How to remotely turn on PC?

[mattbirk]

I'm sure there are plenty of ways, how do people remotely turn on their PC? I have RDP setup at home, but when I leave my computer turned off when I go to work, it doesn't do me much good...

Is there some way with Wake on LAN? I don't have a static IP address, but it stays the same for long periods of time, so I know it 9 times out of 10...

Any ideas how I would be able to do this?

 

[mattbirk]

I was looking at my NIC properties, and it says Wake On Lan is enabled with Magic Packet, and I downloaded a program called Wake On LAN-Magiv Packet, where I insert the MAC address, IP address (public), subnet mask (I don't know my public subnet), and the remote port number, which is 7 and I have port forwarded port 7 to my internal IP address of 192.168.1.107...

The thing about this program is I have no idea if it is taking my settings or not, when I hit the 'Wake Me Up' button it does nothing, so no errors but still no confirmation. Doesn't seem to wake up the remote PC either...

any ideas?

 

[lunatic59]

I was looking at my NIC properties, and it says Wake On Lan is enabled with Magic Packet, and I downloaded a program called Wake On LAN-Magiv Packet, where I insert the MAC address, IP address (public), subnet mask (I don't know my public subnet), and the remote port number, which is 7 and I have port forwarded port 7 to my internal IP address of 192.168.1.107...

The thing about this program is I have no idea if it is taking my settings or not, when I hit the 'Wake Me Up' button it does nothing, so no errors but still no confirmation. Doesn't seem to wake up the remote PC either...

any ideas?

First thing I'd try is to ping into your router from and external location. If your ISP is assigning you random IP's from a pool, I don't think it will route back to you from the WAN.

 

[mattbirk]

Hm, no replies from the ping...but I used to host a website at home with this ISP, and a dynamic IP, had to use a port other than 80 but it was only for personal use anyways...

 

[johnlgalt]

I use No-IP to assign a static hostname to my dynamic IP.

No-IP - Dynamic DNS, Static DNS for Your Dynamic IP

Then, depending upon your router, you'll either need to set up a IP and post that allows you to send specific protocol requests to specific IPs on your network, or else enable a specific protocol via a virtual server (which is really the same thing, just named differently).

Then, you'll finally be able to test the magic packet function of your NIC.

I also highly recommend that you attach this computer to a UPS of some sort if you're going to do this - it's pretty easy to have a violent thunderstorm 5 miles away from your current location and you may never know. Also, it would help in case the power went out at your home - the connection would still be going (provided everything required to maintain the link is on that UPS - computer, modem, router, etc.

last but not least is the protocol you want to use - you already have RDP so you'll want an RDP app on your phone - I use Xtalogic's Remote Desktop myself, but I've heard good stuff about a couple of others as well.

 

[mikedt]

I'm sure there are plenty of ways, how do people remotely turn on their PC?

I use a nine foot wooden pole myself, can remotely turn the PC on from anywhere in the room, same goes for the lights as well. It's not fancy, it's not very techy, but it certainly works.

 

[johnlgalt]

I knew someone would try to make a joke out of this....

 

[SUroot]

To limit the cause of failure, try to get it working internally (LAN) first

 

[andruoid]

I knew someone would try to make a joke out of this....

Something like this;

Using a modem, call up the remote PC and say "Hey there, had your HDD formatted lately, how about a RAM upgrade or are you into dual-booting?"

 

[belly]

and always connect locally first..try troubleshooting by using various ports while testing by pinging. once you get the response, set up a Dynamic DNS Hostname .. . NO-IP is great as John said, I use DYN.com

Hope this Helps

 

[alostpacket]

I used to do VNC over SSH but it made me too nervous to have anything like that running.

*shurg* I know I'm security paranoid. But my life's work is on my PC for the most part.

Though I guess that's why I'm working on backup plans

 

[DeepEmissions]

dyndns.org is what I use, same as dyn.com and you just say you want to use the free version and, depending on what router you have, you will have to set it up accordingly. when I get home, I'm at work, I will look up my settings and post them here.
Hint: you cannot wake a PC if your not on the exact same network. I use WoL Wake on LAN WAN App, when my phone connects to my network, it automatically starts the WoL app and sends the Wake packet to my PC. by the time I get to my room and sit down, my PC is booted and waiting for me.

The only way that I know of to remotely wake a PC is to remote into a PC that is on that particular network already and send the WoL packet from there.

Edit: the above statement is false, read next post by Johnlgalt

 

[johnlgalt]

I think you're missing what I was saying.

Using an RDP app on my phone when I'm away from my home network I use my No-IP address to route to my router, which then forwards me to my computer, which then get woken up via 'magic packets' so I can log in.

So, since I'm actually doing it I feel comfortable in saying that it works remotely.

 

[mattbirk]

Do I need a domain name and I can't find the free version of dyndns.org, which is now dyn.com...

