Disclosure: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free. @BestBuy, @ArloSmartHome, @Netgear,  #BBYConnectedHome
Do you wish you could put up security cameras around your home but the wiring is holding you back? Do you wish you could see what’s going on when you’re not home? Or that you could see who is at the front door before you go to answer it? Do you have a pet you worry about when you’re not at home? Do you have destructive critters in your back yard but you can’t quite catch them in the act? How cool is it that I can see this on my phone?!! The picture quality is amazing! Even after dark.
There are so many reasons why you would want to be able to see what is going on around your home, when you aren’t there or when you are in a different area of the home, or have a recording from when you are sleeping. In the past, it’s been difficult, expensive, or downright impossible to run wiring to the areas that you want to watch for power or light. Well…. guess what? The people at Netgear have come up with a solution. Not only a solution but an easy-peasy one! I just set up cameras in the front and back of my house in less than an hour. It was so simple and fast, I was surprised. I’m not the best at installing things. Even though I read the directions, I have a tendency to jump ahead and if I reach something I don’t know or understand, I guess. I admit it. Sometimes my guesses are correct and sometimes… well, not. Even so, the hardest part of installing the Netgear Arlo Home Cameras for me was getting them out of the box (it’s okay, you can laugh) and the next hardest thing was putting in the batteries (pay attention to the “+” and “-“, just sayin’). So, you know it has to be simple, if that’s the worst part. What comes in the box?
The cameras themselves look really COOL, don’t they? Design is super-important to me and I love, love, love the shape and color of these little cuties.
Warning: getting the cameras out of the box is a *****.  And this is from a nine year veteran of little girls toys. I’ve taken more toys/stuff out of boxes that could survive a zombie apocalypse unscathed. I am usually pretty good and figuring out how to get out secured-for-shipping items, but this had me stumped. I didn’t want to break them by doing something wrong. I even googled how to get them out, but I stopped short of calling the store. Even I didn’t want that much humiliation. I finally figured out that there was a plastic screw holding them in place. What worked best for me was holding the plastic screw head with a pair of pliers and turning the camera. I did one while it was still attached to the box. Then the others, I ripped the box apart and got it away from the box before I used the pliers to get it off.  After that, the rest is soooooo easy. Okay, enough of my whining about the box fasteners.
Best Buy sent me a p-o-w-e-r-f-u-l router to use with the camera. The Netgear® Nighthawkâ„¢ DST Router and DST Adapter with Geek Squad included – is new and exclusively at Best Buy. Cool name, right? It has an extender, a Dead Spot Terminator” that you plug in to get your wifi signal to places it might otherwise not reach. Installing the Nighthawk by the way is also very easy and there is even Geek Squad support included, if you need it. I talked to them, just because I’d never used Geek Squad before and wanted to see what it was like, but had actually set up the router myself. Did you ever wonder why you need a router? I’m by no means an expert but from what I understand it helps eliminate problems you might have with a weak signal or with slowness because of the number of devices using the same wifi. Did you know, the average US household has 7 “connected devices†– from smart phones (often several in a home), to tablets, to laptops, to computers, and Wi-Fi printers? Wow. Gaming, connected/streaming TVs, smart thermostats, it’s a lot of use.   You can even prioritize devices to ensure that your favorite device won’t lose signal.
After you get everything out of the box you just put the batteries in each camera, plug the base station into your router. Sync the base station to the cameras. Download the app onto your phone. Bing, bang, boom. Your done. Seriously, it is that easy. You can just set the cameras where you want, or you can use the magnetic mounts which are super cool.
There is also a mount arm included if you want to do that. We already had a nail by the front door for holiday decorations, so I hung the magnetic mount on there, put the camera on it – the magnetic just grabs it – and now I can see on my phone who is at my front door. How cool is that? I put another camera facing our back yard, on our swimming pool. Won’t that be awesome in the summer when kids are swimming in the pool. I can watch them on my phone from anywhere! In the house, next door, at the store. Wherever. Whenever. If you think someone might be swimming in your pool when you are not home? Busted! You will find out!
We have all sorts of wildlife in our backyard. Raccoons, fox, coyote, just to name a few. I can’t wait to put a camera back there and catch them in action. There are so many things that these cameras will be perfect for! You can set them to only activate when they sense motion, so you don’t waste battery power. You can watch live video AND you can also record! There are tons of options and settings to customize your use of these high tech, easy-to-use security cameras. You can even set it up to get an email or app notification when motion is detected! The cameras are waterproof and can be used in temperatures from 14° to 122°. The four camera set is exclusive to Best Buy and so is the Geek Squad assistance – so be sure to head over to your Best Buy! I am really excited about the concept of a Connected Home. All those futuristic movies, where people can use technology to control everything in their house are coming true. It’s exciting!!
What would you use Arlo by Netgear security cameras to do?
to keep my home safe
I worry about my puss cat when I’m not at home, so I have been thinking about getting a camera to check up on him.
this is cool! i like that you can just go on the phone and see
As a mom of three, this would be great! I bet my boys would behave better when playing in their bedroom if they knew I could see them and I was watching them.