[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

I'm using my MBP as a server (upstairs) for my media centre (downstairs). All my media is on an external USB hard-drive connected to the MBP accessed as an NFS share.

Pretty much, it's working great (I can get the media centre to automatically wake the MBP up when the media centre is turned on) but I want the MBP to go back to sleep after 10mins of inactivity.

Unfortunately, the MBP goes to sleep after 10mins even if the media centre is accessing the NFS share on the external USB drive upstairs. Is there any way to stop this happening and only sleep if there is no "proper" activity?

Many thanks,

Matthew

[Peter]

theres an app that can be apple scripted, I dont remember the name - something like Mouse Jiggler. It moves the mouse a fraction to keep your machine awake.
When your media centre wakes your MBP, you could make "Mouse Jiggler" run and keep it awake. When your media centre stops using your MBP - it could quit the mouse jiggler.

[Big Mac]

http://www.sticksoftware.com/software/Jiggler.html

[mduell]

Another option is to buy a hard drive enclosure with ethernet ($40-50); that way the media center will work even with the MBP in your lap on the couch or out of the house.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Another option is to buy a hard drive enclosure with ethernet ($40-50); that way the media center will work even with the MBP in your lap on the couch or out of the house.

yup, they're called NAS, or Network Attached Storage (device)

(I wasn't claiming you didn't know that, just for the ease of the original poster to easily find one)

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Peter 

yup, they're called NAS, or Network Attached Storage (device)

Interesting quirk: the ones that call themselves "enclosure with ethernet" end up being a lot cheaper than the ones that are called "NAS".