[m021478]

I am about to embark on a 4 month trip away from home and I am heavily relying on being able to remotely access my machine while I am away. I made the same 4 month trip last year, during which my computer froze up with a kernel panic on 2 separate occasions. To get back online last year, I had to ask a friend to stop by my place and force-shutdown and restart my machine.

I am in search of a device that I can sit in between the main power cable of my Mac Pro and the wall outlet, which is a remotely accessible networked-connected power switch that I will be able to use in the event of a system lockup to remotely restart my machine.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by m021478 

I am about to embark on a 4 month trip away from home and I am heavily relying on being able to remotely access my machine while I am away. I made the same 4 month trip last year, during which my computer froze up with a kernel panic on 2 separate occasions. To get back online last year, I had to ask a friend to stop by my place and force-shutdown and restart my machine.

I am in search of a device that I can sit in between the main power cable of my Mac Pro and the wall outlet, which is a remotely accessible networked-connected power switch that I will be able to use in the event of a system lockup to remotely restart my machine.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

I don't understand your problem. If the wall outlet is accessible from the network, why can't you just toggle the power off and on, thus rebooting your machine?

[Cold Warrior]

Because he is going out of town for a while and needs to reboot it remotely if needed.

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Because he is going out of town for a while and needs to reboot it remotely if needed.

I assumed that the power switch could be accessed remotely w/o any connection to the computer. Like those x-10 switches.

At any rate, eons ago (back in the days of DOS and character mode computing) I used a device that you could call on a telephone and by pressing certain keys on the phone it would activate a power switch toggle.

[m021478]

Here's what I've come up with so far -

Option #1

Option #2

[subego]

Check this out.

That covers control, and then I'm pretty sure the only other thing you'd need would be this, which can toggle whatever you plug into it. You should give them a call to be sure you don't need anything else.

[subego]

Originally Posted by msuper69 

I don't understand your problem. If the wall outlet is accessible from the network, why can't you just toggle the power off and on, thus rebooting your machine?

I think you're supposed to parse the sentence like:

I am in search of a device* which is a remotely accessible networked-connected power switch that I will be able to use in the event of a system lockup to remotely restart my machine.

*that I can sit in between the main power cable of my Mac Pro and the wall outlet

[m021478]

Originally Posted by subego 

Check this out.

That covers control, and then I'm pretty sure the only other thing you'd need would be this, which can toggle whatever you plug into it. You should give them a call to be sure you don't need anything else.

Are you saying that you think I'd need both of those different devices you linked to to be able to make this work? Why wouldn't it just work with the first thing you linked to (the one with the ethernet port on the bottom)?

...and thanks for the great suggestion! I love the idea of being able to use my iPhone to do the dirty work of switching things on and off as needed.

[subego]

Originally Posted by m021478 

Are you saying that you think I'd need both of those different devices you linked to to be able to make this work? Why wouldn't it just work with the first thing you linked to (the one with the ethernet port on the bottom)?

You'll definitely need both.

Insteon is actually an RF setup. The device from the first link (with the Ethernet cable) doesn't control anything directly, it's just a transmitter. The device in the second link is the receiver. You'll need one for each device you need to control, so watch out. It won't take long before you want to automate everything... at $30 a pop. It's geek crack.

What I'm not sure about is if you need anything else. I have an older setup which needed a couple booster/repeater-type dealies. It really looks like you don't need those anymore, but a call to make sure can't hurt.

If you do expand beyond doing a power cycle, you'll absolutely want to check out Indigo. It's one of those types of programs that oozes "mac-ness", if you know what I mean. On top of that, it's insanely powerful. Just a fantastic piece of work. You'd need some other equipment though.

Originally Posted by m021478 

...and thanks for the great suggestion! I love the idea of being able to use my iPhone to do the dirty work of switching things on and off as needed.

My pleasure.

[m021478]

Dude you rock! Thanks for the tips!