Aviosys IP Power on a Mac: no Windows PC required

Published 2026-10-16

If you look after a server closet, a lab bench or an AV rack, there is a fair chance an Aviosys IP Power is in it: a network power switch that lets you turn outlets off and on from anywhere on the LAN. The hardware is solid and long-lived. The catch is the software. Setup and discovery go through IP Edit, a Windows program the quick-start guide marks as required, so plenty of all-Mac offices keep an old Windows PC or virtual machine around just to reach their power switches. FrontierStack removes that reason.

What the Windows tools are really doing

Under the hood, IP Power units don't need anything Windows-specific. Every model, from the original 9258 to the current 9858 and the eight-outlet 9820, answers a short set of local web commands: one reads the outlets, one switches them, and current firmware adds one that power-cycles an outlet on a timer. Any computer on the same network can send them. FrontierStack speaks those commands directly from your Mac. Nothing is installed on the unit, the firmware isn't changed, and the vendor tools keep working if you still want them.

Setting it up

1. Find the unit's address. Out of the box it takes one from your router by DHCP, so it shows in the router's client list or in a FrontierStack device scan; a 9858 with no DHCP server falls back to 192.168.1.168.
2. In FrontierStack, open Power Control and add an outlet. Choose Aviosys IP Power as the type.
3. Enter the address, the outlet number printed on the unit, and the unit's username and password. The password goes into your Mac's Keychain.
4. Optionally link the outlet to the server or device it powers, and choose a health check (ping, a TCP port or a web page).

Each outlet is its own entry, so a four-outlet 9858 becomes four outlets you can name for what they power.

What you get

• Live status for every outlet, read from the unit.
• On and Off that are checked. After switching, FrontierStack confirms the new state from the unit's reply, so a command that didn't take shows as a failure rather than a false success.
• The unit's own timed power cycle. FrontierStack asks the IP Power to turn the outlet off and back on itself. If that outlet happens to feed the switch or router between the unit and your Mac, power still comes back, because the unit is keeping time, not the Mac. (The original 9258 has no such command, so there the Mac switches the outlet off and back on.)
• Power controls where you need them. Link an outlet to a server or a pinned device and its On, Off and Cycle buttons appear on that device's page.
• Automatic recovery. Turn on auto power-cycle and FrontierStack watches the linked machine. After three failed checks in a row (about three minutes) it cycles the outlet, waits ten minutes before trying again, and stops after three attempts so a dead machine isn't cycled forever. Each attempt is recorded and raised as an alert.
• Your AI administrator can use it, with your approval. Ask FrontierStack AI to power-cycle a hung server and it uses the linked outlet, after you confirm.

IP Power units also have their own Auto Ping and schedules, and those keep working. The difference is the vantage point: FrontierStack checks a server the way its users reach it, including web pages and specific ports, and ties the outlet to everything else it already watches on your network.

Old and new units

The original IP Power 9258, sold from 2005 to 2008, numbers its outlets differently from every later model: what is printed as outlet 1 is addressed internally as the first of a zero-based series. A tool that assumes the newer numbering switches the outlet next door. FrontierStack recognises the older firmware from the unit's own reply and switches the outlet you chose. The 9820's outlets 5 to 8 are supported too, and units with HTTPS turned on can be added with an https:// address.

Keep it safe

• Change the factory login. Every IP Power ships as admin / 12345678, and its web commands obey anyone who knows it. Set a new password on the unit's own web page before relying on it.
• Your password stays out of URLs. FrontierStack keeps it in the Keychain and sends it in a request header. It only talks to private network addresses.
• Keep the unit on a trusted network. Without HTTPS, the unit's login travels unencrypted on the LAN. Use HTTPS where your model supports it, and don't expose the unit to the internet.

What still lives on the unit's own page

Changing the unit's network settings, editing its built-in schedules and updating its firmware are done on the IP Power's web page, which opens in Safari like any other. For everyday control and recovery, the Mac is now enough.

The same Power Control pane also handles Raritan PDUs, Shelly and Tasmota plugs, TP-Link Kasa and Tapo, Home Assistant switches, UPSes and PoE switch ports, so an IP Power sits alongside everything else that keeps your machines running.