Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 – the dreams are pretty good

By on December 15th, 2021 in computing, personal, Random Stuff, WuFlu

But I really need to stop falling asleep in my chair at my desk.

Warm and damp. Maybe rain. Blah all day.

More work at my client’s. His patience is wearing thin, but I am not getting the brunt of it. My cams work remotely. I can get in through the port forwarding. The problem has to be with his stuff.

So short shrift, both on this, and all day.

Decide what needs stacking, and do it.

nick

70 Comments and discussion on "Wed. Dec. 15, 2021 – the dreams are pretty good"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    72F and 92%RH this morning.  Yuck.

    3 hours horizontal is not enough to undo the compression of sitting for several times that long.  And I'm tired.

    n

  2. Greg Norton says:

    But, darn it, the crack development team that is working 24/7 to implement that functionality on the Android has not yet been successful. Darn it.

    Is iPhone de rigueur for Tesla owners, or is something else cool enough?

    My guess is that AirTags without the paired phone nearby reach out to *any* capable iOS device operating in the vicinity via Bluetooth and phone home. Allowing this to happen is probably buried in the EULA for newer versions of iOS so it won't happen with Android.

    Various Amazon devices do the same thing in that family of devices. At least they make an opt out available.

    Google? Who knows. Just assume their devices borrow Internet capability from each other.

  3. Ray Thompson says:

    AirTags without the paired phone nearby reach out to *any* capable iOS device operating in the vicinity via Bluetooth and phone home

    They do. The idea is to be able to track the location of the device to which the Airtag is attached. I have four of the tags. One attached to my laptop case, one attached to my camera, one attached to my keys, one attached to the wife's keys. They do alert me when left behind at any location other than my home.

    As for using the tags to track vehicles, nothing new. There are many devices on the market that can track vehicle locations and have been used for years. The Airtag just happens to be one of the cheaper items, about $25.00 when purchase four at a time. The other option to track a vehicle is to just follow it to the home of the owner. If someone wants the vehicle, they will get the vehicle. Blaming Airtags is just nonsense.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    As for using the tags to track vehicles, nothing new. There are many devices on the market that can track vehicle locations and have been used for years. The Airtag just happens to be one of the cheaper items, about $25.00 when purchase four at a time. The other option to track a vehicle is to just follow it to the home of the owner. If someone wants the vehicle, they will get the vehicle. Blaming Airtags is just nonsense.

    An "obsolete" iPhone hidden and secured on the vehicle, Bluetooth and WiFi turned off, would permit tracking with the "Find my iPhone" service. Considering the potential dollar amounts involved, a relatively current iPhone would be cost effective to even use just once.

    Burner SIM. Pay cash for the used iPhone. The old iPhone 3G has a fantastic cell modem, but the 3G and early 4G phones are getting disconnected by the carriers next year.

    First gen iPhone SE. I have one as my daily carry phone.

    Custom software is a possibility with that device if you want to get really clever, but the developer certificates to load software can be tracked by Apple, even the free certificates.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Blaming Airtags is just nonsense.

    Apple PR at work? Think about it.

    The only truly bad publicity is your obituary.

    I’m not sure about the resolution of the location reporting, but the tags would have been useful at the previous previous job, where we had to build a 3D model of the toll plaza using old school survey equipment, measuring distances between various reference points to the nearest cm. The process was always prone to error and not easy for novices (cough … the Senior Developers … cough) to master.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    –hmm, something to keep an eye on.

    People don't travel from remote areas of Sudan like they do Mainland China.

    They certainly don't attend medical and engineering conventions in the US in any meaningful numbers.

    The last figure I saw on the "hookers and steaks" sales conference in Boston promoting the new Alzheimers med boondoggle indicated that the Feb 2020 meeting was estimated to be responsible for 600,000 chain infections in the US. And that report was a year ago.

    The “hookers and steaks” shows were rolling until the first week in March that year.

    It is cold in the UK. Pandemics sell papers. In another couple of weeks, “Death In Paradise” will again be among the highest rated shows on the BBC.

    https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/death-in-paradise-season-11-release-date/

    I had no clue about the Christmas show. And “Red Dwarf” fans take note — Danny John Jules returns as Dwayne.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    The aid workers and the doctors without sense do though.  That's how ebola got to the UK, twice.

    n

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    And if they found 89, there are probably already thousands…

    n

    and sudanese refugees go everywhere.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    where we had to build a 3D model of the toll plaza using old school survey equipment,

    jeez, that is a job for one of the hundreds of scanning companies.  They come in, scan with lasers, generate a point cloud, and can model further that that if needed.  There is a big market for documenting existing manufacturing and other 'spaces' like baggage or package handling areas of complex 3d space.   Lots of companies to do the work for you and provide a much better result.

    n

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ahh, here it is.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/lira-implodes-turkey-proposes-huge-fines-hoarding

    Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) presented to Parliament a proposal for a new bill calling for increased fines against hoarding of food and other goods, a perfectly natural reaction to idiotic government policies that have resulted in the lira losing 50% of its purchasing power in just the past year!

