How To: Wake on LAN / Wake on WAN

[Jeroen1000]

Honestly, WOL works great if you have the correct gear. If you start 'hacking' or using workarounds you NEED tcp/ip knowledge and know what you are doing. All the tricks (one which I just learned today) and knowledge appears to be present here. The only thing I would like to remark is that you have to keep in mind WOL is a layer 2 technology. It has nothing to do with IP-addressess.
Wake on wireless lan is also possible, giving you have the correct gear.

For wake-on-wan (over the internet), I first tried my lan's (which only has 1 subnet) broadcast address. As expected, the router refused to flood this to the subnet. A good thing that is, because it imposes a security risk. Those willing to accept that risk should, in my opnion, be provided with the means to alter this behaviour. But nonetheless, a router IS supposed to seperate broadcast domains so it is working as intended. So the thing the router is NOT doing here, is allowing IP-directed broadcasts. Higher-end gear does allow this but I'm betting those who use it, do not have their WAN directly lead to the big bad internet.

I was lucky enough my Speedtouch modem/router allowed adding static ARP entries. This won't mess up your lan if you make sure to assign a fixed IP to the computer whose MAC-address had been added to the router's ARP table. If the computer is allowed to DHCP freely, and another IP-address corresponds to the same MAC-address in the ARP-table, mayhem will occur. Instead of directing the magic packet to the broadcast address, you can now direct it to the static IP-address of the computer you wish to wake up (more on this later!). After all, the router does not have to ask 'who has ip x.x.x.x' in order to obtain the correct MAC-address: it already has this mapping in its ARP table. As already mentioned in this thread, if the mapping is dynamic, it will get cleared after some time. In some routers this time can be adjusted though, but usually not to prolong it indefintely. This clearly shows the dynamic nature of the mapping. Once it is cleared, WOL over the internet will not work any longer.

Instead of directing the magic packet to the broadcast address, you can now direct it to the static IP-address of the computer you wish to wake up (more on this later!)

I have earlier said, IP-addresses have nothing to do with WOL, which might make my above quote look seemingly untrue. I will now clarify this. IF I were to choose a random IP in my subnet (it doesn't even have to be assigned to a computer) and direct/forward the magic packet to that random IP (which would of course have to contain a valid MAC-address), the computer with the static IP-would also wake up given I have paired a valid MAC-address with this 'ghost'IP:

Say the static IP is 192.168.1.10. And the random IP is 192.168.1.200. If I make a static entry with the random IP and the MAC of the computer having the static IP, the WOL will also work (and that may very well be all what would still work haha). This should illustrate the IP-address is not used for WOL itself, it is here, however, used find out the MAC-address.

The underlying problem is that many people are now want a bite of enterprise applications. And manufacturers have not caught up to these wishes yet. The Speedtouch can do it because its firmware is based on way more expensive devices and this is sort of a telnet hack (as there is no way to add static MAC parings via the gui). If you want easy sailing, it will cost some money. Or you could look for alternative firmware like DDWRT, which provides a page with a 'WOL-button' and, if I'm not mistaken, can be configured (through SSH) to allow IP directed broadcasts. But in that case you need to be at easy with flashing your router and perhaps, if done wrongly, bricking it.

I hope my ramblings have been somewhat informative to future readers. Do slap me on the head if I missed anything. I did do my best to provide correct information!

 

[R.G.]

You probably have it right, far as I can tell. You understand it better than I do, certainly.

That being said, my button pusher seems to be working fine. For the cost of a web-enabled I/O board, I get eight soft buttons, and the limits on how I can reach it on the net and what security provisions happen are easy to set outside the controlled machines. It's completely out of band, with all the promises of joy and misery that statement contains. It's electrically isolated. It controls the power supply of the system(s) directly.

And just as importantly for me, it works for the couple of motherboards I have that do not support WOL.

 

[Jeroen1000]

Do you have pictures of it? I'm about to read your blog as those things do sound interesting. I actually have one station that I can't wake up because of a stubborn (consumer grade) router. The ARP table's aging counter does go to 4 hours so I make it auto wake up (via a BIOS timer) at 8 am and auto power down at 8:10 am. If I need it after 12 am I'm kind of out of luck lol.

