Hmmm... it's (fairly) easy within a LAN but I suspect that over the Internet - whilst theoretically possible - this may prove to be difficult, if not impossible.
Here's a few things to check/consider, based on my own experience of getting 'Wake-On-LAN' working on a LAN:-
- Typically, PC's are woken from 'Standby' (S1,S3 state), not 'Hibernation' (S4 state). My understanding is that 'Standby' responds to modem and network interrupt requests (and some peripherals) but 'Hibernation' may not respond unless you are using the specialist tools that network admins use to manage PCs centrally. (See
for more info.)
- Check in the BIOS for any 'Wake-On-LAN' entries and make sure they are activated.
- Within Windows, check the properties of the NIC and ensure that power-saving on the NIC is NOT enabled (as this prevents 'Wake-On-LAN').
- Note that your NIC and or mainboard, if more than a few years old, may not even support 'Wake-On-LAN'
- Check also that any checkbox marked "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby" is enabled (ticked).
- Check that your software firewall, if any, is configured to let the Wake-On-LAN "Magic packet" through. If you are using a hardware firewall, i.e. router then any WOL broadcast or "Magic Packet" is going to be hitting this, not your PC. See
which describes exactly what you are trying to achieve over the Internet.
- Note that your ISP may filter UDP broadcasts or Wake-On-LAN "Magic Packet".
- Test that your 'wake up' setup works (several times) before you go on your trip.
- If you get any problems, have a look at
- If you need a method of sending a 'Wake-On-LAN' "Magic Packet", have a look at
for Wake-On-LAN tools and/or
for WOL.EXE, another freeware utility that sends WOL packets.
- If you are going to wake a PC up then I guess you're going to need a way to shut it down again.
Hope this helps...