cheapest way to remotely reboot PC?

[DJFuji]

Occasionally my main rig will lock up and i wont be able to RDP in from work or when i'm traveling. I'm wondering if there's an inexpensive solution to this. The only thing i can think of is a network-ready PSU or UPS which can cut the power when i send it a remote signal.

I do have another PC i can RDP into, but that doesn't help me reboot the main rig if the thing is locked up. Any ideas?

 

[OdiN]

I think maybe if you pulled a Bart Simpson. You could line up megaphones from your comptuer to where you are remotely and make sure to plug your computer into a Clapper? and then clap into the megaphones?

Other than that I don't really know that it's possible. If it's hard locked...you gotta hit the reset.

 

[DJFuji]

lol when i first read that i thought "thats the stupidest thing ive ever heard." But then i realized...what if i had a wave file of me clapping...and i remoted into my media center PC and played that file through the speakers so that it would reset my main rig...

GENIUS!

lol i do hope there's a more elegant solution, though.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: DJFuji
lol when i first read that i thought "thats the stupidest thing ive ever heard." But then i realized...what if i had a wave file of me clapping...and i remoted into my media center PC and played that file through the speakers so that it would reset my main rig...

GENIUS!

lol i do hope there's a more elegant solution, though.

The best solution would be to fix whatever is causing the system to hard lock

 

[DJFuji]

It happens like once every 4 months. Kind of hard to troubleshoot. And it always seems to happen when i'm 2000 miles away.

 

[anthrax]

If it is due to software problems. Why not get the machine to automatically reboot itself say every week or two to clear the memory or any threads that a have to potential to lock up.

Use windows task scheduler to reboot run a reboot script.

1.) Use windows task scheduler to run Shutdown.bat every week.

In Shutdown.bat havethe following line.

shutdown -r -t 10 -f

-r = reboot
-t 10 = wait 10 seconds
-f = force. Kills all processes

You could also just create a windows short cut to
c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe
and run with the above parameters.

While windows 2K and later MS O/S has been fairly stable. Its almost recommended that you reboot at least every 14 days.

 

[JRock]

PsShutdown may work. I have only tried it once on what appeared to be a hung machine. You need to be on the local LAN or have VPN access for this to work.

 

[imported_marcosv]

FWIW, one method we used on a project to perform a remote power reset of a locked machine was to use another computer that was reliable and a uninterruptable power supply with a serial interface.

- The UPS' serial interface allowed commanding the UPS to turn power off/on via a digital signal. IIRC there were models out there that used a single bit on the 9-pin port to turn things on/off and another one that did it via command strings.
- The target computer's BIOS was configured to turn on whenever power was restored to that computer
- We had to write a little program to communicate with the UPS.

This was the only reliable way we found to force a power reset to that computer plus all of its connected peripherals in that rack.

 

[erwos]

Look into using X10. It's a reasonably cheap solution, but only works if you've got another working machine on the LAN.

-Erwos

 

[Vegito]

PCI RAC card.. remote access controller..

 

[Looney]

I wonder if there's a UPS out there with an http interface.

 

[Vegito]

Dont know but there are power strips that have http interface..

 

[anthrax]

Originally posted by: Looney
I wonder if there's a UPS out there with an http interface.

fess but you will need products like APC's smart UPS 3 KVA on bigger models. List price of around us $ 1300.

As for remote access controllers. You will need things a computer that supports it. As far as I knows major vendors use their own standards. IBM has Remote Management Card. HP has ILO, Dell has something like similar. Cost far servers with there features will start at around $1500 plus.
Also, you might have to have a separate ip address for it. Assuming you have a single IP broadband connection , you will need a router which supports PAT (Port address translation). I am not too sure it standard run of the mill home broadband router support PAT.They only typically support basic NAT functions.

 

[GreyMittens]

Fire these guys off a message, they'll have a way to do it for sure - though you may have to purchase a few little devices.

www.apcc.com

 

[anthrax]

Originally posted by: DJFuji
Occasionally my main rig will lock up and i wont be able to RDP in from work or when i'm traveling. I'm wondering if there's an inexpensive solution to this. The only thing i can think of is a network-ready PSU or UPS which can cut the power when i send it a remote signal.

I do have another PC i can RDP into, but that doesn't help me reboot the main rig if the thing is locked up. Any ideas?

I think the best way to address this problem is to simply to schedule to computer to automatically reboot itself before it locks up.

Also try to determine is it that your computer physically hung or the Remote Desktop Programme hung. If its the second case, install another alternative program such as real
VNC .

 

[simms]

^

 

[DJFuji]

I've seen the UPS/Surge Protector solutions but theyre really expensive. I was hoping i could put something together for under 100. I'm starting to think the clapper is a good idea...

 

[DJFuji]

edit: im a retard who replied to the wrong tab in FF...

 

[fr]

Heh..install a clapper. Call home, and when your answering machine picks up, clap!

 

[DJFuji]

Originally posted by: fr
Heh..install a clapper. Call home, and when your answering machine picks up, clap!

lol that sounds like a recipe for hilariously funny prank calls by my friends. Funny for them, anyway.

I think maybe the cheapest thing would be to install the clapper and RDP into my MCE box and play the wave file of clapping. Talk about a hack though...