The Ring doorbell box on your counter is judging you. I know. I get it.

I’ve installed a lot of these in Portage County. The pattern is always the same: someone — usually an adult kid worried about their parents — bought a Ring at Costco or got one as a gift. The box sat for two months. By the time I show up, the box has become a piece of furniture. You step around it. Maybe a houseplant ended up on top.

I’m Bill Davis, I run Bill’s Home Tech in Atwater, and I want to walk you through what actually happens when a Ring goes on a door — including the bits the Ring website skips because it makes the install sound easier than it really is.

By the end of this you’ll know whether to do it yourself or hand it to me. Either way is fine.

What you actually get in that box

Open it. There’s less in there than you think:

The doorbell itself (camera + button)
A faceplate or two (different colors)
A USB charging cable (orange — bright orange so you don’t lose it)
A bag of screws
A little plastic tool with a star-shaped end
A small drill bit
Some double-sided foam strips
A paper instruction card

That’s it. The setup happens in two places: on your wall, and in the Ring app on your phone. Most people get stuck at the app. We’ll deal with both.

Decision #1: Battery or wired?

This is the first fork in the road, and Ring’s instructions skim past it.

Wired (replaces your existing doorbell): If you have an existing doorbell — the kind that goes “ding-dong” inside the house — Ring can use those wires. It charges itself off them, so you never have to take it down to charge it. This is the better install if you have the option.

Battery only: If you don’t have an existing doorbell, or the wires are too old/corroded, the Ring runs on its built-in battery. You take it down every 2-4 months to charge it via that orange USB cable. Plug it into a wall charger overnight, put it back up. It’s not hard — but it is a thing you have to remember.

Which Ring is which? The cheaper “Ring Video Doorbell” works either way. The pricier wired-only models (like Ring Pro 2) need the wires. If you’re not sure which one you have, look at the back of the doorbell — if there are two screws near the top labeled “AC”, it can be wired.

Step 1: Charge it before you do anything else

Whatever you do, don’t try to set it up out of the box. Even if you bought it new, the battery is half-dead.

Find the orange cable.
Plug it into a wall charger (any phone charger that has a USB port).
Plug the other end into the back of the doorbell.
Wait until the little ring of light on the front is solid green. Usually 4 hours.

While it charges, do step 2.

Step 2: Install the Ring app

You install the Ring app on your phone before you mount the doorbell. The app is the brain. The doorbell is just the eye and the button.

Open the App Store (iPhone) or Play Store (Android).
Search for Ring — the icon is a sky blue circle.
Tap Get or Install.
Open the app.
Create an account. Use your email. Pick a password. (I use a password manager — see the password manager post for why.)
The app will ask for permissions: Camera, Microphone, Notifications, Location. Say yes to all of them. The doorbell can’t do its job without them.

Pro tip: The most important permission is Notifications. If notifications are off, the doorbell rings and your phone stays silent. That’s not a Ring failing; that’s your phone. Make sure they’re on.

Step 3: Add the doorbell to the app

In the Ring app:

Tap Set Up a Device (a blue button on the home screen).
Tap Doorbells.
Hold your phone over the QR code on the back of the doorbell, OR type the code in.
The app finds the doorbell. It walks you through: - Connecting it to your home Wi-Fi (you’ll need your Wi-Fi password — the one printed on the back of your router, not anything from the cable bill). - Naming the doorbell (“Front Door” is fine). - Choosing the address.

This is where most people get stuck. Common stumbles:

“It can’t find my Wi-Fi.” Move closer to the router during setup. Once it’s set up, you can put the doorbell anywhere it has signal.
“My password isn’t working.” It’s case-sensitive. The “L” in your name might actually be a “1.” Check the sticker on the back of the router — that’s the real password unless you changed it.
“It just spins.” Force-close the app (swipe it away) and restart. Works 80% of the time.

If you’ve gotten this far and the doorbell shows “online” in the app, you’re done with the hard part.

Step 4: Mount it on the door frame

The doorbell needs to go at chest height — about 48 inches up from the porch floor — and on the side of the door where the latch is, not the hinge side. That way it sees a person’s face, not the wall.

Two ways to do this:

The easy way (foam strips): Use the double-sided foam strips that came in the box. Peel, stick the doorbell to the door frame. Done. Works fine on most surfaces. Won’t survive a year of Ohio weather though, so plan to switch to screws eventually.

The right way (screws): Use the included drill bit and the star tool. Hold the bracket on the door frame, mark the holes with a pencil, drill, screw it down. The doorbell snaps onto the bracket.

If your door frame is brick or stone, you’ll need a masonry drill bit and anchors. That’s where I usually come in — half my Ring jobs are brick door frames.

Step 5: Share it with family

This is the part nobody knows about and it’s actually the best feature of a Ring.

In the Ring app:

Tap your doorbell.
Tap Settings (gear icon).
Tap Shared Users.
Tap Add User.
Type the email of your daughter, son, or whoever should also see who’s at the door.

They get an invite, install Ring on their phone, and from then on they get the doorbell ring on their phone too. Doesn’t cost extra. Doesn’t slow yours down.

Why this matters: if you don’t hear the doorbell because you were in the garden or the bathroom, your daughter in Akron sees who’s at the door. She can talk to them through her phone — “Hi, Mom’s outside, leave the package.” That’s the whole magic.

Stuck on any of this?

This is the kind of thing I do in about an hour. Ring install, mounting, app setup, sharing access with one or two family members, walking you through how it sounds, what notifications look like, and how to recharge the battery.

Flat $99 visit. Same price whether it takes me 30 minutes or 90. Call (330) 200-8042 or book at billshometech.com.

What it’s actually like to live with one

Once it’s up, here’s what daily life looks like:

Someone rings your doorbell. Your phone goes “ding-dong” and shows you a live video of the porch.
You can press a button to talk to whoever’s there without opening the door — works whether you’re in the kitchen, the basement, or visiting your sister in Florida.
If a delivery person leaves a package, you get a notification and a 30-second clip you can watch later.
If you go out of town, you can check who came by while you were gone.

The clip storage is where Ring tries to upsell you. You don’t strictly need their Ring Protect subscription ($4-$10/month) — the doorbell still works without it. But without the subscription, you only see live video, not recordings. Most of my clients pay the $4 a month for one camera. Worth it for peace of mind.

You’re not bad at technology

I want to tell you something I tell every person whose Ring box has been collecting dust for two months: you’re not bad at technology. This stuff is genuinely confusing on the first install, and Ring’s instructions skip steps that matter.

Once it’s set up, it just works. The hard part is the first hour. After that, you forget it’s there until somebody rings your doorbell — and then you smile because you can see who it is from your armchair.

Open the box. Plug it in to charge. If you get stuck, I’m a phone call away.

The Ring Doorbell Setup Guide for People Who'd Rather Not Touch It