Hacking into our own network....!

[Bob S.]

Don't anybody get excited - just trying to find a way to reboot a remote
system when needed. Here's the story.

8 WinXP Home Systems on a cable/router that I have WAN access to (LinkSys
Cable/Switch)
UltraVNC Server configured on each one
Each system has a static IP

I can remotely access any/all of the systems I want to and the router -
everything works great. But......once in awhile fat-thumbs prevail and I do
something to loose one of the connections (typically the server) and cannot
get back in using UltraVNC or even a VPN client I have setup.

I can access another workstation, use ping 192.168.xxx.xxx and I get good
replies. Use "net view" and it shows all the other systems plus the one I
can't access, so it must be up and running (but hung on Ultra VNC) since it
does respond.

So while I'm remotely connected to another workstation, I use the cmd window
to issue a "shutdown -r -m \\server1" or I use the static IP address of the
server and all I get is "network path not found" I can also do a "tracert
192.168.xxx.xxx" and I get a good reply.

If I issue the shutdown reboot command on the local workstation (while
connected remotely) it works fine but I cannot get it to work on any other
workstation over the LAN.

My thinking is that if I can reboot the machine, UltraVNC is configured as a
service and all will be well. Something about the best laid plans of mice
and men......went amok here...;-)

Any ideas or other suggestions? I'll typically do this after the place is
closed or on a weekend when I'm trying to do some testing or maintenance.

Thanks,

Bob S.

 

[Mark Dormer]

I have often get mixed results using that tool.

Try psshutdown http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/psshutdown.shtml

Regards
Mark Dormer