 

[R.G.]

I'll post pictures on the blog as I get it tested out.

Here's the basis for the remote:
Wiznet's WIZ220IO embedded web remote I/O module.
This module gets you eight digital outputs, eight digital inputs, and some analog I/O in one module with its own internal web server for $35. That's a price drop, by the way. Mine cost nearer $50 a few weeks ago.

The actual button pushing uses the digital outputs to activate the LED part of an optoisolator, like the the Vishay K815P. The Wiznet digital output is hooked through a resistor to the LED side, the output is connected across the actual front panel switch contacts in the controlled computer.

After that, all you do is tell the embedded web page to turn on #3 (for instance) then turn it off again. Number 3 is presumably set up to run the power on switch of a controlled box.

The web server in the WIZNET is modifiable, although I have not yet gotten it running beyond using the default page. With a bit of customization, the internal server would present a better view of what's happening. What I want to do is glom the digital inputs onto an internal logic signal in the controlled servers as a kind of "I'm here!" signal the box keeps up. That would let me check whether the thing was active or not through the net.

 

[Unregistered]

Verizon (Actiontec) GT704WGB static ARP

I followed the advice previously posted on this thread about using telnet to send the IP and MAC address information to my router's ARP table. When I logged into my router, the address of the computer I wanted to wake remotely was already listed. I put that computer to sleep manually, and sure enough in about 2 minutes the IP and MAC listing for that machine were flushed from the router, and sending the wake (magic packet) failed to wake that computer. I used the ARP ADD command to create a new IP and MAC entry for the computer I wanted to wake remotely, and this time it worked! It seems that the IP and MAC address I entered when the machine was offline became static. I noticed when I used the ARP SHOW command in telnet that the flags for this new entry were 0x6. The previous flags were set to 0x2. I shut the computer down overnight, and when I checked my router's ARP table, it hadn't flushed my entry! My computer woke up as entended! Here is the simple procedure. I used my iPhone and another machine on Windows. You can use any telnet platform.

Telnet 192.168.1.1 (my router's address - yours might be different)
(Enter your router's login)
(Enter your router's password)
ARP ADD 192.168.1.65 00:00:00:00:00:00

Enter the IP and MAC of the machine you want to control. Make sure that machine is OFFLINE and its address is not already listed in the router's ARP table.

Just to test this procedure, I set another computer I have to wake remotely and it worked perfectly, too! Hope this helps. Thanks to all contributors.

DA

 

[Unregistered]

I have a sky netgear router, and it doesn't support WOL outside of the LAN.

I read somewhere you can make WOL work on any router by using the following technique:

Plug a hub (not switch) into the router.

into the router plug in the pc and a device that is going to be left on 24/7, (a voip adaptor, anything with a IP and low powered.)

as there is a device that is always going to be left on, port forward to that devices IP (this will never be flushed)

as it is connected to the hub as well as the PC the router will send the magic packet to the hub, and the hub will in turn send the packet to the other devices (PC) and should wake it up.

I however have not got this working yet!

it does sound like it could theoretically work though

 

[Unregistered]

Need AMD utilities for wake-on-lan

Is there anyone who has the AMD utilities (mc-wol.exe, and AMD's Magic Packet Utility) mentioned in this article? If so, please send me a copy to: bchen726@gmail.com, thanks.

 

[mikepfly2]

Dell 8300 Wake On Lan WOL Issues

I'm reviving an old thread because this WOL stuff is driving me nuts (many, many hours invested) and hoping someone might be able to help.

I've attached screenshots of key information here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/117475...00WOL?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO-M_I3u8LOGCg

Using a new Dell XPS 8300 Windows 7 Pro x64
To keep it simple, I'm not using a router. I'm plugged directly into my Comcast Motorola SB5120 modem. (Once I get it working directly with the modem I'll use a Tomato or DD-WRT based router).

The frustration is that it works sometimes. I think I have all my settings correct (see screenshot link above). I have the magic packet sniffer and it gets my packet that I send from my Android phone (using 3G, so it's a WAN connection).

When I shut down my machine, if it sits for approximately 10 minutes or less the magic packet will turn on my computer. However, if I leave it off over night and try to start it in the morning sending the same packet code from my Android phone it won't work. I'll manually turn it on, run the packet sniffer and it shows any new packets I send (my IP didn't change or anything).

