how can I turn on my machine remotely?

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jameshanley39

how can I turn on my machine(s) remotely?

WakeOnLAN looks good but my motherboards don't have it. Is there an
adaptor?

Any way / other way I can do this?

Preferably a cheap solution! But let's start with any solutions!
 
how can I turn on my machine(s) remotely?

WakeOnLAN looks good but my motherboards don't have it. Is there an
adaptor?

Any way / other way I can do this?

Preferably a cheap solution! But let's start with any solutions!
Click to expand...


A typical $4 Realtek NIC will allow this and is probably the
cheapest option. However it is a fairly common feature on
motherboards now, is it possible yours has integrated NIC
that simply doesn't show the feature because you're using a
generic MS driver instead of the full featured driver from
the manufacturer?
 
how can I turn on my machine(s) remotely?

WakeOnLAN looks good but my motherboards don't have it. Is there an
adaptor?

Any way / other way I can do this?

Preferably a cheap solution! But let's start with any solutions!
Click to expand...


I have an Asus motherboard from 2000 that has WOL. I really doubt that
yours does not. What motherboard do you have?

ss.
 
kony said:
A typical $4 Realtek NIC will allow this and is probably the
cheapest option.
Click to expand...

Hmmn, the motherboard has to support WOL as well as the NIC, no?

The earliest motherboard I have with WOL has no onboard NIC, and needs a NIC
with a wire that plugs into a header on the board.

ss.
 
Hmmn, the motherboard has to support WOL as well as the NIC, no?

The earliest motherboard I have with WOL has no onboard NIC, and needs a NIC
with a wire that plugs into a header on the board.
Click to expand...

At some point, maybe PCI revision 2.2, if PCI PME is enabled
in the bios (or always enabled if there is no setting), the
NIC does not need the wire connecting it to the mainboard.
PCI 2.2 boards were around in the (late, IIRC) Pentium 2
era, and thereafter.

Some board manufacturers may word the bios setting
differently than others, might be something like PME or
called wake on PCI card or something else, but essentially
meaning the same thing.
 
how can I turn on my machine(s) remotely?

WakeOnLAN looks good but my motherboards don't have it. Is there an
adaptor?

Any way / other way I can do this?

Preferably a cheap solution! But let's start with any solutions!
Click to expand...

There are two physical implementations of Wake on LAN. The old way
involved a cable that ran from the NIC card, to a connector on the
motherboard.

The second way, involves the PCI bus. The PCIsig committee, added the
PME signal to the PCI bus. It looks like it showed up in the PCI 2.2
bus spec, at least I see it mentioned at the beginning of the PCI22.pdf
document.

A motherboard will support one method of the other. A NIC card will
support one method or the other. If you have an old motherboard,
and wish to WOL, you would need the cable and the appropriate WOL
connector on the motherboard. If the motherboard has PCI 2.2 or later
slots on it, it won't have a WOL connector, so in that case you have
to find a NIC card that "supports PCI 2.2", as it will be using the
PME signal to wake the computer. In the BIOS of the motherboard,
there will be an option to enable PME, allowing any of the PCI
slots to be used as the waking source.

NIC cards can wake under a few conditions. Wake on Link will wake up
when the link lights come on. Which is not what you want. Wake on LAN
via Magic Packet, relies on pattern matching of packets, inside the
NIC chip. You need a small program on one computer, to be able to
send the packet to the other computer.

If you are doing this truly remotely, then there is the small issue
of getting a Magic Packet through the NAT "firewall" if you have
a router in your networking setup at home. I don't know how difficult
that is to arrange, what ports need to be opened to make that work,
etc.

This page, mentions http://www.remotewakeup.com/en/index.php and
you can see on that web page, they use UDP and port 9.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_packet

On the instructions page, they give a few more hints.

http://www.remotewakeup.com/en/instructions.php

HTH,
Paul
 
There are two physical implementations of Wake on LAN. The old way
involved a cable that ran from the NIC card, to a connector on the
motherboard.

The second way, involves the PCI bus. The PCIsig committee, added the
PME signal to the PCI bus. It looks like it showed up in the PCI 2.2
bus spec, at least I see it mentioned at the beginning of the PCI22.pdf
document.

A motherboard will support one method of the other. A NIC card will
support one method or the other. If you have an old motherboard,
and wish to WOL, you would need the cable and the appropriate WOL
connector on the motherboard. If the motherboard has PCI 2.2 or later
slots on it, it won't have a WOL connector, so in that case you have
to find a NIC card that "supports PCI 2.2", as it will be using the
PME signal to wake the computer. In the BIOS of the motherboard,
there will be an option to enable PME, allowing any of the PCI
slots to be used as the waking source.

NIC cards can wake under a few conditions. Wake on Link will wake up
when the link lights come on. Which is not what you want. Wake on LAN
via Magic Packet, relies on pattern matching of packets, inside the
NIC chip. You need a small program on one computer, to be able to
send the packet to the other computer.

If you are doing this truly remotely, then there is the small issue
of getting a Magic Packet through the NAT "firewall" if you have
a router in your networking setup at home. I don't know how difficult
that is to arrange, what ports need to be opened to make that work,
etc.

