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Network Adapter Keeps Talking While a PC Is Asleep

Posted by timothy on from the would-make-me-feel-better-about-keeping-a-server-on dept.

Al writes "Researchers at Microsoft and the University of California, San Diego have developed a network adapter that lets a computer enter sleep mode without disrupting the network connection. The adapter, dubbed Somniloquy (meaning to talk in one's sleep), consists of a gumstix running embedded Linux, 64MB of RAM and a 2G SD memory card, connected via USB. The adapter keeps the network connection going and the researchers have also developed a simplified IM client and bittorrent client that carry out more complicated tasks autonomously, only waking the computer if, for example, an actualy IM is received or a download is completed."

8 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. So in other words... by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So in other words you still have a computer running, just not your main computer.

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    1. Re:So in other words... by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of the reasons I don't turn off my office computer at night is because, if some pathetic script kiddie walks on water all the way through thousands of hours of preventative labour and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of top tier hardware all the way down to my desktop windows PC, I want to see it first thing, so I won't have had my coffee before I stab myself through the eyeball with a ballpoint.

      Seriously? You think you're safer by having it off 16 hours a day? Moreover, your tech people think that it's acceptable to have an environment where the security precaution is to turn off your computer when you're not using it?

      Wow. Just...Wow...

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      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    2. Re:So in other words... by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How's it gonna help those of us that download more than 2 gigabytes of porn^Wlinux distros at a time?

      Wake the host PC after each GB and flush the buffer.

  2. Microsoft using Linux? by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Researchers at Microsoft"..."have developed"..."running embedded Linux"

    Um, was that a misprint or did hell just freeze over? Hasn't MS referred to Linux as a "virus", a "cancer", "un-American", a "patent violator", and "communistic"?

    1. Re:Microsoft using Linux? by qw0ntum · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apparently not.

      Who would have thunk it, researchers at Microsoft getting the task done in the best way possible rather than being dogmatic.

      Sheesh. Get over the FUD.

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      'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
  3. How about security? by bughunter · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My first thought was "IMs? What about malware, etc?" In other words, a firewall on an embedded system in the NIC would be far more useful than something that lets your CPU sleep while you keep downloading porn.

    And then my second thought was "Great, another vulnerability for attack. Why hack someone's PC, which could have any configuration, when you can hack the monoculture of embedded processors in consumer NICs?"

    Either way, marketing this kind of NIC without addressing all of its security potentials/weaknesses would be hasty... and possibly even irresponsible.

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  4. Re:Yo Dawg by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I use Wake On Lan to wake my PC. The same thing should work for this.

    Some applications, such as BitTorrent, require a continuous stream of packets. If you can offload processing these packets to another device that draws less electric power and keep the PC turned off until the device is ready to commit its changes, you can save money on your electric bill.

  5. When decent switches are hard to find by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why run on battery when decent switches (used by banks...) have PoE available?

    Because the switches and switch-router-NAT appliances marketed for use in homes or small businesses often aren't "decent switches", and because PoWLAN isn't yet available.