Wake-on-Lan (WoL) is both a hardware and software solution to allow a computer to be woken up remotely.

Much like a modern television set, a computer that is Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) compliant can be turned on remotely, note that while you can currently only turn your television set on from within a certain distance WoL allows you to remotely start a computer from anywhere in the world, that is as long as it has an internet connection.

WoL works by sending what’s called a “magic packet” (no joke). When your PC shuts down, the NIC still gets power, and keeps listening on the network for a ‘magic’ packet to arrive. The basic premise is that a specifically formatted packet send over a network is send to every network card and identifying features in this packet allow the network card to identify that the magic packet is intended for it. All the other cards therefore reject or rather dispose of the packet. It is analogous to standing in a crowded room of people and shouting out somebody’s name, where nobody in the room has the same name, although everybody would hear you hopefully the only person to answer would be the person who’s name you have just called out.

This only works with network cards and motherboards that are Wake on LAN compliant. For more information on this and links to download the software check out:

• http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/wake-on-lan-gui.aspx
• http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/what-is-wake-on-lan.aspx
• http://www.hackernotcracker.com/2006-04/wol-wake-on-lan-tutorial
• http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/jpo/software/wakeonlan/mini-howto/

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