The Tyranny of the Physical Power Button

For decades, true, unadulterated remote control of a computer has been the holy grail of system administration. While tools like Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and VNC are invaluable for daily tasks, they share a fatal flaw: they depend on a healthy, running operating system. When an OS fails to boot, a system hangs during a critical update, or a BIOS setting needs tweaking, these software solutions become as useful as a screen door on a submarine. You are, for all intents and purposes, locked out.

This is the moment when the physical world brutally reasserts its dominance. The solution often involves what the industry wryly calls “remote hands”—physically dispatching a person to interact with the machine. For large corporations, this capability is built into their infrastructure with expensive, integrated solutions like Dell’s iDRAC or HP’s iLO. These Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs) are marvels of engineering, but they come at a premium, often locked into specific server hardware and priced well out of reach for small businesses, startups, and the burgeoning community of homelab hobbyists.

This gap in the market created a persistent headache. How do you get that same level of deep, hardware-level control without spending thousands on enterprise gear? The answer lies in KVM-over-IP (Keyboard, Video, Mouse over Internet Protocol), a technology that digitizes the essential inputs and outputs of a computer and streams them across a network. And now, thanks to devices like the GL.iNet Comet, this once-exclusive technology is being democratized, packaged into a box no bigger than a deck of cards and sold for less than the cost of a high-end video game.

Enter the Comet: A Revolution in a Tiny Package

At first glance, the GL.iNet Comet (model GL-RM1) is unassuming. It’s a small, black plastic rectangle, light enough to be held aloft by the very cables that give it life. Yet this humble exterior hides a powerful capability: the complete and total remote commandeering of another computer. It acts as a digital intermediary, plugging directly into a target machine’s HDMI and USB ports, effectively becoming its dedicated keyboard, mouse, and monitor. It then connects to your network via an Ethernet cable, giving you a secure window into that machine from anywhere with an internet connection.

Unpacking the Experience: Simplicity with a Few Quirks

Setting up the Comet is a lesson in modern plug-and-play, albeit with a few head-scratching moments. The box contains the device itself and a collection of necessary cables. Power is delivered via a standard USB-C port, requiring a 5V/2A adapter—the kind that powers most modern smartphones. Curiously, GL.iNet’s own documentation warns users to only use the provided power supply, despite the fact that no such supply is included in the box. This minor hiccup in messaging aside, any standard phone charger or powered USB hub works flawlessly. This “bring your own charger” approach, likely a cost-saving and eco-friendly measure, is perfectly acceptable in an era where USB-C bricks are ubiquitous.

The physical connections are straightforward: an HDMI cable goes from the Comet to the host computer’s video output, a USB cable connects to provide keyboard and mouse emulation, and an Ethernet cable links the Comet to your network. This is where the first real-world complication can arise. The Comet requires its own network connection, separate from the host machine’s. If you only have a single Ethernet drop available, you’ll need to add a small, inexpensive network switch to provide connectivity for both devices. Furthermore, the Comet lacks an HDMI pass-through port, a design decision with significant consequences. If your target machine has only one video output and is also used by a local user, you’re forced into a tedious routine of unplugging the Comet and plugging in a local monitor whenever physical access is needed. It’s a notable omission that could be a dealbreaker for shared-use workstations.

The Magic of BIOS-Level Control

Once connected and configured through a simple web interface, the Comet’s true power is unleashed. This isn’t just screen sharing; it’s a fundamental link to the machine’s core functions. The moment the target computer powers on, the boot sequence and BIOS/UEFI setup screen appear in your browser window, clear as day. This is the game-changer.

Imagine a critical server in a branch office three states away suffers a corrupted bootloader after a power surge. With a software-only solution, you’d be booking a flight. With the Comet, you’re calmly sipping your morning coffee, accessing the BIOS, changing the boot order to a USB recovery drive, and initiating a system repair from the comfort of your home office. You can watch the entire boot process, catch error messages that flash on the screen for a fraction of a second, and interact with pre-boot environments. According to a 2022 report by the Uptime Institute, the average cost of a single hour of IT downtime can exceed $300,000 for large enterprises. For a small business, even a few hours can be catastrophic. A sub-$100 device that can slash that recovery time from hours or days to mere minutes offers an almost unbelievable return on investment.

Navigating Real-World Use: Features, Foibles, and Workarounds

Living with the Comet reveals a well-thought-out product that, while brilliant, isn’t without its eccentricities and limitations. The experience is managed through either the aforementioned web portal or a dedicated Windows application, which provides a slightly more polished and feature-rich interface.

The Command Center: Your Remote Cockpit

The control interface is robust. You can adjust the stream quality and resolution to match your available bandwidth, a crucial feature when connecting over a slow cellular connection. It even allows for forwarding microphone and speaker audio, a surprisingly useful tool for collaborative troubleshooting with someone physically present at the remote machine.

GL.iNet’s engineers have also included clever solutions to common remote-control annoyances. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete on your local machine would normally trigger your own task manager, not the remote one. The Comet’s app provides a dedicated button to send that specific key combination, along with other special commands. The clipboard is shared, allowing you to copy text on your local machine and paste it into a command prompt on the remote server. For advanced users, the device itself is a tiny Linux computer, accessible via SSH. This opens up a world of scripting and automation possibilities. The project is based on the popular open-source PiKVM, and GL.iNet makes the source code available on GitHub, earning major points with the tinkerer and open-source communities.

