[geeks] Remote power management on the cheap

[Alex Feinberg]

First, a quick intro. I've mostly been a lurker on the list, which
I've followed from the rescue list. I am (or, unfortunately, rather
was) into antique system. However, since there seems to be several
threads going related to rack mount machines, here is mine:

What would be a cheap solution for remote power? What I need is the
ability to reset a machine (when it is hard frozen) on the fly, on
the cheap :-) The machines that I deal with at work have various
sort of serial console power management tools available for them
(particularly the ones supplied by rackable), but I'd imagine these
are very machine specific and expensive. What I'm looking for is a
cheap way to reset a couple of machines I have colocated in a rack
(without paying the rather exuberant fee the upstream provided would
charge to provide their own power management) -- basically a "power
strip over ip". No ipmi is not an option (requires a dhcp server to
be present and available, requires the motherboard/chassis to
support it -- not always an option).

Any response would be appreciate. If this is off-topic for the list,
please let me know and I won't post anything like that :-)

-- 
- Alex