Chapter 5 — Two Networks, One Mini, and a Whole Lot of Patience

With Catalina installed and the keyboard participating whenever it felt like it, we were ready to connect the Little Mini to the outside world.

Or, more accurately, to two different worlds.

The Vantrue F1 has Wi-Fi, but it's a rather antisocial form of Wi-Fi.

It broadcasts its own network, but it refuses to join anybody else's.

It is essentially the networking equivalent of a person who invites you to their house but won't come to yours.

This was inconvenient because I wanted to sit comfortably inside my air-conditioned house while the Mini talked to the motorcycle in the garage.

The Great Network Architecture Debate

ChatGPT explained that the Mini needed two network connections.

One to communicate with the Vantrue F1 and another to remain connected to the home network.

So far, so good.

Then ChatGPT suggested buying a USB Wi-Fi adapter.

Apparently, the solution to having one Wi-Fi connection was to purchase another Wi-Fi connection.

I had a different idea.

The Mini already had an Ethernet port.

And I already had a Wi-Fi extender with an Ethernet port.

“Why don't we just connect those two with an Ethernet cable?”

ChatGPT considered this revolutionary proposal for approximately the amount of time it takes an AI to realize the human has found a simpler solution.

Yes. That would work.

No additional Wi-Fi adapter required.

No new hardware to purchase.

Just an Ethernet cable connecting two ports that were already sitting there, waiting to be useful.

And so our network architecture was established:

The Mini's built-in Wi-Fi would connect to the motorcycle camera.

Its Ethernet port would connect to the extender.

The extender would connect to the home network.

And I would remain inside, enjoying the air conditioning.

For once, the most practical solution in the room had come from the person without artificial intelligence.

Although, given how this project was going, that probably shouldn't have been surprising.

We started configuring things.

The camera's Wi-Fi had to be enabled.

The Mini had to find it.

The extender had to connect to the home network.

Ethernet had to work.

And macOS had to understand that just because the camera had Wi-Fi didn't mean it had internet.

This last distinction seemed to concern the computer considerably.

The F1 was perfectly happy broadcasting its own little network.

The Mini was less enthusiastic about being connected to a Wi-Fi network that couldn't reach the internet.

Fortunately, the Ethernet connection could handle that part.

We worked through the settings, the connections, and the occasional moment when something that had been working a few minutes earlier suddenly wasn't.

ChatGPT offered instructions.

I followed them.

Sometimes they worked.

Sometimes they led to more instructions.

Eventually, the two-network arrangement came together.

The Mini could connect to the camera over Wi-Fi while remaining accessible through the home network.

This was a significant achievement.

A computer that had spent years sitting in a box was now simultaneously communicating with a motorcycle camera and a house full of Apple devices.

Not bad for a machine that had recently been considered garbage.

But there was still one problem.

The Mini was in the garage.

I was frequently not in the garage.

And while the entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid sitting out there, we still needed a way to control the computer remotely.

Getting two networks to cooperate was only the beginning.

Jump Desktop to the Rescue

Fortunately, I had an ace up my sleeve.

Jump Desktop.

Unlike some of the other participants in this adventure, Jump Desktop had already established a reputation for actually doing what it was supposed to do.

I used it regularly to access my MacBook Air from my iPad, and it had rescued me from more than one situation where I needed a real computer but didn't particularly want to be sitting in front of one.

Or when I was thirty miles away and my wife needed me to troubleshoot the printer.

Because apparently, being thirty miles away is no longer a valid excuse for not providing technical support.

Thanks, Jump Desktop.

For the Mini project, Jump Desktop initially allowed me to connect to my MacBook Air from the iPad.

From there, I could use macOS Screen Sharing to reach the Mini.

So the arrangement was:

iPad → Jump Desktop → MacBook Air → Screen Sharing → Mac mini.

Three devices.

Two remote connections.

One person attempting to remember which computer he was actually operating.

And one AI assistant providing instructions that generally began with “Click…”

This worked remarkably well.

Until it didn't.

Occasionally, I'd be looking at several Finder windows, a remote desktop, and another remote desktop inside that one.

Moving windows around became an adventure.

Pasting commands sometimes produced permission prompts.

And on at least one occasion, I discovered that I was operating the wrong computer.

Which is an impressive achievement when you consider that I was technically the only person using any of them.

Eventually, we installed Jump Desktop directly on the Mini.

Suddenly, I could connect from the iPad straight to the garage computer.

No intermediate MacBook Air.

No nested desktop arrangement.

And significantly fewer opportunities to accidentally give instructions to the wrong machine.

The Little Mini was now accessible from practically anywhere I had a suitable connection.

I could manage files, check downloads, and troubleshoot the system without walking into the garage.

No heat.

No crawling around under the motorcycle.

No microscopic screw.

And for once, the software had done exactly what I expected.

If this project has a software hero, Jump Desktop has certainly earned a nomination.

Of course, being able to control the Mini remotely was only useful if it could actually retrieve motorcycle videos.

Which brings us to the moment when everything finally worked.

And then worked a little too well.

Companion reading: Technical Manual Chapter 5 — Connecting Two Networks; Chapter 6 — Setting Up File Sharing; and Chapter 7 — Configuring Remote Access with Jump Desktop.