    –that is some kind of inflation  – coming soon to a country near you.

    n

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    'I started watching extreme porn at 11': Billie Eilish says exposure to X-Rated material 'destroyed' her brain and ruined her first sexual experiences

        The 19-year-old singer told Howard Stern that she used to 'watch a lot of porn' but now feels it 'really destroyed my brain'
        She added that she feels 'incredibly devastated' that she was exposed to so much X-rated material
        Billie explained that porn ruined her first sexual experiences and she was 'not saying no to things that were not good'
        The seven-time Grammy Award winner also slammed porn for creating unrealistic expectations about sex and female bodies

    –gee, ya think?

    n

  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    They are not made by licensed manufacturers so they do not carry serial numbers, making them impossible to trace. 

    —so?  seriously, they always make the argument that they are "untraceable".   What is the benefit to tracing a murder weapon?  The murder has already occurred.  There is almost no benefit to anyone for the time spent "tracing"  a gun.  Which typically involves a 1 minute database lookup anyway. 

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10312907/Tesla-employee-29-arrested-murder-shooting-colleague-ghost-gun.html

    Tesla employee, 29, is arrested for murder after arguing with a co-worker then 'shooting him with a ghost gun at the end of his shift' outside the firm's Fremont manufacturing plant

        Anthony Solima, 29, 'suddenly walked off' after arguing with colleague Monday
        He armed himself with an untraceable 'ghost gun', investigators say
        The unidentified victim was leaving work when he was shot in parking lot

  13. SteveF says:

    creating unrealistic expectations about sex and female bodies

    It's all about the wahmen, ain't it, cupcake? Don't you think that unrealistic expectations are created about men's bodies, too?

  14. SteveF says:

    What is the benefit to tracing a murder weapon?

    It provides more scapegoats for headline-hungry DAs and for money-hungry surviving relatives. The gun store which sold the pistol eight years ago? They have insurance, right? Sue their pants off!

  15. Rick H says:

    My big concern was that it is an IOT device, and I am just not network savvy enough to be sure of what it is actually doing

    I have noticed that weather underground seems to go down a lot during severe weather around here. I suspect there is an input to the weather underground database from a station that is not sanitized and crashes things (but I don’t really know) but it means that during the times that I am most interested it might not work.

    The setup for the weather station to Weather Underground (or other places) was fairly easy; you just need a separate app on your phone to do it. (Once installed, you can delete the app.) You can connect to any SSID; even a local guest SSID of yours. Does not do 5G networks. But works well, and I do not need a separate computer always on to send data to WU. (The prior system required an program running on a computer to send data to WU. So I had one desktop system upstairs in the office area that only did that. Do not need that system now.)

    No problems with WU in my area. Data is always there, and updated. As long as you are connected to the interwebs, the data will get there.

  16. MrAtoz says:

    –gee, ya think?

    If she thinks blather about her problem with porn to Howard Stern helps, she is definitely messed up. And not just from porn if she thinks that is the right way to go.

  17. Greg Norton says:

    If she thinks blather about her problem with porn to Howard Stern helps, she is definitely messed up. And not just from porn if she thinks that is the right way to go.

    Howard Stern has really strange schtick running right now. He's serving as a sounding board for everyone's wokedom and essentially apologizing for all of his previous schtick. He's even advocating mandatory vaccination.

    All of the big comedians have been weird since rumors started circulating a year ago that at least one of the main network late night gigs would be up for grabs post-election, but the job opening(s) never materialized and most went back to laying low except Stern.

  18. JimB says:

    The unidentified victim was leaving work when he was shot in parking lot.

    Ouch! Reminds me of the Paul Harvey story about the woman who was shot in the fracas. 😛

  19. drwilliams says:

    Late night aint what it used to be. Replacing Flo in the insurance commercials would be a better gig. 

  20. lynn says:

    "Stoneskin: Prequel to the Deep Witches Trilogy" by K. B. Spangler
        https://www.amazon.com/Stoneskin-Prequel-Deep-Witches-Trilogy/dp/0998431737/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />

    Book number one of a two book space opera fantasy science fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback self published by the author in 2017 using Amazon's printing service. My book was printed in Coppell, Texas on 13 October 2021. I have bought the second book in the series, "The Blackwing War", and am reading it now.
        https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZVWPHB7br?tag=ttgnet-20 />

    Tembi Stoneskin was eight years old when The Deep transported her 18,000 light years from her dry and windy planet to another planet, wet and green. The Deep had appeared to humankind three thousand years before and voluntarily helped us by transporting all goods people from planet to planet. The Deep chose its own workers whom people called "witches", some of whom had lived for thousands of years. But The Deep never chose witches until they were twenty years old.

