Wake on Lan help

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boostinu13

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#279885 15-Nov-2020 08:24

Hello I would like to add Wake on Lan to my home computer to access it from work without just leaving it on.

I have watched a few videos and read a few forums with no luck.

I have -

A static IP

Computer hooked up by ethernet cable

Computer goes to sleep/hibernate

Vodafone Ultra Hub.

GA-78MLT-USB3 6.0 Motherboard

So far I have

- Network Sharing -> change adapter settings -> config -> Power ->Allow all the options. I only have a Ethernet network connect option, no local area or anything. See hidden files is on.

- On the router the only thing I have done is gone to settings -> Lan -> Added Static DHCP - Home Network. The IP address I used in this option was the IPv4 found from ipconfig.

I believe it is on in the BIOS I could not see a direct WOL option, just a wake up from radio broadcast.

Any help would be amazing. I am not great with this stuff.

Thank you.

cyril7

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#2603971 15-Nov-2020 08:31

hi, so does it wake when you try connect to it from within the home lan?

Also I see you have not mentioned if you have a port forward, or do you have some vpn tech not mentioned, the ultra hub supports none of use.

How do you intend to remote access the machine, if not done correctly you can create serious security issues for yourself.

Cyril

boostinu13

31 posts

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#2603972 15-Nov-2020 08:34

cyril7:

hi, so does it wake when you try connect to it from within the home lan?

Also I see you have not mentioned if you have a port forward, or do you have some vpn tech not mentioned, the ultra hub supports none of use.

How do you intend to remote access the machine, if not done correctly you can create serious security issues for yourself.

Cyril

Hello and thank you for the reply. I use pulseway and yes that does wake it when I am on the home network (had not set anything up besides the app/programme and no static IP).

I have not port forwarded as that is a foreign concept to me (heard but never done). Not sure what I would actually enter into port forward. No VPN here.

I just want to use an app to turn the pc on, and then either use plex web based or Team viewer to connect which I use currently if I leave the PC on.

Thank you.

cyril7

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#2603974 15-Nov-2020 08:40

Hi, not farmiliar with pulseway, but I presume you have it somehow stimulate traffic to the pc to wake it, how do you intend pulseway to do the same from outside the network, as it has no way into the lan to create traffic to wake the machine.

Sorry but a little unsure how you are using this pulseway monitoring app remotely and a little unsure how you can cause it to wake the machine unless its running on another machine in the network that you have remote access to in advance to cause it to wake the machine in question.

Cyril

boostinu13

31 posts

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#2603975 15-Nov-2020 08:44

cyril7:

Hi, not farmiliar with pulseway, but I presume you have it somehow stimulate traffic to the pc to wake it, how do you intend pulseway to do the same from outside the network, as it has no way into the lan to create traffic to wake the machine.

Sorry but a little unsure how you are using this pulseway monitoring app remotely and a little unsure how you can cause it to wake the machine unless its running on another machine in the network that you have remote access to in advance to cause it to wake the machine in question.

Cyril

Pulseway is just a general app. I have it installed on my computer and the app on my phone. If the pc is asleep and i am on the same network it can wake it.

For WOL outside of my home I will use any app suggested

cyril7

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#2603978 15-Nov-2020 08:53

Hi, got it, so you will need something inside your lan to achieve that, based on what you have I have no idea. If it were me I would simple ssh into my network via a port forward and tickle the machine with a ping, but in your case you might expose your network, so I would not recommend that unless you know what you are doing.

Other question is why not leave the pc on all the time albeit with the monitor slept, or better move the plex server to a low power solution such as a NAS that can run 24x7 and not consume too much power.

Cyril

BarTender

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#2603986 15-Nov-2020 09:59

If you don’t know what you’re doing then you can quickly expose your internal network to the internet which can be very dangerous and quickly get you malware or viruses.
Easiest and safest way is to have a raspberry Pi or similar running OpenVPN or WireGuard as a VPN app. Then you can port forward the VPN port to your Pi from the internet. Then VPN in and on the Pi run etherboot or wol or similar wake on lan app to wake them up.
That is exactly how I do it, and getting a functional VPN into your internal network is the first step.

ANglEAUT

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#2604394 15-Nov-2020 21:29

To quote Wikipedia:

The magic packet is sent on the data link layer (layer 2 in the OSI model) and when sent, is broadcast to all attached devices on a given network, using the network broadcast address; the IP-address (layer 3 in the OSI model) is not used.

Years ago, I read somewhere ... (& see Wikipedia article above)

WOL / magic packets are broadcast on the local network
The local router / switch will know which port this MAC address is connected to
The magic packet is concerned about the MAC address, not the IP address

For you that means, you can't send the WOL packet from your mobile phone / work computer to wake your home PC. These two are not on the same local network as your home PC. WOL packets can't travel across the IP based internet.

