In an unexpected change of mind, Netgear announced a VueZone support extension beyond their announced December 31, 2017 discontinuance.
VueZone owners might remember seeing our past article on VueZone Alternatives Needed By End of 2017. The article detailed Netgear’s recent announcement regarding elimination of support for the software used to watch video from the VueZone cameras. While they did not mention dropping support on the hardware platform, they did announce that the back end would not be supported and the VueZone cameras would no longer be able to talk to the back end – meaning you were out of luck if looking to view the cameras remotely, which is the purpose of any home security camera.
So here’s what happened. A few weeks went by, and a lot of customers must have voiced their disapproval of this announcement. Here’s the pertinent quote from the email sent by Netgear on July 19, 2016:
“Since the announcement, we have received overwhelming feedback from our VueZone customers expressing a desire for continued services and support for the VueZone camera system. We have heard your passionate response and have decided to extend service for the VueZone product line. Although NETGEAR no longer manufactures or sells VueZone hardware, NETGEAR will continue to support existing VueZone customers beyond January 1, 2018.”
What this means is that (for now anyway) you don’t need to go out and buy a new home security camera. Netgear’s VueZone support extension allows the VueZone home security system to be viewed remotely beyond 2017. How long will the VueZone support extension last? That wasn’t clear from their announcement.
It’s good to see a company listen to their customers. From the text in their announcement, it sounds like Netgear got a lot of feedback regarding their direction and decided to do what’s right for their many customers that bought into this line of home security cameras. Good for Netgear and good for VueZone owners.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Netgear start an aggressive campaign to move their customers to the new Arlo Home Security Camera. It’s an upgraded version of the VueZone with better video, hardware and app capabilities. The Arlo Home Security Camera isn’t cheap, so if you were planning on upgrading, wait for a good deal from Netgear and jump on it.
The VeuZone was a terrific camera when it first came out. A truly wireless camera that was battery operated. That was one of the first decent battery operating wireless cameras. The interesting thing is that outside of the Arlo Home Security Camera, the only other good wireless camera I have seen is the Blink Home Security Camera System.
So the bottom line on this whole thing is you don’t need to do anything. If you are happy with the VueZone, there is no need to replace your home security camera. Netgear’s VueZone support extension allows you to keep on chugging.
All of these articles are written by someone (me) that figured out how to do this stuff the hard way. I have owned and tested dozens of cameras. Manufacturer support varies. There are a few good companies that provide timely answers when you have questions. There are several that sell you the camera and seem to have little interest in post sales support (which leads me to finding out stuff the hard way).
