• What is Wake on LAN?
• How do I find my MAC Address?

(back)Often, IT personnel prefer to maintain client systems after employees have gone home. Even if these tasks are automated, client machines must be left on. In the past, if they weren't left on, personnel had to manually turn them on. But, with wake-on-LAN, client systems can be remotely and automatically powered up.

Wake-on-LAN technology resides in a PC's managed network adapter and motherboard. The two are attached via a wake-on-LAN cable terminated by a 3-pin connector on each side.

When the system is turned off, the managed network adapter uses an alternate power source to monitor the network and watch for a wake-up packet from the server. Once it receives a packet, it alerts the system to power up and accept any maintenance task it is given.

Webopedia

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by redxii
last modified: 2002-05-28 19:41:17

(back)To find your MAC Address, do this:

Click on Start, then Run. Type winipcfg then Enter.

Select your device from the pull down menu. Your MAC Address is called Adapter Address and should be in this form:

00-00-00-00-00-00



Instead of winipcfg, you can type ipconfig /all to list everything.

Macintosh users :

Go to the TCP/IP control panel then selecting the menu item File/Get Info. It's called Hardware Address.

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by redxii
last modified: 2002-06-01 19:24:51

• How do I get started with this?
• It only works once!
• Port 9, or what?
• How do I set up my computer for WOL?
• Callsign?
• Doesn't Wake from Sleep of Hibernation
• Is there a way to just try this out?
• Is there a WOL Forum?

(back)DSLR has a wake-on-lan feature, actually just a feature that will send a packet to your machine to remotely activate it.

Get started here: /wakeup

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by KeysCapt

(back)My router "forgets" the link between the IP and MAC because the router flushes the ARP table or the dynamic ARP entry is wiped from the router's ARP table a few minutes after I turn off the computer.

To resolve just forward the port on the router (Port 32767 if for DSLR) to IP 192.168.0.255, provided it operates in this IP range.

Mulicast IPs should be hard coded in the ARP table of the routers. The WOL packet would then be passed to all nodes behind the router but the speficied MAC address would be the one to wake up.

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by KeysCapt

(back)For now, the DSLR wake-on-lan page references UDP Port 9, so if you must forward a port, use this one.

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by KeysCapt
last modified: 2004-09-03 03:18:29

(back)(Note: This is primarily relevant to Linksys routers, but contains information that should be helpful to all)

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This text assumes the reader will be using a computer (motherboard and BIOS) and NIC (network card) that are compatible with WoL technology and that the hardware is properly set up to do so. Some network cards must be placed into a special PCI slot on the motherboard in order work properly while others must be tethered to the motherboard by a special cable which plugs into a particular place on both the motherboard and the NIC. A general WoL FAQ can be located here. This text was written mainly to indicate how to forward the proper port through a Linksys router in order to utilize WoL technology through the router.

In order to use WoL (Wake on LAN, aka: RWU or remote wake up) to wake up a computer from over the Internet the appropriate port needs to be forwarded from the WAN side to the LAN side of the router. Since a computer that is not turned on doesn't have an IP address, the packet sent to wake the computer needs to be forwarded to all computers on the LAN side of the router in order to ensure it gets to the computer it is destined for. This "magic packet," which can be sent using software available from different sources, contains a special string designed to work with WoL as well as the MAC address of the network card in the computer which should wake up. Because the MAC address of the correct machine is included in the packet, only the machine that is supposed to wake up actually will.

To set up port forwarding in the router go here (default). The port that needs to be forwarded will vary depending on what software you're using to send the magic packet, but the normal port used for WoL is 9. UDP is the protocol that needs to be forwarded; it is not necessary to forward the TCP protocol. The IP address that the packet needs to be forwarded to will change depending on the network mask you are using on your LAN. The default network mask is 255.255.255.0. If you are using this mask, you should forward traffic destined to your WoL port to xxx.xxx.xxx.255. If you are using the default settings in the router, this address would probably be 192.168.1.255. The 255 in the address, using the default network mask, signifies that the router should forward any information sent to the indicated port to all computers on the LAN side. If you are using the router's default settings with a program that sends the "magic packet" to port 9, basically just forward all UDP traffic on port 9 to 192.168.1.255. If there is an option for external and internal ports, the same port number should be used for both external and internal.