    Tembi met a witch on the new planet who brought her back to her planet using The Deep. And the witch moved to Tembi's planet, teaching her makeshift school in the slums. And then The Deep accidentally exposed Tembi to the rest of the witches when she was thirteen.

    The author has an excellent webcomic, “A Girl and Her Fed”, that she has been publishing on her own website for over a decade, since 2006. She has also written several books related to the webcomic. This book is not related to her webcomic.
    https://www.agirlandherfed.com/

    My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (153 reviews)

  21. Ray Thompson says:

    Returning my WYZE cameras. The cameras were working, connected fine to the base station and the app on the phone. So I installed the cameras in their final location. Suddenly both cameras are now offline. Tried as much as I could get to get things back. Removed the cameras and base station from the app. Added the base station back in with no problem. Was unable to add either camera back into the system. So they are going back.

    The ARLO Pro 4 cameras they were to replace are still here. The problem with those cameras is that they will NOT record locally unless $4.99 per camera, per month, is paid to ARLO. I see no reason to pay to have my cameras record locally on my own base station. I have written a letter to the CEO voicing my complaint. Asking for my money back or replace the PRO 4 cameras with PRO 2 cameras. I don't have a lot of hope. That will leave me fighting with the credit card company to get my money back.

    Why do companies make it so friggin' difficult to make things work? Do their developers every use the products their company creates? Or are the bean counters just too blasted stingy and don't care. Once the company has the money let the users suffer.

  22. Greg Norton says:

    Why do companies make it so friggin' difficult to make things work? Do their developers every use the products their company creates? Or are the bean counters just too blasted stingy and don't care. Once the company has the money let the users suffer.

    The great irony of The Home Depot is that most of the products on the shelves are designed and manufactured by people who don't own homes as Americans understand the concept.

    A lot of tech companies also want to shift to a subscription model with a predictable revenue stream.

    Camera systems in particular are still paying royalties on patents which generate checks mailed to PO Boxes in Los Gatos/Los Altos, CA.

    The patents are starting to expire on a lot of 90s innovations, however, so the people cashing those checks are looking for new places where they can build a revenue stream before they really do reach retirement age. We interviewed a bunch of those at the previous previous job last year, and even hired one, who was previously cashing checks from Cisco and keeping bees up in Florence.

  23. Greg Norton says:

    where we had to build a 3D model of the toll plaza using old school survey equipment,

    jeez, that is a job for one of the hundreds of scanning companies.  They come in, scan with lasers, generate a point cloud, and can model further that that if needed.  There is a big market for documenting existing manufacturing and other 'spaces' like baggage or package handling areas of complex 3d space.   Lots of companies to do the work for you and provide a much better result.

    But that costs money. The previous previous job seriously underbid jobs to win contracts.

    Put a junior developer in a hard hat and pair of steel toed boots and have them survey the plaza at 3 AM.

  24. Mark W says:

    Why do companies make it so friggin' difficult to make things work? Do their developers every use the products their company creates? Or are the bean counters just too blasted stingy and don't care. Once the company has the money let the users suffer.

    I believe that the management simply doesn't understand the products they sell. They think in vague terms like Value and Benefit, not useful, tangible features like "records locally". A lot of management types also think of engineers as replaceable commodities and don't understand the benefit of competent loyal employees. Management thinks they are the most important part of a company.

    I'm reading "Once Upon Atari" currently which talks about how games went from "release when ready" to "release when marketing needs a new product", with the obvious loss of quality.

  25. SteveF says:

    seriously underbid jobs to win contracts

    Yep, been on one of those.

    To get the contract, the manager of the local Teledyne Brown Engineering office said that the contractors on that project would work 45 hours per week but would bill only 40. This was not mentioned to the people who would be doing the work until after the contract was signed. To make it better, employees working on any of the other contracts needed to work only 40 per week.

    TBE was paying for my Master's, like many of the other younger engineers', so we didn't quit immediately. Didn't matter. So many people left that the company could not perform the contract and the office closed very shortly after I got my degree and quit.

  26. Rick H says:

    Re: WYZE cameras:

    I've had these cameras for several years, various versions, including the latest V3 outdoor cam, doorbell cam, and 'inside' camera. All have worked well in their final locations.

    I did have a problem viewing 'events' of the new doorbell cam on an older phone. Replacing the phone which had the latest Android OS fixed the issue. All are working well.

