Liam lives in England and has a cat. As all people owned by cats know, warm, feline-posterior-sized electronic devices are irresistible to cats worldwide, and the DSL modem/router thingy provided by his Internet service provider, Be, is no exception. The problem is that this particular router doesn’t work very well with a cat on top of it. He made a joking forum post that featured a photo of his cat communing with the router and pleaded for a decoy router so he could keep his cat happy but also have functional Internet. Astonishingly…. the company complied. But only if he sent them more pictures of his cat.
His original post, as submitted to Reddit, read as follows:
I’m having a problem with my router.
The problem is the router is apparently very attractive to my cat. She sleeps on top of it for most of the day and frequently knocks the aerial about, taking my wireless network down.
She stays in the position shown above for hours, with the top of her head against the top of the router, as if she’s interfacing with it somehow.
I’m sick of my internet going down all the time due to this – is there a fix?
I was thinking perhaps Be could send me a decoy router, then I could hide the real one somewhere else. I’m not sure if she could tell the difference.
He received an email.
Dear Liam,
I’m contacting you regarding your post on our forum.
For many years this issue has bothered our customers. As you can see in the tread [sic] it is not only the BeBox susceptible to such feline interferences. We have brainstormed this for a few hours, but regrettably we were unable to find any plausible solution.
We decided to send you a decoy router as you requested, however we will need some proof that the cat in the picture is a real one. Can you please send us more cute pictures of the aggressor.
Also we will need appropriate address for the decoy router to be sent.
Please be aware that in case you decide to cancel your service we will not be able to leave the decoy router with you and you will have to discuss this matter with your new ISP.
After sending the new router, Be support explained:
About the decoy function, one possible solution will be…plug both and switch them on, then see which one is attracting the feline aggressor and then plug the DSL cable in the other router.
Another possible solution is to stack them so the upper router takes the aggro. Of course the final decision should be based on the current situation.
It is not a problem if the router have cat food properties, as (as we stated in the beginning) this is ongoing issue, so we might be able to re-use the router for the same purpose.
Sure, this works for now, until the cat figures out that she’s no longer able to directly interface with the Internet. Then there’ll be trouble.
Really, this opens up an entire secondary market for devices that power on but aren’t operational in any way. Imagine entire warehouses at Comcast filled with designated decoy cable modems.
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“Imagine entire warehouses at Comcast filled with designated decoy cable modems.”
So… Comcast modems?
Comcat Modems. There, I fixed it for you.
I see what you did there.
That’s Comcatstic!
inb4… ah, dammit.
The ISP starts charging for both modems in 3, 2, 1….
It’s England. They have enforced competition.
Be very careful here… the pictures you send of the cat could be used in kitty porn… (Seriously, WHAT are they doing with those pictures???)
Step 1, post pictures to icanhascheezburger.com
Step 2, …
Step 3, Profit!
That really does explain where all my underwear is going.
They need the photos to accompany the story in the company newsletter. So the employees can lolz. Duh.
I’m just happy to see that they’re having a little fun with this – first off, good customer service always helps, but they’re not just toeing the company line here. The only thing I would’ve done differently? Maybe said “p(l)awsible” instead of plausible.
Wow – that first picture.. hours at a time… giggle…. snerk… interfacing with the router…
I should get back to work before my coworkers wonder what I’m giggling about.
Same here. Excellent Friday reading!
Is that why they call it CAT-5?
I see what you did there.
It’s funny because cat is the name of the router and the animal in the story
It’s funny because cat is the name of the wiring and the animal in the story both
Why not put the router on its side? I have yet to see a cat sit on one in that position…
The cat will then promptly bat at the router until it falls over flat again, and the problem will begin anew…
And in that case the impact would be worse for the router.
The cat is incapable of knocking the router back over?
Then put it between 2 objects. Like a salami sandwich. The router would be the the salami.
Because then kitty would be sad and not have a warm router to sit on and you would be a heartless cat owner.
Now onto my anti-joke chicken statement of “Never let your cat sleep on electronic equipment with fans/vents because cat hair can and will get caught up all over your system board. Burned cat hair does void your warranty”
Gotta say, this is a great case of a company being human and humorous.
Maybe the cat liked the heat generated by the router. So plugging both in, but one have internet would probably be the best solution.
Or you could just buy a heating pad designed for cats? We have one for our cat, does a good job keeping him off the electronics.
The picture of the cat with his head against the router makes me giggle…
“so the upper router takes the aggro”
Router tanking?
I heard the cat deep breaths more with the decoy router.
Clearly the second router is a dupe. Someone call a GM!
Just watch out for the ninja looters
Love that they refer to his cat as the “aggressor”
So, the internet is powered by cat pictures. This explains a lot.
A purfect solution for the owner, but Kitty is going to be mighty upset when she realizes she can no longer contact her investment broker. Or the paw-n shop.
Brazz.
My router is about the size of the poster, but mine does stand on the side.
Both of my cats like the printer. The younger one freaks out each time he sets it off by hitting the button. He also trashes any paper left it in. I guess it isn’t comfortable. The other one only gets upset when I print something while he is resting.
This was a fun Friday post. Thanks.
My kitty had to be put to sleep in November, and she loved sleeping on the cable box. we recently had it replaced, and it was full of hair lol. This brought back fond memories of my Josie.
my condolences to your loss,
What a great story – a company has a great response to a customer issue, and it involves cute cat pictures – perfect for a friday!
