What Did the Fox Say?

 

Recently, I discovered a video on our security camera of a fox crossing our driveway. Since there is no sound, I was unable to answer the question of, "What did the fox say?" I haven't seen that fox whom lives somewhere down in our ditch, for many years so it was nice to see it is still there. I just wish it would step up and kill more rabbits plaguing our garden.

I also noticed that one of my cameras was offline, the same camera that I had to unplug to reroute it around a pipe on another project I was working on and then plug it back in. I knew immediately what had happened. Whenever the power blinks or I have to unplug and replug in a wire, my router randomly assigns a computer address (known as an IP address) to the camera. Unfortunately, the software that deals with the cameras to allow me to view and record what they see requires that the address be constant. As a result, every time the power blinks or I temporarily unplug the camera cable, I have to remember how to search all my IP addresses being used, determine which was one randomly assigned to my camera, and tell the program what the new address is.

Needless to say, it is tedious and I always feel like I'm having to reteach myself all over again every time it happens.

So in a burst of inspiration, I did some Google-fu and looked up how to make the IP address static or unchanging. After about 10 minutes of trying and going back and forth with Google, I finally figured it out and was able to successfully create static addresses for all of them. While I was at it, I did the same for my printer which in the nearly 20 years I've owned it, always has a warning telling me the address has been changed to after every power outage... and lists the new address. Now all the warning light on the printer is off for the first time (since I guess the first power outage) and hopefully the next time the power blinks, or I unplug a wire to fish it around a pipe and replug it in, everything will still be working when I go to use it the next time.