When I woke this morning, I was pleased to see that all systems were go, and things appeared to be behaving themselves. Then I got to work, opened my Air, connected to the iMac via screen share, and … grey screen?
Sigh.
I am not too busy at work, so I quickly go through all the usual steps to try and figure out why I can’t see the camera image in EvoCam. Including:
- Connect to the camera via it’s maker’s software. ❌
- Connect to the camera via the web interface. ❌
- Restarted EvoCam, the router, and the iMac. ❌❌❌
While logged into the AirPort Extreme via Airport Utility, I noticed that there weren’t many devices connected to it. This likely meant that it was a hardware or power issue. Since I could connect to the iMac via VPN that ruled out power.
Because of the snow storm, we were sent home to work remotely. But when I got home, I still did things the hard way. I looked at the switch and it looked to be working. Lights flashing on the appropriate ports. The PoE Injector was dangling a bit from the AC outlet, but the lights were on and it looked to be functioning.
So then I turned to cables. And naturaly I did this the wrong way as well. I started by unplugging the cable from the PoE to the switch. I changing the port. Then I decided to grab a new Ethernet cable. I was going to bypass the switch and go right to the router. I plugged the cable into the PoE and as I approached the router, I had a flash…
This morning, you moved the router to tuck the telephone line and power cable behind it. Did you…?
I reached behind the AirPort Extreme and pressed on the cable that leads to the switch.
Click.
Sigh.
That was it. I got in my own way (again) and created a problem for myself. This time because 2 small black cords were distracting to me. And then I kicked myself some more when I realized I didn’t even think of the most simple of checks by failing to turn on the AppleTV to see if it could connect.
Now the silver linings.
While I had been futzing with EvoCam from work in the morning, I noticed that the time-lapse movie was huge in file size. When I was home, I took a peek and noticed that I had 2 different processes writing to the same file name. This led to the movie being a combination of the last 3 days worth of video. I think I sorted that out, and I may not have noticed had I not screwed something else up!
Also, by doing all that hard work a few weeks ago organizing cables, and bypassing my wireless kluge, I freed up an old Airport Express. It sat on my desk for a few weeks, not unnoticed, as I discovered the grey of the Apple logo is the color I want to paint the upstairs bedroom/library/office/exercise room. The reason having the device was handy is that I was able to use it to plug the VoIP telephone from work in and be able to have it near the iMac which I use to screen share to the office so I can work from home. Much better than last time, when the phone was downstairs plugged into the AirPort Extreme and I had to put people on hold and run upstairs to look things up or troubleshoot.
So, I got that going for me.