LastBoxStanding 0.9.0

Summary: LastBoxStanding is a Windows service that pings a configurable list of machines in your LAN to determine whether at least one of them is still running. If no machine responds, the service performs a custom action, e.g. a shutdown.

Some time ago I built a server for my LAN from old parts (e.g. a P2B mainboard with a PII 400 and some RAM I had in a drawer). I use it for storing backup images and running SourceGear Vault (source control) and Dragnet (bug tracking) mainly used for my GhostDoc project. The server is not connected to a monitor and it’s really quiet (thanks to some hard-core silent modding), so it’s not uncommon that I simply forget to shut it down before going to bed. That usually means that the server keeps running until I come back from work the next evening – what a waste of electricity.

I solved the problem by writing a Windows service to shut down the server automatically when it’s no longer needed, which is defined as when no other potential client on the LAN is running. The current version of LastBoxStanding can be configured to call any executable when the computer running the service is “the last box standing”.

You can download the most recent version on the LastBoxStanding homepage.

Update: Unfortunately, a small issue with 0.9.0 was found. If you set the check interval on your server to say 5 minutes, (re)start the service and then switch off all other machines on the LAN, LastBoxStanding does not perform the shutdown (or any other action you have configured). This is because the service has to reach at least one of the configured clients once and – this is the problem – the first check is not performed when the service starts, but after the (timer) interval has elapsed. If at that time none of the machines can be reached, LastBoxStanding assumes that the server is running standalone (e.g. for maintenance) where you don’t want the automatic shutdown.

Even if this issue does not affect usage in “Real Life” that much, it’s a huge problem if people download LastBoxStanding and want to try it out. I’ll look into providing a fix this evening when I get back from work.