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'Wake on LAN' feature on my NIC card. How does it work?

R

rnmcd

Platinum Member
I called the manufacturer (US Robotics) and they didn't know 'for sure' how it worked.

I connected the NIC card to my motherboard's Wake-on-lan cable connection.

How do I 'wake' my PC from other computers on the network?
 
If I had to guess I think my problem could be that my power supply might not have at least 600mA ATX standby current to enable the WOL feature.

Do most power supplies have a standby current?
 
i believ that this side of it id down to the motherboard it will eitehr draw a current or not usually set via jumpers or the bios. look for a enable WOL in ya manual if its a recent mobo then it will hav eeither a jumper or be in the bios.

 
I have the WOL cable connected and the mobo bios WOL feature enabled but I still can't get the PC to wake.

I have read different explanations of WOL and some say that it will only wake PC from Standby and others say that it will only start a PC from when it is fully powered off.

Any more info?
 
In modern ATX Motherboards (as long as the computer is plugged into a live outlet) still supplies power to certain part of the system.

WOL thus fore can be power the computer from Off. It does not need to be on standby.

Read the Links above!
 
Thank you JackMDS. I think we posted at about the same time because I didn't see your reply until after I posted my response.
 
AMD does some software called Magic Packet which is available on their website. I've used it successfully before to wake things up.
A good indicator of whether or not it's going to work is the lights on the back of the NIC - if they're still on when the system's off it's theoretically possible. If they're off, it's almost certainly impossible.
 
Look around for programs that send a "magic packet" (no kidding, that's what they call it).

www.dslreports.com has something on their tools page to send this, for example.

It's any Ethernet frame with a certain sequence at the END that the MAC controller in the NIC interprets specially and signals a wake-up. Obviously, the NIC's PHY and MAC need to be on to do this, and thus the NIC mostly has to be on. Remember though that ATX systems don't like to turn all the way off, the PCI bus remains powered unless you cut off at the power supply or cord.

I'm not sure if I agree with previous comments that the LEDs must be on. If I were designing for maximum power savings, I'd just not power the LEDs on while in almost-but-not-off mode. In any case, this is a NIC dependent issue.

Also, not all NICs support Wake-on-LAN, and not all NICs that support it actually get it right. If you have a $5 NIC, it might not. And I do believe the exact same is true for your BIOS (not all do it, not all get it right), and you probably have to enable it in the BIOS power management configuration.
 
I can't seem to find the AMD Magic Packet to download. The AMD side has a couple of .pdf files but I can't seem to find the d/l.

Do you happen to have a link?
 
Do you know if the Wake On Lan Software is looking for the MAC Address and IP for the router or the PC?

Thanks.
 
The Magic Packet software calls for MAC the 'Destination Ethernet Address"...is that the NIC card?

Also, the 'getmac' command in DOS gave me two MAC addresses? Any idea what the two are for? I've tried every MAC address I could find and nothing seems to work. I went through my mobo bios again and checked the WOL cable connection--everything looks fine.

I have downloaded 4 programs so far today to try to get the PC to wake from STANDBY. Is there anyway for me to diagnose where the bottleneck is?

I checked and my power supply does have the +5V Stand-By requirement.

Thank you very much JackMDS and all..........


 
Originally posted by: rnmcd
The Magic Packet software calls for MAC the 'Destination Ethernet Address"...is that the NIC card?

Also, the 'getmac' command in DOS gave me two MAC addresses? Any idea what the two are for? I've tried every MAC address I could find and nothing seems to work. I went through my mobo bios again and checked the WOL cable connection--everything looks fine.

I have downloaded 4 programs so far today to try to get the PC to wake from STANDBY. Is there anyway for me to diagnose where the bottleneck is?

I checked and my power supply does have the +5V Stand-By requirement.

Thank you very much JackMDS and all..........
Click to expand...

To answer my own questions: Yes, the Destination Ethernet Address is the NIC. My two MAC addresses are: NIC and firewire cards.

I still CAN'T get the PC to "wake" from STANDBY.
 
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