    Perhaps the issue with your devices is with a weak WI-fi signal in their final location. There are several WiFi signal strength apps available. You could use one of those apps to test the WI-fi signal strength at the testing and final location.

    You could also try connecting to a 2.4 WiFi network. Repositioning the WI-fi router might help.

    But I suspect signal strength problems. I have had no issues with the WYZE cameras (other than noted above) over the years I have had them. Keeping the cameras' firmware updated (see the Account setting in the Wyze app) is important, as are updates on all devices.

    I'm a happy Wyze user. Their latest cameras are even better, with better color and resolution.

  27. Greg Norton says:

    I'm reading "Once Upon Atari" currently which talks about how games went from "release when ready" to "release when marketing needs a new product", with the obvious loss of quality.

    Atari Age sells a "Pac Man 4k" cartridge for the 2600 which proves that a decent port to the system was possible instead of the travesty which company released to meet a rushed development schedule.

    Todd Fry always claimed he needed a bigger ROM and lack of space led to the port of the game, which, arguably, along with "E.T." helped crash the industry in 1982.

    Don't worry about Todd, however. Industry legend is that he knew what would result from the release of the cartridge and negotiated a royalty deal which led to his taking home a dime per cartridge, and, IIRC, in the end, the game sold 7 million copies.

  28. Ray Thompson says:

    Perhaps the issue with your devices is with a weak WI-fi signal in their final location

    The WiFi signal is strong everywhere in my house as I have a mesh network. Even outside within several dozen feet of the exterior walls.

    The base station is next to the WiFi router, the cameras were within two feet of the base station, 5 Ghz was turned off on the router, only 2.4 Ghz network was available. Base station is direct wired to the network. Base station connected just fine. Neither camera would connect to the base station or the app. I did everything that I could find online.

    What is strange is that the cameras were working just fine. I moved them from my desk to their final location, basically closer to the base station, and both cameras quit working entirely. I did nothing but move the cameras. The base station showed as offline as did both cameras. I removed and reset the base station and both cameras. Base station was added and came back just fine. But neither camera would pair with the base station.

    So the cameras and base station will get returned to Microcenter in Atlanta.

    It should not be so difficult for a programmer to at least provide a reason or error code when the device does not connect. It goes back to the days of WFW 3.11 when a message would pop up "Incorrect DLL loaded". Really!. Would it have been so hard to provide the name of the DLL that was incorrect. Same with the cameras. A message of "failed to connect" is not really useful without some reason as to why. Clueless programmers who never use their product.

  29. Greg Norton says:

    TBE was paying for my Master's, like many of the other younger engineers', so we didn't quit immediately. Didn't matter. So many people left that the company could not perform the contract and the office closed very shortly after I got my degree and quit.

    The previous previous job had a churn rate of two years and out for the junior to mid-grade developers. The only exceptions are probably looking now.

    My restrictions on poaching personnel ended on 10/6, and I'll take email from anyone still there who wants to find a new job, even if I suspect they sold me out to HR last year.

  30. lynn says:

    But, darn it, the crack development team that is working 24/7 to implement that functionality on the Android has not yet been successful. Darn it.

    Is iPhone de rigueur for Tesla owners, or is something else cool enough?

    My guess is that AirTags without the paired phone nearby reach out to *any* capable iOS device operating in the vicinity via Bluetooth and phone home. Allowing this to happen is probably buried in the EULA for newer versions of iOS so it won't happen with Android.

    Various Amazon devices do the same thing in that family of devices. At least they make an opt out available.

    Google? Who knows. Just assume their devices borrow Internet capability from each other.

    There has been a rumor for over a decade now that Texas is going to embed RFID chips in the annual vehicle registration stickers and start charging vehicles by the mile with road sensors all over the state.

  31. Greg Norton says:

    The base station is next to the WiFi router, the cameras were within two feet of the base station, 5 Ghz was turned off on the router, only 2.4 Ghz network was available. Base station is direct wired to the network. Base station connected just fine. Neither camera would connect to the base station or the app. I did everything that I could find online.

    When you moved the cameras back inside, would they connect to WiFi?

  32. lynn says:

    The aid workers and the doctors without sense do though.  That's how ebola got to the UK, twice.

    n

    David Weber wrote a very good series that started with a 5,000 planet empire killing itself with instantaneous matter transmission machines (teleportation) and a virus with a 18 month gestation time.  Only two planets survived the virus out of 5,000.

        https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856//p?tag=ttgnet-20

  33. Rick H says:

    …and maybe the cameras are confused by the mesh network? Or vice-versa? Trying to connect to multiple devices?

    I don't got any mesh here, so I'm probably wrong. It's happened before, once or twice.

  34. Ray Thompson says:

    When you moved the cameras back inside, would they connect to WiFi?