I have a domain name, so my GoDaddy nameservers are already pointing at the host...

I used to use afraid.org when I hosted the website at my house using a port other then 80 since it was blocked...is that similar?

Does dyn.com give you a free name to use to map it to the IP address?

EDIT: I created my NO-IP account, so now I need to find a hostname...still looking

 

[mattbirk]

Ok, I have my hostname setup with No-IP, have the client installed, and pinged my hostname which did match up with the correct IP address, but it said the request timed out...

So I am confused as to if I am able or am not able to remotely turn on my PC...

From one's point of view I could setup my netbook to be always on and reachable via RDP, then power on the PC I am trying to power on remotely from the netbook?

Or does someone else have a way to power on a remote PC from another network?

THANKS!

 

[johnlgalt]

Now you'll need to set up your router to forward the particular request that you're sending to your computer's IP address.

If you're just doing the wake up thing then you'll need to pick a port for it to receive magic packets on that you can then configure in your router to forward requests on that particular port to your computer's IP address, and depending upon your router, you can use the same port internally or use a different port internally.

I use RDP so it is all built into that, and I have a virtual 'server' port assigned to RDP that forwards all RDP traffic on the standard RDP port to my computer.

I've actually toyed with setting up multiple RDP profiles in my app, using different ports, to route to different computers on the network but have as yet to implement that.

What kind of router are you working with? And is the computer you want to wake up hardwired (via Ethernet cabling) or connected via wireless? If wireless, does your motherboard support WOL through wireless? And in Windows have you set the wireless connection to never turn off?

 

[mattbirk]

Ok I successfully have RDP setup through the router to port forward to my internal PC: 192.168.1.107 port 1389.
192.168.1.107 is the same PC I want to be able to power on remotely, from a seperate network. What port should I choose for the magic packet, and TCP, UDP, or both?

Router is Cisco/Linksys WRT110, computer is hard wired, and Magic Packet is enabled on the network interface...does it also have to be done through BIOS?

 

[alostpacket]

An aside question here: is it possible to have RDP only listen to local network traffic?

 

[DeepEmissions]

@Johnlgalt This is why I love this forum, I always learn something. Honestly I was un aware that Magic Packet sending was capable via remote host, but technically you asking the local router to WoL your PC, which is simple, once you have you RDP setup correctly. Currently Mattbirk posed and interesting PM, he could not find dyndns dot org to be free of charge, even though I know of a minecraft server, a forum, and my RDP to be hosted through this site, for free... I'm wondering if they "Xed" the free version in exchange for a $20.00/year subscription (which BTW most ISP's will give you a Static IP for the same price, then dynDNS service is useless.) Anyone have any onfo on this???

 

[DeepEmissions]

An aside question here: is it possible to have RDP only listen to local network traffic?

What exactly do you mean? It is possible to remote into another PC locally using RDP, if that is what your asking. We use it all the time at my work, that and DameWare MRC. But DameWare is costly when RDP is free!!!

 

[dylo22]

Ok I successfully have RDP setup through the router to port forward to my internal PC: 192.168.1.107 port 1389.
192.168.1.107 is the same PC I want to be able to power on remotely, from a seperate network. What port should I choose for the magic packet, and TCP, UDP, or both?

Router is Cisco/Linksys WRT110, computer is hard wired, and Magic Packet is enabled on the network interface...does it also have to be done through BIOS?

Yes, you should do it through bios also. Go into network or power management settings of bios to make sure it's enabled. Most modern motherboard/bios should support this.

On your router you should forward port 9 UDP to your computer's internal ip address.

Before doing it remotely, you should test to see if it work locally.

 

[dylo22]

An aside question here: is it possible to have RDP only listen to local network traffic?

Don't forward any ports on your router and it'll only listen to local network traffic.

 

[mattbirk]

Yes, you should do it through bios also. Go into network or power management settings of bios to make sure it's enabled. Most modern motherboard/bios should support this.

On your router you should forward port 9 to your computer's internal ip address.

Before doing it remotely, you should test to see if it work locally.

Ok, I will try to test tonight after work or tomorrow and see what I get locally.

any recommended programs to send the magic packet...does it matter which one I use?

thanks for the suggestions, I will let you know if I got it to work locally or not

 

[dylo22]

Ok, I will try to test tonight after work or tomorrow and see what I get locally.

any recommended programs to send the magic packet...does it matter which one I use?

thanks for the suggestions, I will let you know if I got it to work locally or not

I used this when I had it setup up a few years ago. It works fine on Win 7. I'm sure there are other free ones out there. It doesn't matter which one you use, they all do the same thing.

WOL - Magic Packet Sender - Free Windows Software

 

[mattbirk]

Ok, I actually had that one downloaded already...
subnet is 255.255.255.255, correct? I have all the other information, just need to forward my router to port 9 and enable magic packet/WoL in the BIOS.