Switching off a computer via a network

[BoeingBoy]

Hi all,
I am running four computers on a wireless home network, one of which is now a standby/back up machine that has no keyboard or monitor attached.

Whilst I can start up the machine without problem, to shut it down I need to hit the power switch which of course is not ideal.

Does anyone know how I can command the remote machine to shut down via the network or am I stuck with cutting the power. This will mean that one day it will not take nicely to it and break down.

Thanks for any help.
BB

[piperpa38]

Hi BoeingBoy

You could try using some remote control software over the network like

http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/

Piperpa38

[Agent86]

BB, It all depends on the age of your target computer. If it uses ATX pwr and will shut down completely from Windows when you use Start =>Shutdown then use a VNC program to connect to it and remotely shut it down.
I use UltraVnc (http://www.uvnc.com/) WIth this you can connect through a dedicated viewer or a Java enabled browser and do pretty much anything you could do if you had a mouse/KB attached.
If on the other hand your 'puter is the old AT pwr and needs a physical power off then you are stuck with it. You could still use UltraVNC to issue the shutdown cmd to avoid the "brute force" shutdown method. but the hand/button interface would still be needed.
Hope this helps
Max

Edit ...PiperPa ...posted the same info at the same time :)

[Mac the Knife]

No problem to shut it down, but as the other fellers say, turning it off depends how old the PC is. I've got an ancient Pentium I acting as a backup/file server and running the excellent FreeNAS - http://www.freenas.org/ - network attached storage mini-OS. I can shut it down over the network but I can't turn it off - irritating. If you're a tinkerer, a 12v/240v relay and a bit of bell-wire will do it - with a bit of ingenuity you can get it to boot when your main PC is turned on.

As regards VNC, just recall that VNC isn't very secure. It requires a password when a viewer tries to connect to a server and this password is encrypted to deter snooping, but the following graphical data, the VNC protocol, is not. In other words, if you are using VNC across the Internet without some sort of tunnel (SSH, IPSEC, PPTP), you are exposing your data and information to the world. But this doesn't sound like an issue for you here.

I think Putty - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ -is a pretty good free Telnet/SSH client.

copSSH is a free ssh server and client implementation for windows systems that I haven't used, but looks neat - http://www.itefix.no/phpws/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=12&MMN_position=22:22

:ok:

PS: Tunnelier - http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier - looks interesting

[BoeingBoy]

Thanks for your replies,

The machine is about five years old but is running a Pentium4 1.6Ghz processor on an MSI motherboard. The WinXP installation is fully up to date.

A brief look at the links provided makes me think that I will run into problems with both machines being across a wireless router, and both running firewalls but when I have more time I will look at the programs you listed and see what I can do.

Thanks again
BB