hardware question

[wrog]

so I've decided I need a relay. The ideal/stupidest/most-versatile version I can think of would be a power strip that

• plugs into the wall
• has one or more outlets on it, and
• has a USB cable coming out of it

the basic idea being that once I plug the USB cable into my computer, I then have a remote means of turning the strip power on and off.

Embellishments would include being able turn the various outlets on and off separately and the usual array of safety features like having the USB circuit optically isolated, so that if Something Bad happens with the wall power or one of the devices plugged into the strip (develops a short or whatever), nothing bad happens to my computer via the USB line.

I cannot imagine that I'm the first person ever to have thought of this. And, given the vagaries of certain devices I've had to deal with, notably DSL modems, that just periodically need to be power cycled just because, I cannot imagine how any IT shop or network outpost would retain its sanity without something like this to give them the ability to power cycle things remotely.

I know it has to exist. My only worry is that it's so simple it's only available as part of some more complex, hugely expensive thing that I don't need.

So what is it called?

Comments

[wrog]

well okay, what I want is to be able to write a perl script that powercycles my DSL modem whenever we detect that port 25 has not received any spam in a while and subsequent pings to a selection of internet sites get no response. Here "powercycle" includes the insertion of a random delay of between 15 and 35 seconds between power off and power on, because apparently these things need it, followed by a 10-15 minute wait period for the DSLAM on the other end to come back from the dead...
... in other words just sufficiently weird that the Joe Consumer device is probably not going to do the Right Thing if all I can tell it to do is "powercycle" or if it insists on following its own watchdog script which is designed around rebooting servers and can't check for the things I want it to

What's annoying is I can do the software part; I just need the stupid device and don't want to spend more money than I have to on somebody else's b0rken UI (and then having to work around it).

[wrog]

hm. much as I hate the idea of doing my own hardware (because I'll get Something Wrong and stuff will catch fire) this

based on this looks pretty dirt simple.

$25 plus enclosure plus the effort of cutting apart an extension cord, slicing one of the wires, and hooking the two ends up to the relay.

so what goes wrong here?