Subject: Device to reset power...

From: "Zane H. Healy" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 20:51:15 2003

I'm getting sick of my DSL modem locking up on me.  Some times it will be
good for weeks on end, other times it needs to be powercycled every few
hours.  This seems to be one of those every few hours days :^(

It is fairly easy to set my Firewall up to monitor and determine if the
firewall is down.  The question is, what would it take to get that Firewall
to powercycle the ()#*&% #(*&% modem on it's own?  I seem to recall seeing
something that can be plugged into a Serial port, and you can send it
signals to turn the power on and off on a receptical.

			Zane

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From: Gene Buckle <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 20:51:55 2003

Zane, have your firewall interface a X-10 controller.  The power module
could be used to cycle the modem.

g.

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From: "Jay West" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 20:53:01 2003

APC Masterswitch.... new, about $395, but they are on ebay much cheaper.
However, they are rackmountable, and have 8 outlets, wonderful web
interface, and a serial port. The serial port is designed for a console, but
I'm sure you could fudge the appropriate strings to make it shut a given
port down.

We use them like candy in our datacenter.

Jay

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From: "Bill Sudbrink" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 20:53:55 2003

> to powercycle the ()#*&% #(*&% modem on it's own?

APC BackUPS Pro.  Simple one character commands over a serial interface
to control the load and monitor the mains status.  I know a guy in Annapolis
Maryland that sells used ones relatively cheap (less than $100).  I bought
six from him and they all work great.  He had a stack of around 50 of them
back in March.  They are heavy of course so shipping might make them too
expensive for you.  Email me off list if you are interested and I'll give
you his particulars.

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From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Fri Jun 27 20:54:33 2003

> signals to turn the power on and off on a receptical.

Can you toggle any line on any port (say one of the handshake lines on 
the serial port (RTS, DTR) or one of the lines on a parallel port)? If 
so, you could use it to drive a transistor and then a relay..

-tony

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From: "Bob Lafleur" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 20:56:23 2003

I used to have a BBS system that needed to be periodically reset. I just
got one of those digital clock-timers from Radio Shack, which you plug
in to the wall, and you can plug things into them and set an on/off
time. I set the ON time to 4:01 AM and the OFF time to 4:00 AM. So at
4:00 it would go off, then back on at 4:01. Worked great.

  - Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]
On Behalf Of Gene Buckle
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 6:35 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Device to reset power...

g.

On Fri, 27 Jun 2003, Zane H. Healy wrote:

> I'm getting sick of my DSL modem locking up on me.  Some times it will

> be good for weeks on end, other times it needs to be powercycled every

> few hours.  This seems to be one of those every few hours days :^(
>
> It is fairly easy to set my Firewall up to monitor and determine if 
> the firewall is down.  The question is, what would it take to get that

> Firewall to powercycle the ()#*&% #(*&% modem on it's own?  I seem to 
> recall seeing something that can be plugged into a Serial port, and 
> you can send it signals to turn the power on and off on a receptical.
>
> 			Zane

---

From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri Jun 27 20:57:42 2003

> hours.  This seems to be one of those every few hours days :^(

X10 would be the easiest.  For example, you can get a classic Radio Shack 
"Plug n Power" controller running on a TRS-80 model 1 or an original Coco.

But, ...
if the entire reason for cycling power is to reset it, . . . 
wouldn't it be possible to connect a reset cicrcuit in it, and trigger
THAT, instead of power cycling?

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From: "Bruce Lane" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:22:12 2003

Hi, gang,

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 27-Jun-03 at 17:57 Jay West wrote:

>interface, and a serial port. The serial port is designed for a console,
>but I'm sure you could fudge the appropriate strings to make it shut a given
>port down.

	Yes, you can. I speak from experience, as I'm using two of them here. Probably one of the single most useful devices ever invented in terms of datacenter hardware.

>We use them like candy in our datacenter.

	See? Jay knows even better than I do. ;-)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
ARS KC7GR (Formerly WD6EOS) since 12-77 -- [email-masked]
"I'll get a life when someone demonstrates that it would be superior
to what I have now..." (Taki Kogoma, aka Gym Z. Quirk)

---

From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:28:05 2003

> signals to turn the power on and off on a receptical.

I put together a little system like this for someone before.  There are
several devices on the market that allow you to send X-10 codes via
serial.  Here's one:

http://www.smarthome.com/1160.html

Here's one in kit form:

http://www.smarthome.com/1150.html

I can't find the website for the one I used, but the one referenced above
is very nice.  You'll need an X-10 AM466 Appliance Module to plug the
modem into.

You'll need to write some sort of script on your firewall.  I wrote one in
Perl that pings a known good site.  It allows a couple retries at a
configurable interval before it goes ahead and power cycles the modem.

Let me know if you want it and I'll send you the script.  It's very brief
and uses the pretty poorly designed Device::Serial Perl library.

-- 

Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger                http://www.vintage.org

 * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

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From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:28:25 2003

> expensive for you.  Email me off list if you are interested and I'll give

Nice!  But the X-10 modules weigh a few ounces ;)

--

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From: Vintage Computer Festival <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun Jun 29 18:28:45 2003

> I'm sure you could fudge the appropriate strings to make it shut a given

Nice!  But the X-10 controllers are less than $100.

--

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From: Mark Firestone <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jul 1 08:54:25 2003

I take it the software didn't hold files open.  *My* old BBS software 
opened and closed files as needed, and was slightly slower than my friends 
software (my evil competitor at the time) which opened all the files on 
startup and kept them open.

Can you say file corruption?  Sure you can...  and *HE* was the 
professional programmer... (:

Take Care,

Mark

>4:00 it would go off, then back on at 4:01. Worked great.

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