Arlo – Keep An Eye on Your Home

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Disclosure- I received the below in order to facilitate this review.  All opinions are my own and honest.

Have you ever been away from home and got the horrible feeling something bad is happening at home?  Normally this nagging feeling can be written off as paranoia or just nerves but what if?

Well how do you go about making your home safe and sound without paying  monthly fees? The answer comes from one of the biggest names in computer networking- Netgear.  They have created Arlo.  Arlo is a network device which interfaces with your smart phone or any device with internet access.  Arlo is made up of from one to 4 HD wireless video indoor/outdoor cameras and the internet ready device.  After plugging in and setting up Arlo, the fun part is finding the best spot for your cameras.  We picked some great ones and the easiest part is all you have to do is place them around.  There are no wires to figure out how to plug in or communication cable that feed back to the base unit.  All you need to do is power them on and plug in the base.

The part that honestly took the longest was downloading and setting up the app for our smart phones, which was still incredibly quick.  The entire setup took about a total of an hour for both phones and the unit itself.  This home monitoring system gives you peace of mind. The way Arlo works is that once you leave the house or go to sleep, you set it to wake up upon motion,  When the cameras pick up motion, an notification gets sent to your phone where you can easily pick up the video feed and see whats going on.

The cameras work great and catch all kind of motion from people to pets.  When motion is detected, it will send your phone a signal and it will chirp at you until the motion is gone or you turn off that setting. If someone or something is in your home that shouldn’t be, Arlo will let you know and you can catch it on video.

One of the most fun and endearing things to do with Arlo is to feel like your at home.  When at work or during a particularly long day, its nice to hop onto Arlo, and watch some video of your little ones doing their homework, or your significant other just hanging out.  It’s little things that make the day move along and remind us why we go through work and commuting.  I also like to spy on my husband and son when I am away at a conference or out of state- it makes me giggle, and them too when I tell them what I watched.  I wish it had sound!

The Arlo systems start with one camera and the complete set up for $199.99.

Included are:

As you add more cameras to the cost goes up, but I think a minimum of two cameras is needed  One for the front door and one to cover your biggest room, but the more cameras the better.  I do love Arlo, and have spoken about it often.  I like being able to check in whenever I want to and ease my nerves. I wish they had an “away” option on the app (you need to use “sleep” mode when you are gone), and that it was less “sticky”- it sometimes takes it’s sweet time logging in, and sometimes kicks me out all together- but most of the time it works well.  I assume this will be smoothed out with the next generation.

So be sure to check it out- this is one of those products that you will find yourself wondering what you did without.  I use it constantly, and am sure you will as well.  It just makes me feel better having it!