Network activity constantly waking pc from suspend

[infamous_panda]

I have been searching the web for the past two days for any to help achieve what I am trying to do. Here goes;

I have an older pc that I wan't to use primarily as file server to centrally store, photos, music, movies, work files. Additionally this machine will also be used to occasionally run some design software, and browse the internet. There are 3 other computers in the house and soon to a PS3 and two media extenders/streamers (popcornhour or appletv with xbmc/boxee).

Here is my dilema. I really like the idea of the having this pc go to S3 suspend after a few minutes of inactivity. It does this perfectly fine... however after a few seconds the computer always comes back to life negating alot of the energy savings I am trying to achieve. Now the event viewer list that that the wake is caused by the onboard Nvidia Network Adapter. I realize that I can enable the "only allow management stations to bring this computer out of standby" option and require the sending of a magic paket to wake the machine up. I have tried this and the system does stay asleep. But this would be a cumbersome option just to access some shared folders, and not possible (I think) on the PS3 or popcornhour to wake the server.

The machine seems to wake at any random signal from the network, even if it is not directed to it. Is there some way to filter out this noise so only direct requests to access files would wake up the machine? Is what I am trying to do not possible?

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Infamous_Panda


Below is my setup

Server/workstation machine running Vista64 Ultimate

Asus P5N-e SLI, 4GB Ram, Nvidia 7600GT PCI-1, 75GB WD Raptop Sata, 1 TB Seagate Sata, 400GB Seagate Sata X2

Networked Devices

Time Warner Roadrunner cable modem
D-Link DIR-825
D-Link 5 port gigabit switch (forget which model)
3 laptops running windows xp usually 1 wired and the others on wireless

 

[00Roush]

I believe I used to have a similar problem when I first started using standby on my server. From what I recall it was being caused by computers trying to communicate with the server and make sure their network share lists were up to date. I can't remember exactly but I think I was able to solve the problem by turning off NetBIOS over TCP/IP. This cuts down on a lot of unnecessary network traffic from what I can tell. Computers are then only accessible by IP address. For example, instead of accessing "MYSERVER" you would access 192.168.0.2 from your other computers.

I bet your server is being woke up by one of the other computers trying to access it. Could even be your router trying to access it. You could test it out by disconnecting all of the computers and then reconnecting them one at a time to see which one might be waking up your server.

00Roush

 

[infamous_panda]

Well, the NETBIOS stuff is all checked off by default on my router settings. and it seems it is not even installed as a service when I check the properties of my network connections for the three computers. Please excuse me if I am refering to the wrong items. I am fairly new to all of this. I have tried unplugging every device except the PC and the router, and the same thing still happens.

I have not been able to find much information on this. The closest most relavent thread I came across was a posting in AVSforum from early 2007. The person was able to solve a similar problem as mine by switching to a different brand router. That certainly has came up as a possible option albiet one that would be costly. The other issue I have is that there is no garantee that whatever I replace it with will not behave the same way.

The other idea I came across was to have the server pc put into its own subnet. But that is beyond my understanding now.

I really am surprised by the lack of information on this sort of setup. Even with the higher power consumption of the PC vs a Nas that is runing 24/7, I am sure you would see comparable if not superior savings by having it suspend frequently on only power up when requesting a file. Not to mention that you can buy a full pc for the price of a high performance NAS.

Thank you for your reply, If anyone has any other ideas on how to troublshoot this further, they would be very much appreciated.

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Infamous_Panda