Follow BarTenders advice & set up a RPi, etc, etc ...

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boostinu13

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#2604519 16-Nov-2020 08:14

Is that not only a dynamic ip? But with a Static you can wake form anywhere? I see people waking up their computers from everywhere not just their homes.

I have no idea what half of these things are, all I wanted to do was turn my computer on from work lol.

cyril7

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#2604529 16-Nov-2020 08:25

Hi, regardless of static or dynamic public IP assignment you can still by one means or other be able to contact your router and vpn or port forward into the network to awake your machine, unless you are on CG-NAT.

As mentioned depending on how you do it you can compromise security. Regardless you will require a device inside you network to be active 24/7 to then be somehow signaled or contacted by a remote service to awake a device in your network.

Cyril

ANglEAUT

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#2604939 16-Nov-2020 19:54

The Wikipedia article does mention Wake on Internet and lists 3 options. Option 1 is the one explained by BarTender & would be the easiest to implement. Options 2 & 3 require an advanced router and / or firewall plus the knowledge to configure these.

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richms

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#2604958 16-Nov-2020 20:25

A friend had some sucess with a port foward to the broadcast address of the network to wake things up by sending them UDP with the magic word in it, but it was very unreliable compared to being on the lan. We suspect it was somethign to do with the nat in the router not handling a one way UDP stream very well and it making a table entry for someone else who had scanned that port so that the next one from him wasnt able to get thru. He gave up and ran a raspi instead.

The other option is a USB device across the power button, or a PCI card with the same idea. uses ewelink to activate and simulates a power button press. If you have a free pcie 1x slot I would go that way since its 100% reliable in my testing, and also shows the on or off state in the app.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001290377849.html is like the ones I got, but there are others now with an actual antenna on them instead of that silly sticker one that you cant stick to metal and still have work.

Richard rich.ms

ANglEAUT

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#2604968 16-Nov-2020 20:41

boostinu13: ... I have no idea what half of these things are, all I wanted to do was turn my computer on from work lol.

Welcome to the wonderful 🤪 world of computers.

Let's try this

Your PC is powered off / asleep. It does not have an active IP address that you can ping in this state
To wake your PC, it must receive a magic packet
This magic packet operates at layer 2 (Data link) of the OSI model. See further down for a simple explanation.
The magic packet sender broadcasts on your local network that machine with MAC address XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX must power on
Other machines on the network disregard this magic packet, either because they don't understand it (i.e. don't know what Wake on LAN means) or if they do understand WOL, don't have the correct MAC address
Your PC receives the magic packet, sees the MAC address matches & sends a power on signal to the mother board

=====

As per the OSI model

Layer 4 = Transport:
Layer 3 = Network : the data about networks, i.e. their configuration & how to reach other hosts & networks
Layer 2 = Data link : The electrical impulses travelling down the wires with minimal data encodings
Layer 1 = Physical : the metal of the wires & chips constituting the network, i.e. all the things you can touch

Now, either you have a device on your local network that can send out the broadcast of the magic packet (as explained by BarTender or your mobile phone on the same Wi-Fi / home network). Or you have a router / firewall that is programmed to receive special network packets from the internet on a specific port / channel. This router / firewall then strips out all of the non-relevant information & broadcasts the magic packet on your local network. For both options, you will have to make sure that you can contact your home network when out there on the internet

All of this boils down to

Can you access your router / firewall from the internet? For you to test & configure
Can you configure your router / firewall to forward packets into your home network? For you to test & configure
Can your PC accept a magick packet? Yes, you have proven that by using the app on your phone when connected to the same local network

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MurrayM

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#2605203 17-Nov-2020 08:54

ANglEAUT:

Let's try this

...

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

A few years ago I managed to get it working. I used an Android app called Wol Wake on Lan Wan to do the actual waking up and then Teamviewer for the remote connection (although I wouldn't recommend Teamviewer these days, but that's another story). But there are lots of apps/software that can send the Magic Packet that's needed to wake up the computer (note that you need to send this Magic Packet, you can't just send any old traffic to wake up the remote PC, so just pinging it as previously suggested won't work!)

First I had to enable WoL in the PC's BIOS and then enable it again in the network card settings in Windows.

Next, since the remote PC didn't have a static IP from the ISP, I set up Dynamic DNS so I could access the remote computer without knowing it's IP address.

Finally I set up the router to handle the Magic Packet. I can't remember exactly what I did on the router, but I think I set it up to port-forward port 9 to the MAC address of the remote PC. When you use whatever app you're using to send the Magic Packet you have to tell the app which port you want to use, and obviously it must match what you've setup in the router.

You need to get all of these steps working, if just one fails then the whole thing will fail.