Re: Remote Control Power Switch

[andrew@a17 (Andrew Gabriel)]

In article <1122733195.364805.240800@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
	"BrianEWilliams" <sorry_no_email@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Nice solution, but my labor rate pushes that solution out of the
> budget.  Pulling another cable from the basement to the second floor
> would be a hell of a pain.  Should have done it when I built the house.
>  Oh well.

Unless you are using Gigabit, you could use the unused pairs
in the existing Cat 5. If the voltage regulation is in the
device and the wall-wart is unregulated, you might even get
away with moving the wall-wart upstairs, and feeding the
power down the ethernet to it. This is a kind of poor man's
replacement for 802.3af (Power Over Ethernet spec).
Then you could momentarily flick the power off and on again.

There's an article on (real) 802.3af here:
http://www.poweroverethernet.com/articles.php?article_id=52

My burglar alarm has a built-in X10 controller, so I do remote
control with X10. I access my network remotely sometimes, and
this also enables me to power cycle any of the bits of kit
by calling up the burglar alarm if something's gone down
when I'm not at home.

--
Andrew Gabriel