We have our router in a room with a closed door just because of issues like this – it is bad enough when they decide they want to sit down on your laptop and start messing stuff up (I walked away for a minute and came back to the cat on the keyboard and the internet turned off on it, though they apparently were trying to look up webisite kl;sdfkla or something like that.)
I had a boss that did something similar. We were having a department meeting, and he half-leaned, half-sat against my desk. When I went to use my computer afterwards, one of my desktop icons had been renamed “++++++++”. For a long time we called him Plus-Butt, which I don’t think he liked…
I had a page on amazon.com up, and my cat must have laid on top of the keyboard and ordered the item.
I dont get why people let their animals do this. If it was me and I was not having success training my pet to stay off it I would take a piece of a chair mat for carpet (or they sell some carpet protector plastic stuff at home depot on a roll you pay by the foot and it has plastic spikes on the bottom that help keep it in place on the carpet) and put it spike side up. I dont think the cat would enjoy sitting there after that. This person is probably the same type of person that lets their cat sleep the keyboard of their laptop then bitches because HP wont replace the keyboard (or the computer over heated) under warranty because its coated in cat hair and dander.
I’m guessing you don’t own a cat.
Actually I used to own 2 cats and 2 dogs.. Im down to 2 dogs right now and all of them were indoor animals (not left outside). My cats passed away within a year of each other. I would have never allowed my cats to be on my desk. Think about it do you let your cats on your kitchen table and counters? They pee and poo and dig in a litter box…then walk all over your counters and desk and such? Disgusting.
OK, I’ll bite: how do you convince the cats not to jump up on the counters when you aren’t there?
Thirty years ago I *thought* I had mine trained to stay off the stereo. Then my roommate reported that one day he was sitting on the couch and the cat walked in, determined that the human was NOT me, jumped up on the stereo, and went to sleep. An hour later he suddenly woke up and jumped down; ten seconds later I walked in the door.
So…unless you’re locking them out, don’t be too sure!
I would know if they were jumping up on things when I was gone because they leave little paw prints.. just light the jerk neighbors that feed the stray cats and those cats get all over my car when I park outside. There are ALL kinds of products out there for training cats to stay off things what I suggested in the first post is probably the cheapest. There are cans of air with motion sensors that puff at them (they hate that) etc.
Well, the puff of air works for a while, then they get used to it and don’t care.
And what were your cats getting into that they left pawprints everywhere?I have owned 10 cats over my lifetime and maybe a handful of times I have seen prints that they were walking somewhere – and that is usually something that had gotten dusty so you can see them. The car I can maybe see since there would be dew that might contribute to them on a dusty car, but inside just seems weird to me.
As far as computers – I have had multiple computers and multiple cats and never had a problem with overheating or cat hair in the computers.
You feed and shelter dogs… they think you’re god.
You feed and shelter cats… they think they’re god.
This is why I love Brits!
Cute cat on a Friday. Sigh, wonderful.
I’m glad my cat hasn’t found/isn’t interested in my router yet (it’s under my bed). Currently she prefers to sit on my bathroom counter or in my shower. Not sure why she doesn’t go for the typical warm and soft spots, but oh well. Guess I picked a weird one.
Can’t you see? It’s online securiteh, powered by Kitteh!
that’s hilarious
buy your own equipment and avoid paying a monthly fee for it.
next step is to take the router/modem apart
then take any spare heatsinks you have laying around that are 1-2 inches high, then using either thermal tape or thermal epoxy, attach the heatsinks to the CPU, and wifi radio
This will allow heat to be radiated off faster. This will lower the overall temperature on the outside because you will end up with the router trying to heat a larger volume of air and end up with lower overall external temperatures.
Another thing you can try is ask your cat to not stand on the router, you can even offer an alternative
eg a small heating pad glued to some plexi glass with a small push button on the bottom where when the cat steps on it, it will turn on and stay on as long as the cat is on it.
buy your own equipment and avoid paying a monthly fee for it.
next step is to take the router/modem apart
then take any spare heatsinks you have laying around that are 1-2 inches high, then using either thermal tape or thermal epoxy, attach the heatsinks to the CPU, and wifi radio
This will allow heat to be radiated off faster. This will lower the overall temperature on the outside because you will end up with the router trying to heat a larger volume of air and end up with lower overall external temperatures.
Another thing you can try is ask your cat to not stand on the router, you can even offer an alternative
eg a small heating pad glued to some plexi glass with a small push button on the bottom where when the cat steps on it, it will turn on and stay on as long as the cat is on it.
Wall mount it???
LOL, my cat has an affinity for PC’s…laptops in particular. We have a desktop not doing anything we keep on as a warming decoy for him so we can actually USE the laptops and pcs that we use !
mine loves the ceramic space heater. Its one of those that doesn’t have the red wires in it, but does have a fan and a shutoff when the room gets just so warm, and he somehow knows when I’ve turned it on, and he comes running and plops down in front of it face first or with one side as close as he can get without actually touching the front of it. He likes it better than the dryer now that he’s older and can’t get up on top of that so easy anymore.
I can haz router?
Too cute – and +1 to the ISP for supplying the dummy router
My cat LOVES the Dish Network box we have.
It would’ve been Cat-astrophic if this didn’t happen. XD