The Haunted Network: A Real-Life Tech Mystery
Some time ago, I was hired to install around 120 IP cameras in a medium-sized company.
That was a real challenge since the company’s facility was originally a large old house. Because this house had been converted into an office, the walls and rooms were like a labyrinth — it had more tight and confined spaces than your kitchen in a loft! It was almost impossible to access some areas.
I had a great team of workers helping on the project, while I was responsible for planning, feasibility, and keeping the installation affordable for the client — and profitable for my company.
The Technical Challenge
The network cabling took us quite a while to complete because of all those bends and maze-like passages. After overcoming all these challenges, we began installing the cameras and the network devices to support them.
Everything seemed perfect. All cameras had the right IP addresses, DNS was working, switches were at full speed, and pings were responding correctly.
The SAN (Synology) and the server (Windows Server 2018) were configured to receive and store the video. After all that effort, it seemed everything was more perfect than Tucker Carlson’s hair (😉).
However — yes, there’s a however — that night something weird happened.
The Mysterious Camera Failure
Early the next morning, I received a call: one of the cameras had failed.
I went to the site and was told the issue started around midnight. I ran tests on every OSI layer (ha!).
The CAT6 cable and RJ45 connectors tested fine. Pings worked. The link was set to auto 100/1000 Mbps. Still, no video.
I replaced the camera — and voilà! — it worked again. But when I tested the “bad” camera on another network node, it worked fine. Strange.
The next morning, another call: the same camera had failed again, around the same time.
This time I suspected the RJ45 plug.
When Logic Failed
I replaced the connector and the video came back. Everything looked great — until the next morning. Another failure.
Frustrated, I returned to the site again. My technician looked pale and speechless. He turned the screen toward me and whispered, “Look.”
He was replaying the last minute before the camera went dark — and what we saw was terrifying.
A glowing light drifted across the room, stopped by a chair (where the most popular lady in the company used to sit), and moved the chair!
Then, the light floated toward the camera, a pale white face flashed for a split second, the video filled with static for five seconds, and then… black.
We were frozen.
The Discovery
We asked the local IT manager if there was something about this old building we should know. He said they’d heard voices during the second shift at night.
I connected to the switch using PuTTY — and the port where the camera was connected had dropped from 1000 Mbps to 10 Mbps right after the “event.”
We looked at each other and made a decision: we’d hide the camera.
We concealed it inside a fake electrical box and replaced it with a tiny hidden camera.
It took about four more hours, but everything came back online smoothly.
This time — no more issues.
Days passed. No calls.
The IT manager later confirmed: “Everything’s been perfect since the change.”
It seems “the thing” never noticed the new camera again.
What Was It?
I still wonder… what was that?
Why did it always happen around 11:30 PM?
What went on in that room between 11:30 PM and 6:30 AM?
Did we really trick it?
This is a 100% real story, and it happened along the banks of the Rio Bravo, in a beautiful region, in a little town that I deeply carry within my heart.
Let me know in the comments — have you ever experienced something like this?
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