Vacation Precautions - What Else?

[dadof4]

Taking off for Florida for six weeks. Over 100" of snow here so far in upstate NY. Here is what I have done so far to eliminate away from home issues. I have a Slingbox I use remotely with a laptop sharing a STB with an HDPVR. I have a Hava I use remotely using a Nokia N810 sharing the second STB with an HDPVR.

- Set Sage server bios to "Restart on AC Loss"

- Server can be accessed from laptop with Logmein so I can reboot of required.

- I can manage recordings remotely with the Web Server or Placeshifter.

- The Hava and an HDPVR are plugged into the switched outlet of the STB that is controlled by the Slingbox. I can reset (power off/on) the Hava and HDPVR with the Slingbox remotely.

- The Slingbox and the second HDPVR are plugged into the switched outlet of the STB that is controlled by the Hava. I can reset (power off/on) the Slingbox and the second HDPVR's with the Hava remotely.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks
Rich

[GKusnick]

My suggestions:

* Disable automatic updates in Windows.

* Figure out some way to remotely or automatically power-cycle your modem/router in case your Internet connection hangs up for some reason and locks you out of your remote control options. I use a device called iBoot for this.

* Leave a key with a neighbor so that if all else fails and you lose remote control, you can have them go in and physically push the reset button.

There was another thread about this a while back:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36373

[S_M_E]

I wouldn't bother disabling the updates, they just don't cause trouble often enough to worry about them and they could close a hole that might prevent a hack.

iboot is a great device.

The spare key option is the best suggestion so far and it's cheap.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by S_M_E

I wouldn't bother disabling the updates, they just don't cause trouble often enough to worry about them and they could close a hole that might prevent a hack.

I agree that the updates are valuable and I leave them turned on when I'm at home. But I've been burned a couple of times when Windows stalled on reboot after an update while I was out of town. So now I make a habit of disabling them while I'm gone, and re-enabling when I get back.

[S_M_E]

I don't deny that there have, on occasion, been issues but in the last 5 years I doubt I've had an issue like that more than once or twice.

That said, I download updates automatically and apply them manually, not because I don't trust them but because I want to decide when reboots happen. If using this approach he'd be aware of issues quickly and could use a iboot or spare key option sooner.

Everyone has different levels of comfort...

[dadof4]

Thanks all:

I forgot about the cable modem and router. I just checked out the iboot docs. Looks like that's the solution.

My son has a key.

Rich

[Peter_h]

Speaking from experience, I would stay away from the iboot. The devices randomly go offline and when they do, they go into a loop in which they will continually power cycle what is plugged into it. Dataprobe Tech support is horrendous and would not work with us to fix the issue. We had 80 of these and had to replace them all because they just were not stable.

Our company has moved over to a lot better product.

http://www.synaccess-net.com/remote_...oducts.php/1/8

The UI is not as nice looking and the box looks a little rugged but it is a lot better product. It is the same form factor and price but you get 2 outlets instead of one with individual control of each, the ability to do scheduled reboots, as well as being able to send commands via email (ie, message from your cell phone to turn off or cycle an outlet).

[dadof4]

Originally Posted by dadof4

Taking off for Florida for six weeks. .

- The Hava and an HDPVR are plugged into the switched outlet of the STB that is controlled by the Slingbox. I can reset (power off/on) the Hava and HDPVR with the Slingbox remotely.

- The Slingbox and the second HDPVR are plugged into the switched outlet of the STB that is controlled by the Hava. I can reset (power off/on) the Slingbox and the second HDPVR's with the Hava remotely.

Am I missing anything?

Rich

Yes I was missing somthing!! The power went out and both STB's were turned off. No way to turn them back on. End of story.

Actually my backup (Son in Law) had the technical expertise to turn them back on.

[GKusnick]

I guess you should take a look at the UPS thread then. Put your STBs as well as your server on UPS and you won't need to manually power them back on after short outages.

[valnar]

It might be too late to think about this, but an iLO/KVM card can be useful too. I built my Sage Server with a Supermicro board specifically to gain the capability of managing it outside of Windows. You never know when a reboot will cause the BIOS to hang because of some fudged parameter. I also have two firewalls in my house, both with remote VPN capabilities. My cable company gives me up to three IP's, so it's a no brainer. Dyndns on both.