Remote Power Switch - MSNSwitch UIS-622b

[jaydeel]

I wish I had stumbled across this old post before.

Networking closet - what do you wish you had and what would you recommend doing?

I'm thinking of moving some standard home networking stuff into a hallway coat closet and am wondering what other folks have done, or wish they had done, when they set theirs up. I just started thinking about this, so no formal plans as of yet. Doing some other electrical work at the house...

ipcamtalk.com

I recently suffered a Blue Iris server failure on the 1st day of a weekend getaway.
As a result, we were unable to access our cameras for 3 nights.

I thought I was covered by having the Blue Iris PC plugged-in via consumer-grade WIFI switch (Wemo). Wrong!
It decided to do what all WIFI devices eventually do - fail when you need it the most.
Lesson-learned - never trust your mission critical systems to consumer-grade WIFI devices.

I have since upgraded our systems with Proxicast MSNSwitch remote power switches - MSNSwitch UIS-622b

The paid price was $100. This may seem steep, but perhaps not when compared to the tank of gas it might cost you to make just 1 site visit.

Hardware Overview (pasted from amazon)

• The MSNSwitch can power-cycle any device when Internet connectivity is lost.
• This remotely controlled AC power switch can automatically reboot your modem or router without anyone present.
• MSNSwitch will automatically ping up to 7 different preset targets, which can be changed - if they are unreachable, MSNSwitch will power-cycle one or both AC outlets.
• Power cycles can also be scheduled in advance.
• You can control everything from your smartphone - via an API, an app, or the web via Cloud4UIS.com

If you are interested in more details, click here MSNSwitch

I have installed 2 of these switches:
1. to remote reboot my Blue Iris PC and its ethernet switch.
2. to reboot my network (cable modem and router).


I am using the MSNSwitch API in PowerShell scripts to manage more graceful router restarts (compared to the ungraceful things that happen when I schedule restarts via the router's admin option).

I should add that both Proxicast & Megatec support has been excellent when contacted via email.

If you decide to purchase a Proxicast remote power switch and are interested in my scripts, DM me.

 

[tech_junkie]

Its another reason why I put a wifi access point or wifi router in access point mode per camera. So only one cam is effected if one of the wifi AP go down.