Atokata wrote:
Hello,
I volunteer at a small radio station in Western Colorado. My general
field of expertise is UNIX and Linux servers, though oftentimes
nessecity forces me outside of that niche.
The station uses a plain-jane DSL connection for their office internet
connectivity. However, our local provider (Qwest) is problematic (at
best). Due to errors on the ISP side of the DSL connection, the
ActionTec DSL modem/router provided by Qwest often loses its
connection.
This is easily fixed by simply power cylcing the modem. However, due
to the volunteer-based workforce at the station, many times there is
no one availible with the ability to perform this task.
My question is this:
Do any of the readers here know of a device which can physically
switch off the power to the modem through a software control?
That is to say, for example, the software could execute a simple DNS
request to the ISP's name servers every thirty seconds. If the
request comes back accurately, then there's no problem. However, if
it times out, that would indicate the DSL modem has become
disconnected, and the power circuit to said modem could be interrupted
for five or ten seconds, allowing it to reboot.
I'm a rank amateur in electronics, but could what I'm describing be
called a "relay," or perhaps a "watchdog?"
Thanks for any advice you may have.
If you've got a spare hardware port available, printer or serial, you
can control the power to the modem. Assuming there isn't already
something out there you'll need:
- A relay to switch the load (other things may be better, a relay is
easiest for a beginner).
- A driver transistor to switch the relay.
- A box to put it in.
- A wall-wart to power it up.
- Software to tell it what to do to the poor modem.
- Knowledge on how to hook it all up.
The first three can come from Radio Shack. The next to last you need to
supply, and the last may come to you if you ask nicely on
sci.electronics.basic (or basics; I can't remember which).
An alternative is to see if any of the plethora of X-10 home automation
stuff would let you control an outlet from a PC. Search on X-10.
You'll still need software to ping the server and cycle power, but the
hardware would be taken care of, at least.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com