love to hear feedback from anyone who's had the two or has had experience with them?

Is the Nest Hello the better option? Or any other alternatives? I'd like something that works with Alexa.

Has anyone else had poor experiences with Ring?

The high horse brigade

I have zero problems with the original Ring. Most problems are down to the strength of WiFi outside the door with the door closed. If you have a good signal it works well.
I did have wireless issues with multiple access points with the same SSID but after contacting Ring on their advice I created a virtual access point on the nearest AP just for the Ring which sorted it

Moyglish

I actually found the original Ring better than the Pro now in hindsight.

I'm with Virgin, on their 240Mb broadband package, generally get speeds of around 50Mb over WiFi, standing outside the front door on my phone, with the front door closed anytime I've been checking the speed.

Tbh, I found Ring customer support useless, they just wanted me to reset the device, go through first time installation and set up repeatedly and "press the orange button on device" did that countless times with no success or improvement.

Hence me now thinking of jumping the Ring ship altogether and switching to Nest.

The high horse brigade

Moyglish wrote: »

I actually found the original Ring better than the Pro now in hindsight.

I'm with Virgin, on their 240Mb broadband package, generally get speeds of around 50Mb over WiFi, standing outside the front door on my phone, with the front door closed anytime I've been checking the speed.

Tbh, I found Ring customer support useless, they just wanted me to reset the device, go through first time installation and set up repeatedly and "press the orange button on device" did that countless times with no success or improvement.

Hence me now thinking of jumping the Ring ship altogether and switching to Nest.

50mbit on a 240mbit package doesn't tell much. What signal level is the device showing in the app under device health. Mine is showing a very good RSSI of -60, lower is better. If your device is below -70 you'd need to be looking at improving it, changing to a Nest may not fix your issues

Moyglish

The RSSI is currently 68.

Devicr health shows all else is good and passes connection speed tests.

House isn't huge just a standard 4 bed semi, so there isn't a hide distance between the Doorbell and Hub 3.0 provided by Virgin.

Not sure what gadgets in the house could be causing inference, we don't even have a microwave! Have a few toys such as the Nest thermostat, typical selection of phones and tablets, few Echos etc.. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The high horse brigade

Moyglish wrote: »

The RSSI is currently 68.

Devicr health shows all else is good and passes connection speed tests.

House isn't huge just a standard 4 bed semi, so there isn't a hide distance between the Doorbell and Hub 3.0 provided by Virgin.

Not sure what gadgets in the house could be causing inference, we don't even have a microwave! Have a few toys such as the Nest thermostat, typical selection of phones and tablets, few Echos etc.. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The interference is caused by your neighbors WiFi. 2.4ghz is very noisy hence the move to 5ghz in modern dual band wireless routers. Have you tried changing wireless channel, have a look with a WiFi analyser app to see what channels are in use nearby and change to be well away from your neighbors

Moyglish

I actually had a go at using WiFi Analyser before but tbh, I wasn't too sure what I was doing and didn't want to feck up any settings as over all the WiFi in the house was running smoothly and well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it..

Just downloading it there now again, might have a tinker later on and try and find some online guides so I can try and figure out what I'm supposed to be doing

The high horse brigade

Moyglish wrote: »

I actually had a go at using WiFi Analyser before but tbh, I wasn't too sure what I was doing and didn't want to feck up any settings as over all the WiFi in the house was running smoothly and well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it..

Just downloading it there now again, might have a tinker later on and try and find some online guides so I can try and figure out what I'm supposed to be doing

The channel is always set by the router. Changing channel won't break anything as long as the channel is clear and your not moving into a more congested channel. Most wireless routers are set to auto, but they are very poor at automatically selecting the best channel and very often your house and the house next door end up in the same channel.
It's only the 2.4ghz channel you are interested in.

Moyglish

Thanks for that, you've been very helpful. I'll have to have a little read and do some online 101 classes later to get me up to speed before I attempt to break anything :P

The high horse brigade

Moyglish wrote: »

Thanks for that, you've been very helpful. I'll have to have a little read and do some online 101 classes later to get me up to speed before I attempt to break anything :P

I've a feeling of you can tweak that signal down to -60 you may get a much better experience. It's definitely worth a try before you splash more cash on a Nest.

Moyglish

These are the readings I have right now without tweaking anything.

RSSI seems to be averaging around 45 in the same room as the router.

