Raspberry Pi 400 Mouse and Bardi Smart Outdoor Static IP Camera

I've had to abandon the mouse that came with the Raspberry Pi 400 that I purchased some months ago. It was never quite right, especially when it came to copying and pasting, and proved absolutely hopeless when playing online chess because it led to frequent mouse slips. I guess they added the cheapest mouse available to the package. "DESIGNED BY XIAOMI" is printed on the top cover of the mouse, not that it means anything.

It not a big deal as a wireless mouse, especially with its own proprietary dongle, can be bought very cheaply nowadays. Overall, I'm quite happy so far with the performance of this particular Raspberry Pi model. My only complaints have been directed at the deficiencies of the Chromium web browser.

Yesterday a package arrived containing a SMART OUTDOOR STATIC IP CAMERA. It had sent by relatives and today I set it up and have it running, the sound and video feed being accessible via an iPhone app. The feed can be accessed from remotely and data can be stored to an SD card although I haven't set that up yet. The maximum card size is 128 GB. The camera connects to the local WiFi network using the 2.4 GHz wavelength.

Here is a description of the product taken from the manufacturer's website:

This camera is now the only device that makes the home router accessible to the outside world. This is something to ponder and it raises security issues as the IP address is indeed static. It doesn't change, allocated presumably by the BARDI company during the registration process and built into the price of the device.

WiFi Problems with MacBook Pro

My somewhat dated MacBook Pro is still serving me faithfully but I've had problems with getting it to connect with WiFi repeaters. 

I have a TP-LINK TL-WA855RE N300 Wi-Fi Wall Plug Range Extender/Repeater/Access Point and was having no end of trouble getting my MacBook Pro to maintain a WiFi connection to it. It would connect but soon an IP conflict message would appear and the connection would be broken. Having become so reliant on WiFi, I'd forgotten that this repeater has an Ethernet port. 

When I remembered, I then used a wired connection. My MacBook was assigned an IP address and that was the end of my problems. I need the repeater in my study, which is a little out of range of the TP-Link router, and so the lack of mobility is not a problem. I can simply turn the WiFi back on when I'm elsewhere in the house. 

The problem only occurred with the MacBook. My Samsung smartphone experienced no such problems. So the WiFi connectivity problem was never resolved but an alternative connectivity solution came to the rescue. Whether this same problem occurs with the latest MacBooks I don't know. 

Of course I don't have a dedicated Ethernet port on my MacBook Pro and so I needed to use a dongle, which fortunately I already had in my possession. With that and an Ethernet cable, I've had no further problems. It's just a reminder that, even in the world of technology, everything old can be new again. Once upon a time, there was no WiFi and Internet connectivity, when there was an Internet to connect to, was achieved via cables. Now, in my study, I'm living in the past.