ReachOut is an application/extension combination that will let you gain some extra control on Macs on a network. After the extension is installed on a remote system, you can use the application to restart or shutdown the remote Macintosh.
There are two restart/shutdown methods which you can choose from. The normal restart/shutdown works by instructing the Finder on the local machine to restart or shutdown the computer. But this wont work all the time. If an application is open that requires user input (such as if changes should be made to a file), then the operation will not be performed.
The second option, a "hard" restart/shutdown will get the task done, whether the user has changes to be saved or not. Needless to say, the second method should be used only in the case where the first option did not work.
ReachOut is simple enough to use. Run the program and all the options are available under the File menu. When you choose an option, you will be prompted to select which process on which machine you want to communicate with. You'll choose the remote machine you want to restart/shutdown, and then select the "ReachOut Extension" on that machine.
