Whack-On-Lan

[Christopher Rutter]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 4:55 PM, Daniel Feenberg <feenberg-fCu/yNAGv6M at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Please give it a try. Aside from the cost saving, the Whack-on-lan seems to
> be the only solution that doesn't require additional cables. I don't know
> about you, but it is difficult enough keeping the computer room neat, with
> the burden of 1 (LOM) or 4 (remote KVM) additional cables per server.
>
> Something like this used to be available commericially as "reboot-on-lan"
> but seems to have disappeared.
>
> Daniel Feenberg
>
>

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 8:10 PM, Matthew Gillen <me-5yx05kfkO/aqeI1yJSURBw at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Christopher Rutter wrote:
> > I've researched this in the past and the only solution I've been able to
> > find is a DRAFT paper written in Dec 2005 by the School of Computing at
> the
> > University of Utah:
> http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/papers/whol-ftn-draft1.pdf
> >
> > While I am fairly handy with a soldering iron, but I don't feel
> comfortable
> > using this homebrew solution for production use.
>
> For what it's worth, the FLUX group at Utah run a fairly large network
> testbed (300+ nodes) with full time staff.  They've been using that
> technique for years to good effect in a production environment. (I've
> worked
> with them on past projects)
>
> Matt
>
>
I don't doubt it works, I am more afraid of my personal soldering skills and
lack of electrical circuitry / schematic knowledge.

Ok you guys got me, I'll give it a shot on a testbed rig at home and then
bring it down to Georgia on my next trip if all goes well.

Time for a trip to You-Do-It-Electronics, can anyone give me some pointers
on how to best set this up?  The image in the PDF isn't that great, I would
like to see a closer view of how this thing is wired, or easier to read
schematic (for dummies).
Would anyone be interested in helping me with this project if I brought all
the parts and a soldering iron to the next install fest (May 30th)?
I could also bring in a spare PC with NIC to test it.
-Chris