    I did move the cameras back inside to try and get them to connect. No luck. All I did was mount the cameras and suddenly the cameras no longer worked.

    maybe the cameras are confused by the mesh network

    The mesh network appears as one network, one SSID. The entire network is managed from one router that handles all the rest. A change in the main router affects all the routers. No other devices have any issue connecting with the mesh network.

    My son also has a mesh network and his WYZE cameras have no issues connecting.

    The cameras were not confused when they were connected before relocation. But I do share your same thoughts that it is something with the network. The devices would have switched to a different router when moved outside as one of the other access points is closer. Moving the cameras indoors, close to the access point they would connect, and the cameras should have connected. It is the same router to which the base station is connected.

    However the base station remained in the same location, hard wired to the router. The base station connection never changed. Even the base station dropped offline and the app said it could not access the base station. I had to delete the base station and reconnect, which worked fine. The cameras refused to sync.

    I spent two hours trying to make it work. Reading information online, in the forums, etc. Tried calling support and that was a royal waste as no one answered. Something is wonky and I no longer wish to waste more of my time chasing ghosts.

  35. SteveF says:

    I'm probably wrong. It's happened before, once or twice.

    Surely you must be mistaken about that.

  36. Greg Norton says:

    There has been a rumor for over a decade now that Texas is going to embed RFID chips in the annual vehicle registration stickers and start charging vehicles by the mile with road sensors all over the state.

    3M was the leader in passive tags and readers, and they bailed on the business within the last few years, dumping the people and tech into a spinoff, Sirit. A few disgruntled high dose T-therapy types in management and engineering went up to Dallas to try and build a new reader company, Titan, but I don't think that went anywhere. The Titan reader wasn't any better than the legacy 3M/Sirit hardware IIRC.

    There isn't any money in tags for now. If Texas was planning something that big, IBM or someone else on that scale would have bought Sirit already.

    Installing those readers and tuning them properly is not trivial.

  37. Rick H says:

    But I do share your same thoughts that it is something with the network.

    Maybe turn off the mesh devices individually to see if one is not working correctly?

  38. Greg Norton says:

    Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas tree.

    The Jaguars firing Urban Meyer before New Years would set off a chain reaction around the SEC and at UT.

    Who wants to be the SEC Athletic Director who passed on Urban Meyer? Unless you’re in charge at Alabama?

    The game itself won't be nearly as interesting next year.

    https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/12/jaguars-urban-meyer-needs-to-be-fired

  39. Ray Thompson says:

    Maybe turn off the mesh devices individually to see if one is not working correctly?

    I can get the list of devices connected to each node. All the nodes have devices connected. All I can think of is that when the devices were inside they connected to the primary node. When I moved them, attempted to reconnect, it would have been to a secondary node. The base station is connected to a secondary node and works fine. That should be the node the cameras connect with.

    Something is odd. I cannot figure out what. It is a deal breaker for me.

  40. Greg Norton says:

    The cameras were not confused when they were connected before relocation. But I do share your same thoughts that it is something with the network. The devices would have switched to a different router when moved outside as one of the other access points is closer. Moving the cameras indoors, close to the access point they would connect, and the cameras should have connected. It is the same router to which the base station is connected.

    What are your 802.11 N/AC channel widths? “20/40/80”? We have so much WiFi flying around in my immediate vicinity that 80 MHz generally doesn't work at a distance. I keep my channel widths at 40 MHz and have a 802.11 G hotspot as a backup for the occasional legacy N device which won’t do more than 20 MHz.

  41. Geoff Powell says:

    @ray:

    This is purely a guess (I don't run a mesh network, and I'm only 802.11n anyway) but maybe the cameras are seeking to connect to the first AP they saw, by MAC address.

    You may have to reset the cameras (that's a "first birthday" reset) in their final locations to get them to try to reconnect.

    Or, as you seem to be doing, return them as "not fit for purpose", which is a standard clause in consumer law here in UK.

    G.

  42. Rick H says:

    You may have to reset the cameras (that's a "first birthday" reset) in their final locations to get them to try to reconnect.

    Yup. I'd move them to the new location, reset the cameras (I seem to recall a small hole/hutton on the cameras to reset), then go through the connection thing again.

  43. Ray Thompson says:

    We have so much WiFi flying around in my immediate vicinity

    I am the only WiFi in my area that is detected by my phones. We are not dense housing and are some distance from anyone that would have WiFi.

    You may have to reset the cameras (that's a "first birthday" reset) in their final locations

    There is no way to hard reset the WYZE outdoor cameras. The best one can hope for is power cycling and a long press of the connect button. Tried that multiple times.

    return them as "not fit for purpose"

    That is what I am doing this weekend. We have to pick up a former exchange student at the Atlanta airport. Microcenter where I purchased the cameras is a short detour. I have 30 days and will be about 6 days shy of 30 days.