Powering Up: The Achilles’ Heel of Remote Management

The single greatest challenge for any remote management solution is answering a simple question: how do you turn on a machine that’s completely off? The Comet offers a tiered approach to solving this perennial problem, ranging from the hopeful to the brilliantly mechanical.

The Software Method: Wake-on-LAN’s Fickle Promise

The most basic tool is Wake-on-LAN (WOL), a network standard that allows a device to be powered on by a special “magic packet” sent over the network. The Comet can send these packets, but WOL’s reliability is notoriously system-dependent. It can be thwarted by specific motherboard settings, network configurations, or even the computer’s power state (hibernation vs. full shutdown). It’s a great feature when it works, but it’s not something to bet your job on.

The Hardware Arsenal: Clever Add-ons for Guaranteed Power

For a more reliable solution, GL.iNet sells a couple of ingenious accessories. For desktops and servers, there’s a small ATX Power Control board. This $15 add-on installs inside the computer’s case, sitting between the physical power/reset buttons and the motherboard headers. This allows the Comet to remotely “press” those buttons, providing a guaranteed method of power cycling the machine. For laptops, which lack these internal headers, GL.iNet offers a wonderfully quirky device called the Fingerbot—a small, robotic actuator that physically presses the laptop’s power button on your command. It’s a hilarious, almost Rube Goldberg-esque solution, but it’s undeniably effective.

The PoE Advantage: The Smarter, Cleaner Sibling

Perhaps the most compelling argument against buying the standard Comet is the existence of its slightly more expensive sibling, the Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE). For an extra $25, this version can be powered directly by its Ethernet cable via Power over Ethernet (PoE). This is a massive upgrade for two reasons. First, it simplifies cabling, requiring just one network line for both data and power. Second, and more importantly, it solves a critical dependency issue. The standard Comet needs USB power, which is often sourced from the very machine it’s controlling. But many computers cut power to their USB ports when fully shut down, rendering the Comet inert and unable to power the system back on. The PoE version, drawing its lifeblood from the network switch, remains fully operational regardless of the host machine’s state, making it a far more resilient and professional solution.

A Tale of Two Limitations: Passthrough and Virtual Media

For all its strengths, the Comet stumbles in two key areas. As mentioned, the lack of HDMI passthrough is a significant inconvenience for any machine that needs to be used both locally and remotely.

The second, more disappointing weakness is its “Virtual Media” feature. In theory, this is a killer app: the ability to mount a disk image (like an ISO file for an operating system) from the Comet and have the host computer see it as a bootable USB drive. This would allow for complete, from-scratch OS installations remotely. In practice, the implementation is nearly unusable. The internal flash memory on the Comet where you upload these images is a paltry 5.73 GB—barely enough for a modern Windows 11 installation file. Worse still, the upload speed is painfully slow. Transferring a multi-gigabyte file can take an eternity, turning a quick OS reinstall into an overnight affair. It’s a fantastic idea crippled by inadequate hardware. What the device desperately needs is a USB 3.0 port to attach an external SSD or flash drive, which would make the virtual media feature genuinely powerful.

Fortifying the Gates: Security in a Connected World

Granting BIOS-level access to a computer over the internet is an inherently risky proposition, and security cannot be an afterthought. Thankfully, GL.iNet has taken this seriously. Upon first setup, the device forces you to create a strong administrator password, avoiding the “admin/admin” default that plagues so many low-cost IoT devices.

For enhanced security, the platform supports two-factor authentication (2FA), adding a crucial layer of protection to your remote access account. The most impressive security feature, however, is the native integration of Tailscale. Tailscale is a zero-configuration VPN solution built on the modern and highly secure WireGuard protocol. Instead of punching holes in your firewall and exposing the Comet directly to the public internet—a major security risk—you can create a secure, private network that connects your devices wherever they are. With Tailscale enabled, your Comet is never exposed, and only authenticated devices on your private “tailnet” can communicate with it. This is an enterprise-grade security feature on a consumer-priced device, and it demonstrates a real commitment to user safety.

The Final Verdict: Is This Your Remote Hands?

The GL.iNet Comet isn’t a perfect device, but it is a revolutionary one. It successfully packages the core functionality of a six-figure enterprise KVM solution into a $90 box. For a massive segment of the market—from small business IT departments to managed service providers (MSPs) to the ever-growing army of homelabbers—it’s a game-changer. The ability to diagnose a no-boot situation, reinstall an OS, or simply power-cycle a hung server from the other side of the planet can easily justify its cost the very first time it’s used.

However, it’s not for everyone. If you need to manage a computer that is frequently used locally and only has a single video output, the lack of HDMI passthrough will be a constant source of frustration. If your workflow relies heavily on mounting large disk images for remote installations, the virtual media feature will leave you deeply disappointed.

For nearly everyone else, the GL.iNet Comet is an enthusiastic recommendation, with one major caveat: spend the extra $25 and get the PoE version. The added reliability and simplified wiring it provides elevates the product from a clever gadget to a serious, professional-grade tool. In the world of IT, where time is money and downtime is a disaster, this pocket-sized lifesaver might just be the best investment you make all year.

Source: https://www.techradar.com