Turning on PC from another room

stonking

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Hi, I want to build a PC that will live in my projector room and be attached to my projector for upscaling DVD's etc but I also want access to it in my study where I will have a monitor and keyboard. I do not want to have the PC running all the time so need a way to turn the PC on and off from my study. Any suggestions?
 
If your motherboard or network card support Wake on LAN., then you should be able to wake the remote PC from (effectively) off by stuffing it a magic packet over the network from your office PC. You will then be able to remotely control it using VNC, e.g. TightVNC, and switch it off as if sitting in front of it.

Added Later

mmm...I now see I've misread what you've said :). What you basically want is some sort of wireless KVM, as you won't actually have a PC in your office, just a keyboard/mouse/monitor? They do seem to exist, e.g. this, although I've no personal experience of them...
 
I do not want to have the PC running all the time so need a way to turn the PC on and off from my study. Any suggestions?
No big deal. This is what standby mode is for.

You can put the machine to sleep using the remote keyboard and it will wake up when you hit the remote space bar twice.
 
To be honest I do not know if I should go wireless or cables. Cables would only be about 10m long so I guess that is do-able.

What has confused me is that I have to press a button to turn it on and I did not know how to over come this. Standby mode? Does the hard drive not spin and the cpu fans etc run? Something must still be awake in order to take the instructions.

When I build a new machine I will use Vista, dual core and a fairly good graphics card. Does anyone know if Vista has any issues with "Stand-by mode"?

Thanks for the help people.
 
S3 stanby mode leaves only the RAM and motherboard powered, no CPU, fans, hard drives etc.

However, there is another way you could do this, many motherboards have a BIOS feature that allows you to turn on the PC by typing a password of your choice on the keyboard, for example "on". I can't remember exactly but I have a feeling this would only work with a PS2 keyboard rather than a USB one. 10m would be out of USB's reach anyway.
 
Some HTPC VFD/Remotes have a on/off feature controlled by infra red remote.

I am buying one of these with this in mind as I keep my HTPC in a cupboard in another room. However you still have the remote issues, luckily for me I already use an RF remote (Harmony 895) so I control all my AV equipment with the one remote 'through-walls'.

You can also buy the VFD/Remote seperately from www.specialtech.co.uk As I understand it these are not using standby or hibernate mode but true on/off.

The only other way I have seen is with some ASUS motherboards which come with a media remote for this same purpose.

If you don't want to spend a wad of cash on an RF remote then you could buy an IR repeater and place a sensor in your projector room and the repeater in your office. I got some for my Sky box in the bedroom (which is also hidden in a cupboard, I like don't like gadgets on show :blush:)

Xantech do some good stuff: http://www.letsautomate.com/index.cfm?Nav=xantech however it is a lot chaper to import from the states or at least it was about a year ago when I did it.

Adam
 
What has confused me is that I have to press a button to turn it on and I did not know how to over come this. Standby mode?
Standby works fine with all wireless keyboards I've ever used. Just hit the space bar twice (first hit wakes up the wireless part, second hiit wakes up the PC).
 
Thanks everyone for some fantastic ideas here. I will explore them all and come back to you which one I choose and why.
 

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