    I am going to get two ARLO PRO 2 cameras, fight ARLO about getting my money back on the PRO 4 cameras. Nowhere in the documentation does it state that local recording is impossible without paying the fee. I spent almost two hours on chat with ARLO support before that was the final decision. Even the support person was not aware of the issue and had to ask someone up the food chain. I refuse to pay anyone for the privilege of local recording. It is my resources for which I should not be paying someone else for nothing. Greedy rectum orifices.

    And in other news. I am already schedule for VA testing (through a contracted company) to be tested for my knee issues. County VA agent seems to think that the knee replacement should qualify due to my back injury in the service. Skeletal is skeletal and the VA considers them all connected. Knee bone connected to the thigh bone sort of thing. I am also scheduled to have my hearing tested again.

    That was really quick scheduling for testing. Decision time may be much longer on the knee. Hearing, maybe not so much. Last time I had my hearing tested it was done on a Tuesday. Thursday evening the money was in my account.

    Again, the goal is 50%. I don't care how I manage to get to that goal.

  44. Rick H says:

    The Wyze outdoor camera connects to it's base station. The base station connects to the wireless network.

    If you need to connect the base station to another wireless network (or, in your case, another mesh router), there's a way to do that. From the docs: https://support.wyze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037538072-Wyze-Base-Station-Setup-Guide :

    Want to change the WiFi that your Base Station is connected to?

    1. In the Wyze app, tap on your Wyze Base Station.

    2. Tap on the Settings gear on the top right.

    3. Tap Device Info > Wi-Fi Network.

    4. Follow on-screen steps to finish the setup.

    I think this will allow you to connect the base station to a different mesh router. There's other info in that support docs.

    There is also this, from the same doc:

    Want to unplug your Base Station from your router?

    Once it's set up, you can use Wyze Base Station on a WiFi connection – no need for a router. To do this: 

    1. In the Wyze app, tap on your Wyze Base Station.
    2. Tap on the Settings gear on the top right.
    3. Tap Device Info > Change Connection. You'll see one of the following screens:
      • Select your network.
        1. Follow the onscreen steps to connect to your WiFi network.
        2. Once connected, unplug the Base Station from your router.
        3. The status light will flash blue, then turn solid once complete. You're all set!
      • Connect via WiFi.
        1. Unplug the Base Station from your router.
        2. The status light will flash blue, then turn solid once complete. You're all set!

    So you need to disconnect the base station from the router, and connect it to a different router with the above instruction(s). The camera is paired with the base station, so you don't have to change that once you set it up. Although I suspect that there is a way to connect an outdoor cam with a new/different base station.

  45. lynn says:

    Interest rates are definitely up already.  I just looked at http://www.lenderfi.com and refinancing my house has jumped from 2.00% for a 15 year note with zero costs to 2.25% for a 15 year note with zero costs.  Of course, this is probably reflecting some statements from the Fed that they intend to raise interest rates in 2022.

  46. Ray Thompson says:

    If you need to connect the base station to another wireless network
     

    The base station is a wired connection. Never changed. All I did was move the cameras. That process broke something.

  47. Rick H says:

    The base station is a wired connection. Never changed. All I did was move the cameras. That process broke something.

    Then the base station is too far from the outdoor camera (or maybe the camera not fully charged). The base station has to be within 300 feet of the outdoor cam but that is without obstructions. Walls, etc make that shorter. The base station can be connected to a router (hardwire) or to a wireless router.

    So final config can be

    – base station connected directly (cable) to router

    – base station connected to wi-fi device (mesh device in your case).

    You should be able to see, in the Wyze app, the base station and outdoor cameras as separate devices, after setting things up. If base station not there, then re-do the base station setup (first with a wired connection, then wireless if you want). If camera not in the app (or not connected), then re-do the camera to base station setup.

    In my install, the outdoor camera is about 15 feet from the base station. Base station is near the wireless router. Works just fine, setup was not a problem.

  48. Alan says:

    >> The ARLO Pro 4 cameras they were to replace are still here. The problem with those cameras is that they will NOT record locally unless $4.99 per camera, per month, is paid to ARLO. I see no reason to pay to have my cameras record locally on my own base station. I have written a letter to the CEO voicing my complaint. Asking for my money back or replace the PRO 4 cameras with PRO 2 cameras. I don't have a lot of hope. That will leave me fighting with the credit card company to get my money back.

    @Ray, there's always Small Claims Court.

  49. Greg Norton says:

    Interest rates are definitely up already.  I just looked at http://www.lenderfi.com and refinancing my house has jumped from 2.00% for a 15 year note with zero costs to 2.25% for a 15 year note with zero costs.  Of course, this is probably reflecting some statements from the Fed that they intend to raise interest rates in 2022.

