Wake on WAN possibilities?

[ahwman]

Like many, I'm not a big fan of the noise, heat and extra electricity consumed by my HTPC when it's not recording or streaming especially since it's 5 feet away from my bed. That said, I have it set up for hybrid sleep which seems to be working relatively well with one exception. As of yet, I haven't found a good solution to wake up my machine over WAN since my router does not support broadcasting which rules out magic packet over WAN. The only other option I could think of is to enable wake on pattern match which does allow me to wake up my HTPC remotely using the companion app, however this is also causing erroneous wake up's. Has anyone else found a better solution?

[giggitygoo]

I wish I could reply with a "yes." I've been researching this problem for months, as I also like to leave my HTPC in S3 when not in use. I am currently using a router without DD-WRT that doesnt' support broadcast WoL. The best I can come up with is a separate, re-purposed DD-WRT router that I leave on inside my network that redirects WoL packets to the HTPC. (No, I don't want to use that one as my actual router) I'm not really enamored with that solution, and have been hoping to find something better. The wake on pattern match would be perfect if only it was configurable! I don't understand why that's hardcoded to ARP/NetBIOS broadcasts in addition to packets addressed specifically to the IP. If there was any way to have that pattern match only wake the system for specific IP-addressed packets and ignore the broadcasts, it would be a good solution. Alas, I don't think it's possible.

[ahwman]

I wish I could reply with a "yes." I've been researching this problem for months, as I also like to leave my HTPC in S3 when not in use. I am currently using a router without DD-WRT that doesnt' support broadcast WoL. The best I can come up with is a separate, re-purposed DD-WRT router that I leave on inside my network that redirects WoL packets to the HTPC. (No, I don't want to use that one as my actual router) I'm not really enamored with that solution, and have been hoping to find something better. The wake on pattern match would be perfect if only it was configurable! I don't understand why that's hardcoded to ARP/NetBIOS broadcasts in addition to packets addressed specifically to the IP. If there was any way to have that pattern match only wake the system for specific IP-addressed packets and ignore the broadcasts, it would be a good solution. Alas, I don't think it's possible.

I believe I found a solution to this situation, at least for me. By accident, I found that if I leave a device on full time (Apple TV in my case - which only uses 5 watts of electricity) connected to my router, wake on WAN works perfectly. So, if you have a low powered IP device which you can leave on 24/7, this may present another option for you...

[giggitygoo]

I'm not sure I understand. Why would leaving a different device on all the time make the router forward broadcast WoL packets from WAN to LAN? Did you make any changes besides just leaving your Apple TV on? Thanks for the reply.

[ahwman]

I'm not sure I understand. Why would leaving a different device on all the time make the router forward broadcast WoL packets from WAN to LAN? Did you make any changes besides just leaving your Apple TV on? Thanks for the reply.

I'm by no means a network expert, however what I believe is happening here is that by having an IP device connected to the same router as your PC 24/7 keeps the router from flushing the DNS table. That's why If you try to wake up your PC over WAN 5-10 minutes after entering sleep, it will fail because the router is no longer aware of your PC's IP since it's been flushed by the router. In my case, simply leaving my Apple TV on full time and sending a magic packet over WAN works perfectly no matter how long my PC has been asleep. All I know is it works for me and I've tested it over the last few weeks...

I hope this might be helpful to you...

[Motz]

i am adding WoL to the next versions of the app.

[foxwood]

I'm by no means a network expert, however what I believe is happening here is that by having an IP device connected to the same router as your PC 24/7 keeps the router from flushing the DNS table. That's why If you try to wake up your PC over WAN 5-10 minutes after entering sleep, it will fail because the router is no longer aware of your PC's IP since it's been flushed by the router. In my case, simply leaving my Apple TV on full time and sending a magic packet over WAN works perfectly no matter how long my PC has been asleep. All I know is it works for me and I've tested it over the last few weeks...

I'm not expert either, but I'm pretty confident that that explanation is booooogggguuuuuuuusssssss!

