Think of this scenario; You are lying in bed and just finished watching a movie that you were streaming from a computer downstairs. You want to sleep, but you need to head downstairs to turn the computer off. Save some time, and do it from the computer upstairs.

There are a number of ways that you can restart or shutdown remote computers. You could use a remote desktop connection, but there are quicker ways and we will look at them today.

This article will show you various methods you can use to shutdown or restart computers on your network. We will look at:

• Command Line/Shortcuts
• Windows Tools
• 3^rd Party Applications

As well as looking after the environment and your pocket by saving electricity, it is surprisingly easy to achieve. This article is very much aimed at a home user. Most server operating systems have much more powerful tools available.

I have learnt a thing or two researching for this article.

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A web server is a system that helps you deliver pages from your computer to other computers via a web browser. Inspect My Gadget is delivered to you through one. If you want to host your own material from your own computer (perhaps photos or music to share with friends and family), you will need to setup a web server on your computer which will do this task. Setting one up doesn’t need to be too daunting or expensive.

There are a number of free web server packages available, but I have not found any which are as easy to use as SimpleServer:WWW. Once you download the tiny 187k installation file, you can launch the installer. You can have a fully working web server up and running in less than 2 minutes. I wouldn’t suggest to my grandmother to try and install Apache, but I reckon she could handle this one.

There really isn’t much to this program – looking at it from a users point of view. SimpleServer sits in the tasktray. There is a start/stop button to enable or disable the server. The only other control it has is a browse button so you can select which folder the server will host. SimpleServer can be launched with Windows by placing it in your startup folder.

SimpleServer is a great web server. The only thing it lacks is security. The website will be open to anyone in world who knows the address. This shouldn’t be a huge issue, but if it is running and you are serving up a lot of music or movies, be aware that they might end up in the wrong hands. Unlikely, but worth mentioning.

If you have a home network, you will probably need to set up port forwarding in your router. For more information on this, check out this article. If you want to access this site from a computer out of your home network, I suggest you sign up with DynDNS so that you don’t need to remember your IP address everywhere you go.

Get your copy of SimpleServer:WWW for free from AnalogX

AnalogX has made a number of useful utilities which are all available for free. I have used a number of these utilities over the years and they have all worked flawlessly for me. It is a shame that the site doesn’t appear to be updated anymore.

Network Folder Plugin allows you to map your network folders and access them easily from your Windows Mobile Device. The interface is simple, and the program is quite snappy.

Generally, mapping to folders from the Windows Mobile platform is not very practical, as you need to be near your computer for it to work, (so you may as well use your computer anyway). But, if mapping is something you think will be useful for your setup, check this out.

I figure that transferring photos and music might be quicker on Wifi rather than on Bluetooth. Mapping network folders is an important step in accessing these files and to get the better results.

Windows Mobile devices let you connect to network folders. The default software which is built in to these devices is very clumsy and primitive to use.

Once you have installed it, you can access it from Settings/Connections. You then see a blank list which will eventually stock all your selected shares. Click new and either type in the share name or browse. Find the share you want, hold down and select “map drive”. Enter in your password and username, and you’re done!

Once you have mapped network folders, they will show up in file explorer, under a new folder called network. The files can then be copied to your device, played in a media player or you can copy files to and from your device. A feature I like in this program is that you can save passwords so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you want to connect.

To install the file, copy the cab to your device and then run it. Network Folder Plugin is available for free from FreewarePocketPC.net.

Some network programs require that you configure port forwarding in your router, so that they will work properly. This is confusing to many people, causing many newcomers to give up. For those who know what they are doing, it is time consuming. There is a quicker and easier way.

Fortunately, most routers support a standard called Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), meaning that you can use the BaUPnP tool to update your port forwarding settings, without going through all the menus in your router.

BaUPnP is a free command line utility that automates the process of forwarding your ports.

For use: On the computer you want the ports to be forwarded to, open up your command prompt and navigate through to the folder you have saved BaUPnP.

The tool, by default, configures port mapping for the two ports used by web-servers - that is port 80 (HTTP) and port 443 (HTTPS). You are able to use your own arguments for any service you want.

The following example configures port mapping for FTP (port 21) and Telnet (port 23):

BaUPnP.exe 21 23

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

As this program changes the port forwarding settings to your router, this program only needs to be run once. This is not a program that will clog up valuable resources after you have used it.

You are able to run it from multiple machines, each offering various services. Just keep in mind that you can’t use the same port from two computers. You will also need to ensure that UPnP is turned on in your router settings.

For more information and download instructions please visit barracudaserver.com.

A network clipboard allows you to share the same clipboard between two computers connected via a network. You are able to copy text on one computer, and then paste it on the other.

Last week I posted an article about a handful of network clipboards that are available for free on Windows PCs. I was not able to get any of them to communicate to each other between Windows XP and Vista.

Over the week, I came across the open-source utility BeyondCopy 1.24, which is yet another network clipboard. I expected the same sort of luck as I had with the other programs I had tested, but I was pleasantly surprised when BeyondCopy worked for me first time without any fuss.

I installed the utility on each computer and added the other computers hostname to the list of acceptable computers. I opened up Notepad and typed in some text and copied it to the clipboard. I switched to the other computer and pressed paste, and clipboard followed me.

BeyondCopy runs in the task tray on both computers and can be started up with Windows. You are able to have more than two computers sharing the same clipboard. It is fairly secure as you have to put in the computer hostnames of all the computers you want to share the clipboard of, into the client on each computer. If you only do it on one, BeyondCopy will not connect. You are even able to change which port BeyondCopy uses for added security.

The documentation claims that the software will copy files but I had no luck with this. The help documentation isn’t too clear for this. I was able to copy text flawlessly, which is what I initially set out to do.

Now I have to get used to this new feature on my network. The impossible has become possible. I am already reaping the benefits as I have used it in writing this article. This one is a keeper!

BeyondCopy is free and available from their Website.