Outside the front door it's fluctuating between about 52 and 65 ish or thereabouts.

Not sure if these measurements are good or bad though?


https://ibb.co/ddd0Kf
https://ibb.co/ch5fKf
https://ibb.co/bVjws0

TheChizler

It's the RSSI in device health that matters, RSSI is only really good for making comparisons on the same device. Manufacturers will use their own definitions and it will vary from device to device anyway as they're not calibrated.

I had the same problems as you but recently moved the access point closer (RSSI -50 from -75) and upgraded to Virgin from a poor eir VDSL connection and the lag is pretty good, and hardly no delay when live video is running.

The high horse brigade

Moyglish wrote: »

These are the readings I have right now without tweaking anything.

RSSI seems to be averaging around 45 in the same room as the router.

Outside the front door it's fluctuating between about 52 and 65 ish or thereabouts.

Not sure if these measurements are good or bad though?


https://ibb.co/ddd0Kf
https://ibb.co/ch5fKf
https://ibb.co/bVjws0

I assume you tested with the doors closed. These are good values. Looks like you're on a clear channel. I'd not advise you make any changes there tbh. Can you move the router slightly to give any better signal outside the door?

Moyglish

TheChizler wrote: »

It's the RSSI in device health that matters, RSSI is only really good for making comparisons on the same device. Manufacturers will use their own definitions and it will vary from device to device anyway as they're not calibrated.

I had the same problems as you but recently moved the access point closer (RSSI -50 from -75) and upgraded to Virgin from a poor eir VDSL connection and the lag is pretty good, and hardly no delay when live video is running.

The RSSI in Device Health is 67 atm.

Also with Virgin, have no complaints with any other devices connected to it. Well able to stream Netflix in 4k with no buffering etc..

Mind if I ask how you moved the access point closer? Do you mean where you plug the modem into the UPC point in the wall?

If so, I have another room with an access point I can move the modem to, which is closer to the front door.

That might be next port of call!

TheChizler

I mean WiFi access point, there are are 3 in the house connected to the wall by Ethernet cable. It was a matter of picking tge closest one up and moving it a couple of feet so a concrete wall was less in the way. You might be able to do that with your router.

Davy

Op, have you relayed any of these issues to Ring?

Considering you have gone from a ring and bought a Pro, I would be asking for a free chime Pro and using that as the AP. In my experience the Ring connects much better to the chrime pro rather than directly to routers.

Moyglish

OK, so I'm back after a few adjustments.

My 2.4ghz was on channel 1, which had a 0 star rating. Manually changed it over to channel 13 which had 8/10 stars.

Went and did a few speed checks before and after on both channels, and speeds seem to be exact same. Though I've noticed its seemed to have halved the speeds upstairs.

I also noticed that as soon as I changed from channel 1 to channel 13, that channel 1 which before I switched had 0 stars, now has 10/10, and channel 13 which had 8/10 now has 0 stars now that I'm using that.

Still getting dBm of between -40 and -50 on either channel 1 or 13,so pretty much all the same.

On both channels the RSSI showing on Ring shows a pretty consistent -65 either way.

Considering moving the modem to the next room nearest the front door, however aside from the wall in-between (and its not a solid wall load bearing wall) where the points are located the modem would only be moving 6 foot maximum closer to the front door than where it is now. Plus being Virgin, the phone system is ran through the modem and as such the phone cradle is in the main room we use, if that gets moved alongside the modem to the other room it won't be as convenient, so not sure it'd be worth the hassle for any minor gains.

Might have to try it though.

Thanks Davy, I'll get onto Ring again and see what they say. I'm loathe to shell out for more Ring equipment though in case it doesn't work, when I just might be better off to go with the NEST Hello.

Thanks for all the advice and help everyone, much appreciated!

The high horse brigade

Go back to channel 1.

A Ring chime would go a long way to sorting your issues. For it beside the door to enhance the signal to the Ring doorbell

Moyglish

Going to get on to them now and see what they say. Will update later.

Stoner

I've had both.

+1 on Wi-Fi strength. They are not great devices wrt connectivity.
I can get a decent signal on the footpath outside my house. However I needed a Wi-Fi point right at the front to get the doorbells working

So you need the right transformer I've 24 V now this gives the units the best diddy you can get away with

You also need good Wi-Fi


They will both suffer with poor quality of either.