A new license plate camera was installed at the Den entrance.
IR. 130 feet. 4K night vision. The works.
The old G5 Pro still looked nice. Cat6 couldn't throw it away.
He took it back to his nook. Plugged it in. Powered it up.
Thought he'd VLAN it properly while he had some downtime.
Then he started playing video games.
The G5 Pro went live. Public. He didn't notice.
Game on one screen. VLAN config on the other. Neither getting his full attention.
G5_Pro_01 · PUBLIC · 00:00:01 · counting
Cat8. 11:03:41. Routine scan.
Cat6e. 11:03:42. She was already scanning. Notebook already open.
Less than a second later.
Before Cat8 or Cat6e could say a word — Cat7 and Cat6A were already in motion.
This is hilarious! He really doesn't realize we can all see him right now.
His patch cable length tail makes this whole thing so much funnier. Look see, he can hardly reach it!
Between rounds, Cat6 noticed the VLAN wasn't right. He grabbed the G5 Pro to find the reset pinhole.
Ok now, where is that tiny little hole, it says, oh on the bottom of the camera...
The camera connected to his ethernet tail made it difficult for him to press the button. He reached for the camera. The sneaky live feed viewers were delighted to see Cat6 struggle. At first... then.
Gross.
Gross.
...Gross.
That is genuinely gross.
Somethings are better unseen. Maybe they shouldn't have been spying in the first place? Never-the-less, the overbuilt cats still had a Cat-to-nip.
Cat3 read the message, set his book down, and shuffled over to Cat5's nook. Just to watch.
I haven't moved this fast in three years.
Cat6 had been laying in his arm chair. The group had a view of the game too. They were watching intently and then the game ended. Baycat6 was going to the next round. He urgently reached back to face the camera towards himself. The light indicator was lit so he began walking-through the memorized steps.
Okay — reset — VLAN 20 — tag the port — close WAN route — firewall rule — two minutes let's go.
The camera feed goes black.
CONNECTION LOST.
G5_Pro_01 · VLAN 20 · private · 15:19:04 · Cat6 got it right on attempt 2
A knock on Baycat6's nook door sparked him to waddle over with the camera still between his legs. When he looked outside to greet whomever was there he was surprised to see a small package of catnip.
Baycat6 picked up the CAT NIP bag 15 minutes later. Maybe those are Cat3's? They tasted old.
Cat3's nook. Empty. Lamp still on. Patch cane gone.
Hm. That's strange. ...maybe he's with Cat5?
Cat5's nook. Cat3 was still there. Cat6 had an empty bag of Catnip in his hand.
Cat3, I think someone accidentally brought me your Cat Nip and I ate it?
You know, son — my catnip is all here. Fine artisan catnip from my travels that I have been storing.
Cat3 really does have the best catnip — oh and I really don't go near the stuff anymore. Cat6A was just talking about catnip. Let me see what he said.
Cat6 now knew the whole story and he felt embarrassed.
On the way to Cat6A's nook he noticed Cat5e's camera was also oddly placed. He thought maybe when he went over there to apologize he could offer to fix it.
Cat6e was waiting at her door. He walked right past.
Stop three. Cat6A's nook.
6A — I wanted to apologize for the camera.
You know what a VLAN is, right Cat6? Like — you do know what a subnet is? I'm just checking. For a professional. This is wild.
Cat6 kept his cool. If 6A wasn't going to confess Cat7 would.
Stop four. Cat7's nook.
Cat7 — I wanted to say sorry about the feed.
Apology accepted. For what it's worth — I could have just blocked your feed. I just thought it was interesting that you ate all the kitty treats.
Cat7 found a way to make the apology about TERA but also found a way to blame himself for the treats.
Cat6 went to find Cat6A and Cat7. He had something to show them.
Look — a VLAN is just a virtual wall. You segment the network so devices can't talk to each other by default. The camera should have been on its own. Subnet 192.168.20.0 slash 24. Completely isolated. Nobody gets in.
So you knew how to do it. You just didn't do it.
Cat6 had no response to that. Cat7 was already walking away.
✦ The Ending ✦
Cat6 was heading back to his nook. Cat5e was on a ladder.
Cat5e spoke first.
Cat6 — I'm sorry. The camera. I know it's been aimed at your nook. I was going to move it, I just —
No — I was going to say the same thing. I'm sorry about my camera. The G5 Pro. I think we were — both going to apologize.
He blushed. She saw it from the ladder.
5E yelled from the ladder. "Hey 6, your video game skills were um, impressive."
6E came out from her den when she heard their voices. The whole scenario had been so weird. Why hadn't anyone noticed she was on the feed as well? She opened her journal.
Cat5e's camera stayed aimed at Cat6's nook. Slightly less.
He wasn't worried about her invading his privacy. Some cameras store their contents in the cloud. Truly, who owns the data? Others are open to hacking, or bugs, or only record for 60 seconds at a time. At least Cat5e owned the data and had his best interest in mind.