wake on lan cable

[ZippyDan]

i remember in the past that wake on lan for a add-in NIC card used to require a 3 pin cable from the card to the motherboard

i now see most NIC cards claim to support wake on lan, but there is no cable

is this now handled by the motherboard/bios? the motherboard knows if an expansion card is a nic and will continue to supply power if WOL is enabled in bios?

 

[theevilsharpie]

i remember in the past that wake on lan for a add-in NIC card used to require a 3 pin cable from the card to the motherboard

i now see most NIC cards claim to support wake on lan, but there is no cable

is this now handled by the motherboard/bios? the motherboard knows if an expansion card is a nic and will continue to supply power if WOL is enabled in bios?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoL#Intel.2FAMD_based_PC

Older motherboards must have a WAKEUP-LINK header onboard connected to the network card via a special 3-pin cable; however, systems supporting the PCI 2.2 standard and with a PCI 2.2 compliant network adapter card do not usually require a Wake-on-LAN cable as the required standby power is relayed through the PCI bus.

PCI version 2.2 supports PME (Power Management Events). PCI cards send and receive PME signals via the PCI socket directly, without the need for a Wake-on-LAN cable.

 

[ZippyDan]

followup question. does a motherboard expressly have to support wake-on-lan for it to work? or only the NIC card? i have some PCs here that have onboard LAN but no option of WOL in the bios. if i install a WOL PCI NIC, will WOL work?

 

[JackMDS]

Yap, the motherboards suppose to support it via the PCI slot.

In the past most Motherboard did not support it.

Presently most Mobos do.

However it is a tricky issue when it come to End-Users.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2137443


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