FYI Edimax wireless power switches on sale at Newegg

[bobkoure]

I stumbled across some Edimax wireless switches for $26 at Newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16881117018 Seems like, for $26, if you ever have to drive some distance to power cycle a piece of gear at a site, this might be a no-brainer. I haven't received mine yet (in transit) but thought I'd post before I got it as the price might go back up soon. It also does a kill-a-watt thing and tracks power usage at that outlet, but that's secondary here (although at $26 it might actually be cheaper than a kill-a-watt). Just a thought. No idea how reliable these are. I plan on using mine on a lamp or suchlike for the next 6 months before I depend on it.

 

[atsak]

I wish someone would invent one that has it's own built in webserver on it, so you're not beholden to the cloud services provided by the manufacturer to manage the devices. I guess though for $26 if it's only good for a year or two that's not too bad.

 

[islandtech]

I've used this http://3gstore.com/product/6081_2_outlet_ip_switch.html in the past
Just needed the remote access and reboot (with the internal web server all the other features are controlled)

 

[bobkoure]

I wish someone would invent one that has it's own built in webserver on it...

Same here. FWIW, the EdiMax protocol's been deobfuscated (they... didn't do the best job with it). http://blog.guntram.de/?p=37 If I used any number of these, I'd whack together my own server (in PHP/C, probably, but maybe Python) and do a redirect at the firewall. I'm a little surprised that people are willing to put gear that reports to the cloud in their homes. But then I'm still surprised at what's become of the Internet. Not wanting to be the poster child for what's wrong with the IoT, I've put this (and some other gear that connects to the cloud) in a VLAN/DMZ but I'm pretty sure that's not a typical residential option. I don't think I've lost any functionality And yes, a device that can automatically power cycle gear when it loses internet connectivity sounds like a really good idea. I'd assume it works like a firewall failover (site to ping, time between pings, number of failures before reboot, etc.)

 

[mbellot]

I'm a little surprised that people are willing to put gear that reports to the cloud in their homes.

Convenience (laziness) trumps privacy and security for most people who know only enough about technology to be dangerous.