[milli260876]

I've got fixed IP addresses for my PCs and they don't wake up... Figure that one out?
You sure you're not in pattern match wake? Or not in s3...?

[rabbit1543]

Sending magic packets to a broadcast address should only be needed if you have multiple pcs on your lan that you wish to WOL. This is currently what i do with my dlink dir655. You should be able to port forward to your htpc ip address.

[barnabas1969]

Sending magic packets to a broadcast address should only be needed if you have multiple pcs on your lan that you wish to WOL. This is currently what i do with my dlink dir655. You should be able to port forward to your htpc ip address.

That's not correct. The reason a WOL packet needs to be sent to the broadcast address is because your router/switch might not still have the routing information for the PC in its routing table. Sending a WOL packet to a specific MAC address will work sometimes, but not all the time. The WOL should be sent to the broadcast address (e.g. 192.168.1.255) so that the packet is sent to all ports on all switches. This guarantees that the correct NIC receives the WOL packet. Only the PC whose MAC address is in the WOL packet will wake.

[ahwman]

I'm by no means a network expert, however what I believe is happening here is that by having an IP device connected to the same router as your PC 24/7 keeps the router from flushing the DNS table. That's why If you try to wake up your PC over WAN 5-10 minutes after entering sleep, it will fail because the router is no longer aware of your PC's IP since it's been flushed by the router. In my case, simply leaving my Apple TV on full time and sending a magic packet over WAN works perfectly no matter how long my PC has been asleep. All I know is it works for me and I've tested it over the last few weeks...

I'm not expert either, but I'm pretty confident that that explanation is booooogggguuuuuuuusssssss!

Well then, either I am a liar or it's working for me, take your pick foxwood... BTW, it's amusing to me that you start your statement with "I'm not an expert either" and conclude it with "I'm pretty confident". FYI, I found this technique from someone who does happen to understand this topic well and the bottom line is that it has been working for me. Got a better idea, please share it with us...

[foxwood]

The fact that it works consistently for you doesn't mean that your explanation is correct.

Your Apple TV isn't causing your Router to keep your PC's MAC address in it's lookup table - that's the bogus part. If your Apple TV is sending out the magic packet, it's sending it to a broadcast address, and the switch is doing exactly what it is told to do - broadcast the request to all connected devices. The switch doesn't need to know which port the PC is plugged in to for this to work.

[ahwman]

The fact that it works consistently for you doesn't mean that your explanation is correct.

Your Apple TV isn't causing your Router to keep your PC's MAC address in it's lookup table - that's the bogus part. If your Apple TV is sending out the magic packet, it's sending it to a broadcast address, and the switch is doing exactly what it is told to do - broadcast the request to all connected devices. The switch doesn't need to know which port the PC is plugged in to for this to work.

How about this, I could care less about the technical explanation. It works for me and it's something that others can try. Are you okay with that?

[barnabas1969]

When I first tried it without setting up a broadcast address, it worked for a day or two and then quit.

Eventually, the router or one of the network switches between your PC and router will flush the MAC address table and your WOL won't work at that point. Sure, it's OK to try it... but don't expect it to be reliable.

[ahwman]

When I first tried it without setting up a broadcast address, it worked for a day or two and then quit.

Eventually, the router or one of the network switches between your PC and router will flush the MAC address table and your WOL won't work at that point. Sure, it's OK to try it... but don't expect it to be reliable.

For whatever it's worth, it's been working perfectly for me for the last month or so. I guess I just got lucky. Hopefully it may help somebody else.

[foxwood]

How about this, I could care less about the technical explanation. It works for me and it's something that others can try. Are you okay with that?

You can believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny for all I care. I'm not saying that Wake on WAN isn't working for you, I'm saying that your understanding of what is making it work is wrong.

Of course, there could be some weird bug in the firmware of your router that is making it do something that is totally off the wall, and does in fact match with your explanation. But as you haven't told anyone which buggy firmware you're using on what buggy router, that isn't going to be much help to anyone else, because everyone else with proper firmware that is written to spec won't be able to take advantage of this purely hypothetical bug.