    The Discount Rate doesn't mean much if the Fed keeps buying the T-bills and mortgage paper at a rate of $1 Trillion per year.

    Given current T-bill yield, mortgages should be 4% easily, but that would crater housing.

  50. Rick H says:

    BTW, the Wyze cameras only record 12 seconds to their 'cloud', and they only keep those recordings for a short time (2 weeks?).

    If you put a micro-SD card in the camera, it will record all 'events' (motion captured) on the micro-SD card. But there is no external recording to a local device. You can look at all stored events on your phone, but you would have to remove the card and copy data to your hard drive.

    You can sign up for their 'Cam-Plus' for a monthly/yearly fee, which records camera events to their cloud which is only accessible to you. (But you apparently don't like that.)

    There is also a way to turn the Wyze cam into a web-cam that you can locally record (assuming you have software that will capture the camera's data).

    In my case, I use the Wyze cams as motion detection units. I have two interior-facing and three exterior-facing (one doorbell, one camera pointed through the transom window, and the outdoor camera). The interior-facing cameras are only set up for motion detection and alerts when I am out of the house.  I can view all cameras from the phone app from any location.

    If you need to record camera data, either  just motion detect or full-time, then the Wyze cams are not appropriate. But I don't need that capability; the motion detection with the 12-second recording and/or the Cam Plus (to the cloud) is enough for me.

    Note that the 12-second recording has a 'cool-down' delay, so a 2 minute motion will not capture all motion, just the first 12 seconds. Cam Plus subscription doesn't have that.

  51. JimB says:

    Ray, two thoughts.

    It seems to me that running a cable to the cameras would be less fuss.

    Be careful with video evidence. Wouldn't want images of you doing anything to a burglar. : -)

  52. Ray Thompson says:

    Then the base station is too far from the outdoor camera
     

    The camera was within 20 feet of the base station. When trying to re-link the camera was within 3 feet of the base station. When the cameras worked they were farther away.

  53. Nick Flandrey says:

    Why do companies make it so friggin' difficult to make things work? Do their developers every use the products their company creates? Or are the bean counters just too blasted stingy and don't care. Once the company has the money let the users suffer.

    I just spent three hours trying to even connect to my client's ubiquiti wifi security gateway.  No success.  I've never seen the "inside" of the box in 10 hours of trying, nor has the other guy sent down to try.    I installed their little appliance on the network today, and was able to partly configure it.  Now I am supposed to be able to run their management apps on that appliance, interacting with it thru a browser.  Except that it NEEDS you to log into the management tools with an online account at their ubnt.com site, and once you do the appliance is locked to that account.  How in the heck would a company netadmin group manage that?  The ubnt.com accounts are linked to an email account FFS.   there doesn't seem to be any way to avoid the online component. 

    And the fargin thing STILL can't see the switch it's attached too, or the security gateway box.

    I'm ready to toss the whole stack in the 'return to sender' bin.   The gorram 24 port PoE switch only has PoE on 16 of the ports that work with standard PoE devices.  That was a joy to discover.  Ah, says I finally, it's not a cable issue, or a termination issue, there's no blinken lights above port 16.  Lost an hour to that nonsense.

    The edge switch isn't configurable from the unifi ecosystem, the waps only show up but can't be "adopted" to be managed, because I adopted them previously from a different lappy running their control software. 

    It's magic if it works, but if it doesn't you are just F'd.

    And I still can't figure out why my port forwarding doesn't work for any of the crestron devices.  It's identical to the forwarding that does work for my cams.  My issues this morning were because the whole rack was dark.  Power was lost sometime this am or late last night and the F'ing UPSs don't turn back on when power is restored.  You need to physically press and hold the button.  THEY will be replaced tomorrow.  Tripplite POS design. I put a critical system on the UPS so it stays powered as much as possible, but if there is an issue, SOME HUMAN must intervene.  Poor design again.

    I need some dinner.

    n

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  54. EdH says:

    Note that the 12-second recording has a 'cool-down' delay, so a 2 minute motion will not capture all motion, just the first 12 seconds.

    Seems like a competent Mission-Impossible style intruder could make use of that fact…

  55. Rick H says:

    Seems like a competent Mission-Impossible style intruder could make use of that fact…

    Technically, yes. But there is no external indication that the 12-second rule applies to a camera. An SD card gets around that limitation. And subscribing to the Cam Plus cloud storage system can be used.

    Just because the Wyze cam is there, doesn't mean that you can wait 12 seconds after the initial motion detection.

  56. EdH says:

    @Rick H: Thanks for the weather station info!  I’ll probably set one up in the new year, not feeling up to dealing with it this Xmas season…

  57. EdH says:

    Just because the Wyze cam is there, doesn't mean that you can wait 12 seconds after the initial motion detection.