Other details:
Ensured BIOS "Wake on Lan from S4/S5" is enabled. Confirmed Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet Properties “Wake up Capabilities” are set to Both and “WOL Speed” is Auto. Also confirmed the Advanced Power options in windows for the PCI Express is set to Off (although not sure why windows settings would affect my NIC). NIC driver version Broadcom 14.2.0.7 from 7/20/2010.

Is there some other green setting I'm missing? When I leave it off over night I ensured the LAN lights were blinking so the NIC is on before sending the magic packet but it doesn't matter. I can only assume it's a power saving feature somewhere that I can't locate.

I'd appreciate any help. I travel for work and really want this to work. Thanks in advance.

 

[dreid]

TW100 Simplifies Wake on WAN

Check out our review of the TrendNet TW100.

(http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/security/security-reviews/31696-trendnet-tw100-brv214-reviewed)

A cool feature in this router is it has built in Wake on LAN. You can set up the router for remote access and then use its built in Wake on LAN feature, which simplifies and improves the reliability of Wake on WAN.

 

[toke lahti]

I wish this article would get an update. The trend in recent years with consumer grade routers is that broadcasting from outside into internal NATted network is blocked.
Since I have decided, that I won't buy current 3 year old model of Airport Express and there might not never be a new one, it would be very useful to know what routers have "built in Wake on LAN" and what don't.
Maybe SNB could add this feature to their router charts?

 

[System Error Message]

mikrotik routerOS has wake on LAN built in and you can trigger it via a script and some firewall rules so you dont need to sent a magic packet over WAN, rather just send normal traffic that you set in the firewall and script.

but you can also route things from outside too if you dont mind dealing with randoms. RouterOS is known for its dynamic routing which lets it do things that other routers cant when it comes to routing.

 

[toke lahti]

mikrotik routerOS has wake on LAN built in and you can trigger it via a script and some firewall rules so you dont need to sent a magic packet over WAN, rather just send normal traffic that you set in the firewall and script.

but you can also route things from outside too if you dont mind dealing with randoms. RouterOS is known for its dynamic routing which lets it do things that other routers cant when it comes to routing.

Yep, now I know at least 2 models out of thousands that will handle WoW.
Btw, you being senior here and all..., would you hapen to know if there would be ready compiled wol-command somewhere available in the depths of interweb, that I could put to /usr/sbin/ in my Zyxel P-661HNU-F1 ?
I'm not sure what 3rd party OS can or should be installed to this gadget, but I wouldn't mind saving few days of nerdy activites, if I could just install one command to its present Zyxel supplied OS (which I guess is some kind of compact version of linux).

$ uname -a
Linux P-661HNU-F1 2.6.20.19 #42 Mon May 20 01:43:14 PDT 2013 mips unknown
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo                     
system type: AR9
processor: 0
cpu model: MIPS 34K V4.12
BogoMIPS: 222.00
wait instruction: yes
microsecond timers: yes
tlb_entries: 16
extra interrupt vector: yes
hardware watchpoint: yes
ASEs implemented: mips16 dsp mt
VCED exceptions: not available
VCEI exceptions: not available

 

[System Error Message]

i have a zyxel too and by default i dont think wol is implemented in firmware but i hope openwrt can run on yours.
Its best to do wol on the router because wol uses layer 2 so it will not work over layer 3 or higher networks. It should be possible to make a script that does wol when there is incoming traffic from WAN but its not possible to script it from LAN unless you use your router as a core bridge of your network.

It might be possible to add scripts and some linux based software to the router but it can be complicated. A lot of these firmwares are only a few megabytes big that they do not have many things often required.

 

[espalmer]

Just my 2 cents.... I tried various things and finally settled on Waka Server / Client. Very simple and clean design works on everything from XP to Win 10. Allows me to "hold" server awake while clients do their business. I know most folks keep their file servers 24/7 but I am a treehugger and DTE costs $$$.

I did not write this code nor do I receive and compensation from the author of this freeware, but they have my gratitude.

https://code.google.com/p/waka-htpc/downloads/detail?name=WakaServer_v0.61.zip&can=2&q=