Advanced networking

I have been beating my brains out with this and seem to be getting no where with it so here is my scenario, what I would like to do and what I have thought of (that but not sure if they will work)

Basic setup

• Internet connection - exede satellite - monthly limits.... connected to Belkin g wan
• Emachine t-5224 PC running - vista home premium SP2 32 bit - connected to belkin g through lan
• Old dell running xp - connecting wirelessly - not to concerned with this one YET....
• Sony SMP-200 streaming media player connecting wirelessly through router to PC runnning serviio.

What I would like to do

• Deny/disable connections on each pc to the internet only if certain programs have started or the PC is in actual use - either one.
• Bring the PC out of sleep mode when the sony turns on - and not go back to sleep until the sony is turned off. (mind you - while denying or disabling the above internet connection)

I currently am using task scheduler and events to bring the PC out of sleep during the night for my downloads - automatically downloading and then back to sleep mode. Working well so far - I am just learning this networking and minor scripting stuff - but learning fast.

Using insomnia to keep the computer from sleeping and then closing at a specific time.

I have thought about pinging the sony's mac address with the scheduler so that when the sony turns on, the pc will wake so I can stream to the tv and when turned off, add an event to put pc back to sleep (all while maintaining a disabled internet connection). I would use insomnia to keep PC from sleeping until sony is turned off - right now, it enters sleep mode during streaming because there is no disable sleep function in serviio.

If my pc is in sleep mode is the internet connection shut down or just dormant?
If my pc is in sleep state can it send a ping to the Sony and receive it?

Due to having limits on my bandwidth I am trying to curb all internet usage that is not expressly requested by the user. Such as - opening firefox, download manager, newsreader, etc. is this possible. I would even be happy with just closing the internet connection on screen saver and sleep mode then enabling on wake because I know I will be physically using it at that time. I am trying limit bandwidth leakage through small update programs as well which I am using the event viewer and scheduler to find programs that are sending and receiving information from the internet that I am not requesting. Updates are disabled. I know serviio media server leaks bandwidth or data and I have no way to shut it down without shutting down serviio. I could open serviio upon a wake and close on sleep if I could get the PC to wake on power up, ping etc of the sony media streamer.

I have thought about using wake on lan as well but I am not familiar enough with how the networking side of it works. Can I wake it from a specific mac address or will the exede sat router wake the pc as well because all of the connections come through the single lan on the PC????

I know I will be twisting some heads here but any help or direction would be greatly appreciated - it gets expensive at 10 bucks a gig overage.....

thank you in advance
john

Hello John and welcome to the forums

This is a seriously complicated setup you want here!

"If my pc is in sleep mode is the internet connection shut down or just dormant?"

In Sleep mode, the computer does not have an active internet connection. It listens on the network for WOL (wake on LAN) calls, but it will definitely not use any of your bandwidth.

"If my pc is in sleep state can it send a ping to the Sony and receive it?"

Nope, unfortunately not.

I don't know of a way to automatically disconnect from the net when idle, but I'll look into it for you. I could make a shortcut for you that disconnects you, and one to reconnect you if you want?

It's getting really late here (3:23 AM) and I've got a lecture at 9, so I've really got to go to bed now, but I'll be back tomorrow (well, technically it's today, lol) evening!

Tom

nks for the reply. I figured it would be next to impossible, we never can have things the we want ... But we always find a way to make do.

I worked out the media server part, sort of. Serviio will not disble sleep and is constantly checking the for something soooo.... Have installed universal media server and seems to be working without talking to the net. But it will not pull the PC out of sleep mode just keep it from going into while streaming. One step closer. So this shortcut could I pull it automatically on anevent or opening a program and closing the same way? That would actually enable disable the interney only when I want thus eliminating other programs from leeching my bandwidth when I don't want?

Again I know I am asking for the world here but it would be helpful.
Thanks John

Hi John,

Sorry for the delay, the weekend was pretty hectic.

The method I originally had in mind was to disable the networking adapter, but that will result in your media server not working either so it isn't the best of solutions. I think it would be a good idea to try the Windows Firewall. We can write a batch file using netsh to import our predefined firewall settings (block everything except for your media server) when you need them, then reset them when you need to access the net.

It will take a while to set up, and I don't know whether it will definitely work or not, but if you're game then I'm willing to give it a go?

Just so I don't lose this link, I'm posting it here: Top 10: Windows Firewall Netsh Commands

Tom