If I want to remote power on and off a desktop PC, any electrical/power hardware I have to install?
(My PC is connected to Internet 7x24 directly with real IP)
Remote power on and off a desktop PC
Landylch on 25/10/2013 - 18:31
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Wake on Lan is the only option I can think of.
ASROCK's new motherboards now have a feature called Home Cloud. Not helpful now, but Could be interesting.
http://www.asrock.com/feature/homecloud/What if my PC hangs and can't power on/off with any software?
I am thinking whether I can use an electrical hardware to turn it off and on.
I don't think it'd be too great to turn off the PC by cutting the power
Yes, I know… but I have no way to turn it off except remotely cutting off its power.
Can I do it anyway?
All the other guys here would know more about how to go about doing it but I do know I've completely corrupted my windows installation two times when the computer's power was cut off at the wall
APC have a remote management adapter for their UPS systems which will allow you to control the power of your devices over the internet. I've used these to restart computers remotely when they've crashed and any software remote control becomes unavailable.
http://www.ht.com.au/part/X3506-APC-remote-management-adapte…Quite expensive, and required APC UPS system? I am using a generic AMD desktop only.
Some PCI TV cards were able to switch the PC on at the required time to start recording a channel then shut it down when the program finished to await the next recording session. I've got no idea how these cards did that.
But back to the present day, it sounds like you are wanting out-of-band management of your PC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-band_management
This is common on server motherboards which might use IPMI or some variation, and as rare as hens teeth on normal PCS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Platform_Management…FWIW, the microservers have an add in card which does IPMI, allowing you to remotely switch the machine on or off, reboot and even boot into BIOS.
This might work if you have compatible intel processor http://www.howtogeek.com/56538/ (How to Remotely Control Your PC (Even When it Crashes))
Can vPro remotely power on the machine?
If the system is hang, can vPro help to reboot the machine?
Personally I have never tried that, but according to the article
Intel vPro is a management platform built into Intel processors and other hardware that allows companies to manage their desktops and laptops out-of-band (OOB). That means the computers can be managed no matter if the computer in on or off, and even if the operating system has failed or there is no hard drive present.
the answer is both Yes.
Some routers have a wake on LAN function for each of the known/connected MAC addresses, you could in theory log into your router remotely (bad idea exposing this port to Internet though!) and start up your pc this way.
A safer way is to tunnel to port 80 (your router webpage port) via SSH, but you will need an SSH host somewhere on your LAN running at all times to achieve this (old netbook/NAS etc.)
If pc hangs, there's not a great deal you can do afaik.
I've got an iPad/iPhone wake on LAN app (there's heaps of them iirc) which I did manage to get working remotely, but had to forward the WoL port in router (not a huge deal).
Another safer way:
if your router has a VPN server on it, you can vpn into your home network then use WOL (Wake on Lan) to turn the PC on.You can also forward the port, but doesn't always work depending on how your connections are setup.
Yeah I just ordered one of those online from Officeworks yesterday. $39 compared to $49-59 elsewhere. There's info online on how you can script control of the wemo, so you're not just limited to using iPhone/iPad to control it.
Just be aware though that they've been proven to be insecure in a software sense, so if you expose it to the internet you're taking a risk. Consider only exposing it via a VPN or just remotely and securely control another machine on your LAN to access the wemo.
Personally I intend to use it to power on a PC that will happily power off, but which I can't for the life of me convince to sleep. So I'll setup its bios to power up after a power outage, and use the wemo to turn it on. At least that's the theory.
PS. That risk with the wemo is a real one. A malicious attacker could rapidly switch your device, which depending on the device, could result in a fire.
Thanks!
I think using WeMo switch + "power on after power outage" will be the easiest and simplest solution.
IPMI is good, but it is too advanced and requires decent hardware.
I don't think this Wemo switch is PC friendly/safe. You will get your PC corrupted. I suggest install an UPS also. Let UPS shut down your PC properly.
It's not that bad IF you use it only for switch on.
Shutdown can be done via remote desktop or sending the computer a remote shutdown signal.DO NOT USE THIS DEVICE TO POWER OFF YOUR PC, unless you want a heap of corrupted files.
For those of us that have Windows Home Server or Windows Server running on a machine at home, there's Aweico WakeOnLAN: http://www.awieco.com/Products/WakeOnLAN
Even when system hangs?
Maybe have a look around for a tutorial/hack for the raspberry pi to do what you want.
I'm sure there'd be one around somewhere.
Hi Andylch
If you have a landline near it you could use one of these:http://www.natcomm.com.au/au/control-your-equipment-by-telep…
I've used them before and they worked well
I've just tested this out and it works a charm.
Basically, you follow the instructions on the page - port forward port 9 and get your mac address for the NIC using ipconfig /all.
After that - I didn't even change any settings it just allowed me to wake my computer from sleep by sending a W.O.L packet to my computer's external IP (my ISP offers a static IP)
I would say that my computer is 3 years old and so - I would believe most new computers would just work.
A lot of the settings are in Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Network Card (double click)
If you see settings like "Wake Options" you should have this feature on your network card.
Worst case - buy a cheap $10 network card and I'll be surprised if W.O.L isn't enabled.
After this, you could simply go to the website and punch your details in and it will remotely turn the machine on from sleep (and I believe hibernate but it's a trivial amount of energy saving so just use sleep)
The site is URL based and contains your IP / Mac Address in it's URL so you can bookmark it on your phone / pad / laptop and all you have to do is visit the site to turn your computer on.
I added the URL to my home screen on my iphone - I just touch the icon and it turns my computer on.
Saves approx $70 / month on energy bills. That's a lot.
Few options. Modern PCs can be turned on by USB devices and Ethernet devices, but generally not over the internet (as far as I know, haven't looked into wake on LAN much). So you would need something on the LAN that is on that you can use to turn the PC on. You could also wire into the power switch.
Turning off is easy - can be done in software.