WoL tool allows you to wake a computer remotely over the Internet through a browser. On this page they indicate UDP port 9 is what the tool uses, but as of this writing the magic packet is actually sent through UDP port 32767. So, if you're using this tool be sure to forward port 32767 through the router.

While it is possible to locate software that will send WoL "magic packets" via a quick search in your favorite search engine, a couple of sites offering such software are:

Depicus (also provides info on WoL)
AMD (also provides info on WoL)
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This FAQ entry copied from the LinkSys FAQ and posted there by Gork

User svenlange adds that iptables (many routers are based on this) does not support forwarding to *.255 address - so the only option is direct forwarding to certain IP with permanent ARP entry.
See his thread on the subject:
/forum/remark,13287946

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by KeysCapt
last modified: 2005-04-29 09:02:21

(back)The mention of a "callsign" in the setup page is for prior users; it isn't necessary. All you need is your IP address and the MAC address of your network card (NIC).

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by KeysCapt

(back)My computer doesn't wake up when it's in "sleep" mode.

This depends somewhat on your internal settings and the way your machine is designed to work. It doesn't "wake" because your NIC doesn't accept packets in standby or hibernation mode. (Of course, you must have a suitable NIC with the WOL feature.)

You can check by looking at the LEDs on your NIC when the computer is turned off and when it is in "sleep" mode. If they are lit, the computer should wake when the remote packet is received. When the computer is hibernating if the LED isn't on it will not wake.

You can explore the settings in the "power" section of a Windows computer Control Panel, but this may not be adjustable.

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by KeysCapt

(back)Yes, courtesy of edojan you can run a quick test to see if WOL works for you.

Just grab your MAC address and IP and go here: »www.ubilight.com
Click on "Wake Up", fill in the required info, and check it out.

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by KeysCapt

(back)Well, sort of.

You can see comments and questions on this service here: /forum/wakeonlan

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by KeysCapt

(back)APM
Advanced Power Management

ACPI
Advanced Configuration and Power Management

BIOS
Basic Input/Output System

DOS
Disk Operating System

LAN
Local Area Network

WAN
Wide Area Network

WOL
Wake on LAN

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by redxii edited by KeysCapt
last modified: 2004-02-19 07:47:21

• Does my motherboard support WOL?
• Wake-on-Lan on PCI Bus

(back)Check your motherboard's manual to see if it supports WOL.

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by redxii

(back)Some manufacturers offer WOL w/o 3-pin cable. NIC gets power from PCI slot. Currently I know 3 companies: Intel, 3com and Linksys. But there are compatibility problems. My Asus A7V33 supports WOL via PCI, but it doesn't work w/ Linksys. That's why, if WOL is a must, then U need to invest in working NIC from Intel/3com

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by Tomek edited by redxii
last modified: 2002-10-09 17:57:42

• Hardware requirements for WOL
• What's a NIC?

(back)For WOL, you need:

Motherboard BIOS support
Network Interface Cards
PCI 2.2
Operating system support (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP)

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by redxii
last modified: 2002-06-07 20:44:35

(back)Network Interface Card, often abbreviated as NIC, is an expansion board you insert into a computer so the computer can be connected to a network. Most NICs are designed for a particular type of network, protocol, and media, although some can serve multiple networks.

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by redxii
last modified: 2002-06-07 20:44:44

(back)Wake on LAN tools can be found @ http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/

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by redxii
last modified: 2006-11-05 23:39:08

(back)If you don't want your CPU to power on or it just powers on out of the blue when a packet is sent to your MAC Address, then pull the cable (small 2 wire cable) connecting your NIC to the motherboard or disable Wake On LAN in your BIOS.

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by redxii