Set up your phone

The camera lives on a private network. Your phone joins it with an app called Tailscale, and from then on RabbitCam talks straight to the computer in Mark's house.

Short version

1. Install Tailscale, sign in, allow the VPN.
2. Open this share link on your phone. Sign in the same way as step 1. Tap Accept.
3. Install TestFlight, open the RabbitCam link, tap Install.
4. In RabbitCam, go to Settings and paste the address and token from step 4 below. Tap Test Connection.

It works from anywhere, on Wi-Fi or cellular. You don't need to be at Mark's house for any of it.

Step by step

Everything you need is on this page: the share link is in step two, and the server address and token are in step four. It takes about ten minutes and you only do it once.

1. Install Tailscale and sign in

   Get Tailscale from the App Store. Open it and sign in with Apple, Google, or Microsoft. Use whichever you like; it's your account, and Mark never sees its password. Remember which one you picked, because step two asks again. Tailscale will ask to add a VPN configuration. Allow it. That is how your phone joins the private network.

2. Accept the share

   Open this share link on your phone. It shares one machine, called rabbitcam. Tap Accept. If it asks you to sign in, choose exactly the same option you used in step one.

   This is the step that usually goes wrong. Signing in a different way quietly creates a second, empty Tailscale account, and the app then can't find the camera. Once it's accepted, rabbitcam appears in the Tailscale app's list of machines. Leave the switch at the top of the Tailscale app on whenever you want to use RabbitCam.

3. Install RabbitCam from TestFlight

   Get TestFlight from the App Store, then open this join link on your phone and tap Start Testing. RabbitCam installs like any other app.

4. Point the app at the camera

   Open RabbitCam and go to Settings, then copy these two values in:

   Server address••••••••••••

   Access token••••••••••••

   Tap Test Connection. When it says it's connected, go back to Live and tap the bunny.

   Everyone uses the same share link and the same token, so keep them in the family.

If something doesn't work

Tailscale doesn't show rabbitcam. The Tailscale app is signed in to a different account than the one that accepted the share. Check which account the app shows. If it's not the one you used on the share link, sign out and sign back in with that one, or open the share link in step two again while signed in the way the app is.

Live shows a connection error. Check that Tailscale is switched on and that you accepted the share (the machine rabbitcam should be in your Tailscale list). Then check the token: it's long, so copy it from step four rather than typing it.

No bunny alerts arrive. Open the app once so it can register for notifications, and make sure RabbitCam is allowed to notify you in your phone's Settings. Alerts only go out for animals, and no more than one every two minutes, so a quiet afternoon is normal.

The picture is dark. The camera sits behind glass with its night vision off, because the infrared light would reflect off the window. After dusk you'll see whatever the porch light shows.

What Tailscale is doing

Tailscale is a private network for your own devices. Each device gets its own encryption key that never leaves it, and Tailscale's job is introductions: it tells your phone where the rabbitcam machine is and hands over the public half of its key. The traffic itself travels in an encrypted tunnel between your phone and that one computer. When a direct path isn't possible, Tailscale relays the packets, but the relay can't read them.

Tailscale can see that your phone and the camera computer are connected, along with your account email and your phone's name. It cannot see the video. More on that in the privacy policy.

Being on the share gives your phone exactly one thing: the RabbitCam service on that one machine. It doesn't put you on Mark's home network, and a network rule blocks everything on that computer except the two ports the app uses. The security page has the details.

Leaving

Delete RabbitCam and switch Tailscale off, or delete it too. If you'd like your phone removed from the alerts list and the share revoked, tell Mark and it's done the same day.