    I dunno, the MI team always had so much information on the bad guy’s setup!

  58. drwilliams says:

    Most recently, and most laudably, Rowling brought attention to the truly grotesque fact that Scotland has announced that, if the police arrest a man for raping a woman, and he declares that he is a woman, the police will note that as his sex merely on his say-so and incarcerate him accordingly—in women’s prisons with a whole flock of potential victims:

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/jk_rowling_continues_to_speak_out_for_women.html

    So when a "penised woman" is arrested in Scotland and demands to be strip-searched by a woman, do they have Sgt. "Penised Woman" to do the honors?

  59. Greg Norton says:

    And I still can't figure out why my port forwarding doesn't work for any of the crestron devices.  It's identical to the forwarding that does work for my cams.

    TCP vs. UDP?

    Time to break out Wireshark and a half duplex hub.

  60. Ray Thompson says:

    I just spent three hours trying to even connect to my client's ubiquiti wifi
     

    I despise coders that provide no useful information when something fails. The code knows the problem and throws an error. Using the same error message for every condition. “Failed to connect”. Well, duh, I can see that. Tell why, please. An error code, an error message. I used to think it was silly for IBM CICS to have so many error codes. But every one of those codes pointed to the exact problem.

    Lazy, incompetent, jerk wad, idiot, zit faced, social misfit, coders.

  61. Rick H says:

    @ray

    The AWS outage today has affected some Wyze device functions. See https://support.wyze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015979872 for latest status.

    For instance, a couple of my Wyze devices show as 'offline' in the app.

  62. Nick Flandrey says:

    Time to break out Wireshark and a half duplex hub.

    that is the next step suggested this afternoon by the guy from Dallas.   Except that tonight, I can connect from my house.  SSH works, the web app works.  My port forwarding must suddenly be correct.  Unless the guy from Dallas (who came down tonight and is staying on site) found something and fixed it in the last two hours…

    Still doesn't get me into the ubiquiti gear, but that is very much less important if programmer can get in the usual way.

    n

  63. ITGuy1998 says:

    I have ubiquiti ap's at the house – 3 of them – each a different model. Their management interface sucks dead bunnies. When it works, it works well. To get the AP's to adopt, you will have to factory reset them. Push and hold the reset button with a paper clip for like 10 seconds. After they come up, you should see them as adoptable. I've had to do that once or twice…

    You can do a local account with the management interface and bypass the cloud. Mine is configured that way, though honestly i don't remember how I did it. I mess with wireless so little now, I forget everything I learn.

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  64. Nick Flandrey says:

     Fed chairman Powell warns of THREE interest rate hikes in 2022: Will stop calling inflation 'transitory' and begin to call it 'persistant'
    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the economy was making 'rapid progress,' as the Fed announced it would shrink its monthly bond purchases faster than earlier announced.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10314121/Fed-tighten-credit-faster-sees-3-rate-hikes-2022.html

    —and this

     Wuhan lab leak 'is now the most likely origin of COVID because Beijing tried to cover it up' and it is 'reasonable to believe virus was engineered in China', claim Harvard experts

    Dr Alina Chan, a specialist in cell engineering at Harvard and MIT, said said the idea that the virus may have been genetically engineered at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is 'reasonable'.

    Huh, ya think?  Now, after all that?

    n

  65. Nick Flandrey says:

    You can do a local account with the management interface and bypass the cloud

    yeah, I did something with an app on my phone at some point, because you couldn't config them with a web page on the WAP itself, like any normal device.   Problem is, 3 of them are in the attic, and are not easily accessible, at least not quickly and resetting them would suck.

    The whole 'adopt' thing is just dumb the way it locks them to one user.  Did they really think any organization would only ever have one person to manage their APs?

    I have the feeling that if you start with everything unifi that you want to use, fresh from the box, and turn them on and connect them in exactly the right order, it works great.  But if you get any of that wrong, you are F'd.

    n

    added – but the whole point of unifi is to get all of it into one place to provision and manage it. I’ve never yet seen the Security Gateway in the management tool, despite them being 6 inches apart and connected to the same unifi switch. Which I also can’t see.

  66. Nick Flandrey says:

    It occurs to me I should go to bed early tonight.  

    n

  67. Alan says:

    >> The AWS outage today has affected some Wyze device functions. See https://support.wyze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015979872 for latest status.

    But…but…it has to work…it's in the cloud!

  68. Alan says:

    So the rest of the Kentucky Congressional delegation put partisan politics ahead of the tragedy that has affected their constituents?

    Good for Comer for doing the right thing.

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/15/politics/biden-james-comer-kentucky/index.html

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