USB Powerkey

[Chuck Coleman]

I have been talking with Carl Pottie who wrote Keep It Up and he is  
working on putting some AS code in KIU. It will activate an AS that  
will tell XTension to do a hard restart on the DLS modem via an  
appliance module.

Currently I have my DSL modem reset 3 times a day and I would prefer  
to reset it only when it is not responding. It seems to be a recent  
thing and I am not sure if it is a bad modem or if there is some sort  
of problem with the firmware.

Chuck

On Jan 13, 2006, at 9:47 AM, Jerry wrote:

> Thanks for the input James!
>
> The other night I got a frantic message from my wife that the  
> house" wasn't working.  Smugly, I turned on the cell phone and was  
> going to fix everything remotely through X2Web.  ...Which is hard  
> to do when the internet connection is down.
>
> So, after calling my wife back, and after instructing her how to  
> reset the DSL modem, I realized that the Database was corrupted as  
> well.  (Why does this only happen when I'm out of town?)  Luckily,  
> I had just made a copy of the drive just before I left, on a spare  
> XServe Sled.  She was able to swap the drive and house was well again.
>
> I'm not sure if it's the modem or something else but after flawless  
> operation for 2 years, now I have dropouts with my connection that  
> only a hard reset will fix.  I'm hoping that I can at least reset  
> the connection automatically as well as other hubs and switches by  
> spending the money to upgrade the Powerkey to USB.
>
> If you think another path (such as Appliance modules) is more  
> appropriate, I'm up for suggestions!  I just think taking the power  
> lines out of the mix would be more reliable in the long run.
>
> Jp
>
> On Jan 13, 2006, at 7:47 AM, James Sentman wrote:
>>
>> I have a "beta" unit which they gave me for testing with some  
>> software a long time ago. I've got it plugged into XTension and it  
>> turns on and off things on my desk here just great. It's like 6  
>> appliance modules, except faster :) (6 pseudo units with on/off  
>> scripts that talk to their background application)
>>
>> I have had some problems with it though. I dont know if it's  
>> because it's a beta unit or if it's still in the current design.  
>> If you plug a heavy load into it, or even just a big wall wort  
>> sometimes turning it off or on can cause interference on the USB  
>> bus. This was very problematic on the old (400Mhz G4 Ti) powerbook  
>> I used to use as a server. It would cause the bus to reset and the  
>> keyspan drivers to unload and reload and kernel panic the machine.  
>> But this machine was very prone to USB issues anyway. the 800mhz  
>> powerbook I switched to after that was less prone to this  
>> happening, but it still did, and the current Mac mini that I'm  
>> using has never had the problem. So I think it's more an issue of  
>> the quality of the USB hardware on the host computer and it's  
>> ability to handle some interference.  I had a 15" monitor plugged  
>> into it for a while, and with the old powerbook I could reliably  
>> make it kernel panic maybe once out of 4 times that it turned it  
>> off. And a 1amp wall wort (transformer type, not switcher type)  
>> that could do it more rarely. I no longer use the monitor, but  
>> nothing else has been able to make this happen since upgrading to  
>> the mini.  I did wrap their USB cable around a big shunt thing  
>> which also helped some even with the older machine.
>>
>> Not a reason not to get one if you need it for things, but  
>> something to keep an eye out for and be prepared to deal with.  
>> Besides that issue with the older gear, I really like it, it's  
>> very handy on the desktop here.
>>
>> -James
>>
>