This page, mentionshttp://www.remotewakeup.com/en/index.phpand
you can see on that web page, they use UDP and port 9.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_packet

On the instructions page, they give a few more hints.

http://www.remotewakeup.com/en/instructions.php

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I didn't realise that WOL was PME (or perahps PME is a more general
term to include ps2 and usb wakeup). And I didn't realise that PCI
2.2 supported it. I'm actually using the onboard ethernet socket,
but I guess a comp with PCI 2.2 would support PME on that too.


I got it working locally with a command line program called wakeup (so
no router issues)
http://sysutil.googlepages.com/

And then from that link, which tested it remotely.

Regarding what ports. It seems to me, that the UDP 'packet' can reach
the NIC/NI with any UDP dest port. The NI just reads the MAC which is
in the UDP data, and sees if that MAC matches its MAC. It's like the
NI runs a server that does that, even when the comp is off.
The issue of which port to set is only relevant when doing it remotely
'cos the port that the remote computer uses has to be let through by
the router.

Oddly though, I can't get USB wakeup to work!
The BIOS said ps2 wakeup S3/S4/S5
usb wakeup S3

Is it the case that when a comp is off it's not S3 ?


BTW, when you said regarding PME

" A motherboard will support one method of the other. "

do you mean that all support one or the other, i.e. that all support
PME ?

all atx mbrds? (so one can't and couldn't go wrong)

pre PCI 2.2 were ATX MBRDs born with a header (the header method?)

(no doubt the old AT ones don't 'cos they don't have the 5VSB signal ,
which would go through ps2 or usb or i guess, the old coax style
ethernet - though they prob didn't have usb, and in the days of coax
ethernet, the sockets prob didn't wait for a magic packet either)
 
At some point, maybe PCI revision 2.2, if PCI PME is enabled
in the bios (or always enabled if there is no setting), the
NIC does not need the wire connecting it to the mainboard.
PCI 2.2 boards were around in the (late, IIRC) Pentium 2
era, and thereafter.
Click to expand...

thanks, that was exactly what I needed to know. Amazing how this
feature is so universal - with PCI 2.2, yet still MBRDs are made that
don't allow booting from USB !!

<snip>
 
Thanks!

I didn't realise that WOL was PME (or perahps PME is a more general
term to include ps2 and usb wakeup). And I didn't realise that PCI
2.2 supported it. I'm actually using the onboard ethernet socket,
but I guess a comp with PCI 2.2 would support PME on that too.
Click to expand...

PME stands for "Power Management Event" and is more than just Wake
On LAN. Other kinds of cards can use it as well.

The onboard NIC on my motherboard, is connected to PME. For peripherals
that are included with the motherboard, it is like they have their own
PCI slot, so they get to enjoy the same features as the slots have.

The equivalent feature on PCI Express slots is called "Wake"
(I only learned of that a couple days ago). I haven't seen
a BIOS entry that has anything to do with "Wake", so it is possible
both PME and "Wake" are controlled by the same BIOS function.
Apparently, electrically, Wake and PME are not supposed to be
connected together.
I got it working locally with a command line program called wakeup (so
no router issues)
http://sysutil.googlepages.com/

And then from that link, which tested it remotely.

Regarding what ports. It seems to me, that the UDP 'packet' can reach
the NIC/NI with any UDP dest port. The NI just reads the MAC which is
in the UDP data, and sees if that MAC matches its MAC. It's like the
NI runs a server that does that, even when the comp is off.
The issue of which port to set is only relevant when doing it remotely
'cos the port that the remote computer uses has to be let through by
the router.
Click to expand...

Sounds reasonable. You need something unique to use for Port Forwarding.
Oddly though, I can't get USB wakeup to work!
The BIOS said ps2 wakeup S3/S4/S5
usb wakeup S3

Is it the case that when a comp is off it's not S3 ?
Click to expand...

S3 is Suspend-To-RAM. In that state, the RAM maintains its contents (via
self-refresh) and the RAM is powered by +5VSB rail. The same voltage that
lights the green LED on Asus motherboards.

It is not clear to me, why PS/2 and USB waking functions are not uniformly
available on every motherboard. I think the functions exist in the logic,
but sometimes the BIOS seems to be a little low on features.
BTW, when you said regarding PME

" A motherboard will support one method of the other. "

do you mean that all support one or the other, i.e. that all support
PME ?

all atx mbrds? (so one can't and couldn't go wrong)

pre PCI 2.2 were ATX MBRDs born with a header (the header method?)

(no doubt the old AT ones don't 'cos they don't have the 5VSB signal ,
which would go through ps2 or usb or i guess, the old coax style
ethernet - though they prob didn't have usb, and in the days of coax
ethernet, the sockets prob didn't wait for a magic packet either)
Click to expand...

I guess I could have made that a bit clearer. What I meant was, there is
no reason for a motherboard to have both the three pin WOL header, and
the PCI 2.2 PME signal. A motherboard designer would either put the three
pin header, or would support PCI 2.2, but not both. Every penny counts when
designing motherboards, so if they could save the $0.05 on a header, then
they'd remove it.

Similarly, you may have trouble finding a NIC card, that has both a WOL
interface, and supports PME. They could do it, but I don't recollect off
hand, a card that has both. You could find an old NIC, that would not
drive PME, but would have the three pin connector. On a new NIC, the header
would be missing, but the PCI interface would support PME. So you have
to buy a NIC which matches the method on the motherboard.

Paul
 
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