Cisco switch "No Shut" electrical question for Arduino

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Is there a way to use the Arduino's analog or digital inputs to sense an electrical change on ANY of the ethernet pins coming from a cisco switch (non POE)? I am specifically looking at sensing a change when the ethernet link goes from "shutdown" to "no shut" on a Cisco 2950. Again, I am not refering to the entire ethernet cable, simply one or two of the wires feeding into the arduino to sense the change.
Here is what I would like to do:

I have a home lab with many Cisco switches and routers connected to it. Unfortunately, if I leave this lab powered up, it has immense draw and my power bill goes way up. I am researching a way that I can remotely turn on and off my lab.

One method is to purchase an arduino with built in ethernet. Connect this to a relay shield and complete it that way.

The other cheaper option I would like some ideas for is this:

Purchase a cheap non-ethernet Arduino and a relay shield. Connect an ethernet cable into a port of my non-lab Cisco 2950 (always powered on). Break out the other end of this ethernet cable into an input or two of the Arduino. When I issue the command in the switch to "no shut" or power on the port, the Arduino will sense this and cause the relays to power my other switches.

Does this seem possible?

Thanks, Matt

2

I'm not very familiar with the Arduino wired Ethernet controller but I looked through the documentation and didn't see anything about it being able to sense link state or not.

One thing you could do is connect the Arduino's serial port to the console port of the Cisco then configure "logging console" on the vty and "logging-event link-status" on the Ethernet port, then have the Arduino parse the console log.

Alternatively, you could set up the console port with a reverse telnet and write a simple parser on the Arduino with something like "R1" to turn the relay on and "R0" to turn it off, etc.

Hope this helps.