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

Some of the purposes of using WOL are:

1. saves time.
2. Saves electrical energy.
3. Saves money on electricity bills.
4. A PC is more secure from hackers when it is off.
5. Allows users to turn on and shutdown PCs remotely, etc.

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.

Hardware Requirements

A PC which supports WOL is required to enable WOL technology. Hardware requirements for WOL includes:

• NOTE: Most PCs today have the following specifications built-in. You may check in the BIOS Power Management to see if your PC supported WOL or not.

1. An ATX power supply that meets ATX 2.01 specifications.
2. An ATX motherboard with an onboard 3-pin WOL connector, and a network card that can support WOL with its cable to the motherboard properly installed. Most motherboards today has a built in NIC and support Wake on LAN functionality.

Example Lab

In this lab, I will walk you through the steps of enabling WOL, installing utility software, and testing it on a local area network. I used a PC and a laptop which both connected to a cisco switch. the switch connected to a router. I enable WOL and Remote Desktop Connection on the PC, and used the laptop to turn on the PC, and then connected to the PC using Remote Desktop Connection.

Hard ware of the PC

A PC which supports WOL is required. In this lab, this PC will be called "target PC". Hardware requirement for this PC includes:

1. An ATX motherboard with an onboard, 3-pin "WOL" connector.
2. A network card that can support WOL with its cable to the motherboard properly installed.
3. In the BIOS Power Management, you must enable the LAN Wakeup option.
4. An ATX power supply that meets ATX 2.01 specifications.

Most PCs today have the above specifications motherboards that have a built in NIC and support Wake on LAN functionality.