Wake On LAN

Introduction to WOL

• Wake on LAN (WOL), sometime called Remote Wake Up, is an Ethernet computer networking standard that allows you to turn-on a power-off computer or wake-up a sleeping or hibernating computer from another location over a network connection. WOL works by sending a special message or signal over a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet, to trigger power-up of a computer on a private LAN.

Purpose of Using WOL

The main purpose of using WOL is to save electric energy. You can save your electric bills with using WOL, and your PC is more secure from hackers when it is off. Bellow are some example of using WOL.

• You want to be able to access your home computer anywhere at anytime you want, but you don't want to through money away for your computer that has to be turned on all the time. You want to turn it on when you want to use it and shut it down when you are done.
• You may want to access your home PC from work or your work PC from home, you might want to turn it on and get access to your files remotely, and then shut it down when you're done.
• You want to access your files on your computer at home while you are traveling.
• A technician may want to perform schedule and maintenance tasks without physically visit each computer on the network.

Implementing WOL can help you to achieve some of the above goals.

Implementing WOL

Bellow are some of the steps required to implement WOL technology including hardware requirement, enabling WOL, installing utility software, and testing it on a network.