Cheap Remote Power Plug? Any Idea?


skeezix

Internal Development
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I've been using the good old mega-awesome Linksys WRT-54g (linux) router since they came out pretty much; Iv'e fiddled with Tomato and other custom firmwares, but in the end have been using the official firmware most of the time. Pretty damned solid.. uptime in the months, never an issue.

But I've had to switch routers for all sorts of reasons, and am currently using a d-link dir-655 (wireless N, and gigabit); I'mk hooked on gigabit for the wired portions, for sure!

The only problem is.. d-link doesn't incolude a telnet or snmp mgmt option, and the web gui is entirely javascript (wtf!) so you can't just use lynx or something in a script to causde a reboot.. it always forces you to a full javascripty login screen and so on.

Now, I might look into write some evil scripts to try and work with that gui (ugh), but as a totla end-run around that sillyness, without getting a new router entirely...

Any cheap way to reboot the damned thing, via telnet or serial?

ie: I have seen some very expensive AC minibars; theres a 2 plug power strip you can get that has an ethernet port on it and a serial port, and a phone jack; you can phone into it, or telnet into it, or other nefarious things, and ask it to drop/restore one of the plugs. PRetty wicked, but that company wanted some $400 for it.

(The dir-655 d-link is a not bad router, but it gets stressed out sometimes and hangs the PPPoE.. donm' get me started on how annoyed I am.) Anyway, it woudl be awesome if my shell box here could just log into something and reboot the damned thing ..

If anyone has any ideas, such as cheap AC adapters with telnet ports etc, let me know :)

jeff

Damn d-link ;)
 
skeezix said:
Any cheap way to reboot the damned thing, via telnet or serial?
How close is the router to a computer with a parallel port?

You can use a 5v parallel port line to switch 12v through a transistor, which in turn can pull in a 12v coil on a relay to break the power to your router. Total cost, maybe $10.

If you don't mind spending a couple more bucks, you could get a parallel port relay board. It's pretty much what I just described times 8, and the contacts are rated for 110VAC. You could use the other 7 relays to control just about anything.
 
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It might be somewhat overkill, but you could use an X10 device to do it. Assuming you're in the US I think you'll need a CM11A to transmit the on/off signal and an AM11 to plug the router into, which will turn the power on and off. You can probably get some X10 start kit that will include the CM11A and AM11, along with other things pretty cheaply.

I've just had a quick look and found this. There are a few other starter kits available @ http://www.smarthome.com/_/Dimmers_Lightin.../nav.aspx?pp=48.

It's all a pretty open standard and you talk to the transmitter through a serial cable. The software to do it is all open source, although I'm sure it'll be extremely easy for you to program your own software to control it :p

The only problem is that once you've done the router you might start finding other things you want to control through X10 and you'll soon end up with a fully automated home ;)
 
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