This software is SHAREWARE but may be freely distributed together with the read me file. The shareware fee is very reasonable — $5. If you don't support shareware, shareware won't support you.
•••••••• What are they? •••••••••••
Shutdown Extension & Shutdown Remote were developed to restart or shutdown a Macintosh over a network. They were first intended to be used with ARA servers that activate with a phone call (such as those using Sophisticated Circuits PowerKey™ Remote), but will work on any networked Macintosh running System 7 Finder. Shutdown Remote, or rather Shutdown Extension, will not work on machines running AtEase. This has allot to do with the built in security features of AtEase.
•••••••• How does it work? •••••••••
There are two components — Shutdown Extension and Shutdown Remote. Shutdown Extension loads at startup and waits in the background to receive a command from Shutdown Remote. Once Shutdown Extension receives a command, it will send its own commands to the Finder. The extension will also close any open documents and reply to the default of any dialog that may come up. Once this process has been activated, it will continue until the machine restarts or shuts down.
•••••••• What do I need? •••••••••••
System 7.0 Finder or later.
You must enable Program Linking both on the remote machine and on your machine. This is done in the Sharing Setup control panel. You will also need to give yourself linking privileges on the remote machine. This is done by opening your user file under the Users & Groups control panel and selecting “Allow user to link to programs on this Macintosh.” Each user that needs to shutdown the machine must have linking privileges enabled.
•••••••• What do I do? •••••••••••••
Install Shutdown Extension in the Extensions folder of the remote Macintosh and reboot the machine (you won't be able to do this across the network quite yet — that's what we're trying to fix). Once that is setup, launch Shutdown Remote on your local machine and choose a menu option — i.e., send shutdown or send restart.
You will see a window that asks you to select Shutdown Extension on a Macintosh to restart or shutdown. Select the Macintosh in the list on the left and Shutdown Extension should appear in the list on the right. If it doesn't — you need to check your installation again. Select Shutdown Extension and hit OK.
Next you will be asked to authorize your linking connection (this is the same dialog you get when you log onto a server). If you pass the authorization, the command will be sent to the remote machine and you a will get a confirmation message back. The confirmation will indicate if you sent the message to a remote machine or to your own machine (for those of you who like to bypass the standard menu commands). If the authorization dialog doesn't appear, or you don't get a confirmation — try sending the command again. When you receive a confirmation message, the remote machine will begin to shutdown (or restart) and drop of the network — it shouldn't take longer than 30 seconds.
•••••••• Techie Tweekie Stuff •••••••••
Please note that if you or anyone else is logged onto the machine you are trying to shut down, your shutdown command will generate a Finder dialog box on the remote machine that says users are connected. This box gives you an option to postpone the shutdown and I believe this defaults to 10 minutes. If you don't change this, it will be 10 minutes before the machine can shut down. I've set mine to 0 minutes so it shuts down right away. There is a control panel called AppleShare Setup which lets you configure this at anytime. You can get this file at ftp.apple.com in the hacks directory – the file is in the archive - fsid.
You can make Shutdown extension into an application by changing the file type with ResEdit or something similar. Just replace 'appe' with 'APPL' for the file type. Once you have done that you can use my other program Launch Remote to launch the application on the remote machine and then send the shutdown or restart commands. I've included an application version of the regular extension in this archive.
•••••••• Other comments •••••••••••••
Some people have asked if I would include a function to broadcast to an entire lab of machines. Since you would still have to link and confirm the link to each machine, this would not be a practical way to go. Sorry.
Be nice. If you setup Shutdown Extension on someone else's machine without their knowing about it, you have the power to cause them allot of frustration. Shutdown Extension was intended to be used as a tool — not as a practical joke.
I want to offer special thanks to Fabrizio Oddone for assisting with the routine to automatically get rid of those pesky dialogs.
Tell me what you think of it. If you encounter any bugs, I'd like to hear what they are.
If you like it, use it, and support shareware — you can send me $5 (or more if you like) for my effort. Please use the address listed below.
Feel free to distribute this to anyone. All I ask is that you retain the Read Me file with the application and extension when you pass them along.
