IPPower9258

From Antitronics

Documentation for using the IP Power 9258 remote power control device

This is a handy looking device, but I've had some challenges setting it up.

The manuals and box text are poorly translated.

I wanted to set it up without using the Windows configuration utility. That should be easy, it says it's configured to use DHCP by default. DHCP seems to be broken, at least with my router, a Linksys WRT300N. The device continues to request IP addresses even after one has been granted. Here is the DHCP log:

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:33:43 received DISCOVER from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:33:44 sending OFFER to 255.255.255.255 with 172.31.0.116
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:33:44 received DISCOVER from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:33:45 sending OFFER to 255.255.255.255 with 172.31.0.117
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:33:45 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:33:47 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:33:47 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:43 received DISCOVER from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:45 sending OFFER to 255.255.255.255 with 172.31.0.117
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:45 received DISCOVER from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:46 sending OFFER to 255.255.255.255 with 172.31.0.118
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:46 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:48 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:48 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:52:06 received DISCOVER from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:52:07 sending OFFER to 255.255.255.255 with 172.31.0.118
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:52:07 received DISCOVER from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:52:08 sending OFFER to 255.255.255.255 with 172.31.0.119
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:52:08 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:52:10 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92
Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:52:10 received REQUEST from 00:92:58:00:79:92

Not good. So I fired up the windows machine, navigated the disk tat came with the device, downloaded the utility to set the IP address, and ran it. A scan found the device on the network, and it had defaulted to an IP address of 192.168.something. I reset that to a static one on my network and it rebooted itself and came up with the new address.

It's accessible from Internet Explorer. Good.

It's accessible from Firefox on the Ubuntu box. Even better. I shut down the windows box.

Basic controls work fine.

Checked the IP configuration - Oops - it has the DNS server set to something random. That wasn't an option to set with their windows config utility. So I changed it usign the web interface.

Why does this device need a DNS server anyway? Oh, because you can have it send email every time the outputs change. Not a feature I care about.

It beeps every time you give it a command. Oh good, you can turn that off in the web interface.

New admin password - you can't change the login name, and it only takes 8 character passwords. Blech.

Configured to use NTP through a national server - that's nice.

Tried enabling SNMP - the MIB looks like the defaults are not right:

sconklin@rrbs-1:~$ snmpwalk -v 1 -c public -O e 172.33.xx.xx
SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0 = STRING: IP9258
SNMPv2-MIB::sysObjectID.0 = OID: SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.92.58
DISMAN-EVENT-MIB::sysUpTimeInstance = Timeticks: (4582) 0:00:45.82
SNMPv2-MIB::sysContact.0 = STRING: Admintrator
SNMPv2-MIB::sysName.0 = STRING: IP9258
SNMPv2-MIB::sysLocation.0 = STRING: Wuhan
SNMPv2-MIB::sysServices.0 = Wrong Type (should be INTEGER): NULL
End of MIB

Eventually, I discovered that you can read the power outlet state using SNMP, although the MIB documentation in the manual is wrong. But SNMP is read-only, so it's not useful to me.