Remote Restart/Shutdown via Networked Power Switch

[m021478]

I am about to embark on a 4 month trip away from home and I am heavily relying on being able to remotely access my machine while I am away. I made the same 4 month trip last year, during which my computer froze up with a kernel panic on 2 separate occasions. To get back online last year, I had to ask a friend to stop by my place and force-shutdown and restart my machine.

I am in search of a device that I can sit in between the main power cable of my Mac Pro and the wall outlet, which is a remotely accessible networked-connected power switch that I will be able to use in the event of a system lockup to remotely restart my machine.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[stevech]

Ethernet based remote AC power control devices are $$$.

Radio Shack or Fry's X10 devices? One is a phone answer gizmo where you can turn X10 appliance modules on/off remotely. The PC could plug into that.

 

[thiggins]

If you just need reliable remote file access, you'd be better served by using a cloud storage service like Dropbox, etc. Because your modem, router, service could also go missing while you are away.

Reviews over at SmallCloudBuilder.

 

[stevech]

I use this good one- I tried others
https://www.zumodrive.com/
2GB free.

Of course, gmail's archive is many GB, free.

But really, with the price of 16 and 32GB thumb drives, and the price of small portable hard disks, it's best to just backup everything and take it with you.