Wake on Lan

[comedydave]

Probably going to get shot down in flames here.

But we have a series of machines here which don't seem to support WOL natively through thier BIOS.

Is it possible to allow this via a 3rd party utility, or are we going to have to replace the machines/mainboards?

[sharkster]

i dont think its on the mainbaord (may be wrong) i always thought the WOL util is on the network carddevice,

[comedydave]

i dont think its on the mainbaord (may be wrong) i always thought the WOL util is on the network carddevice,

 

I am pretty sure its managed by the mainboard. If the mainboard can't interpret a request to turn on by the NIC, it won't work.

 

And in that I think I may have answered my own question, and i'm therefore 99% sure this will not be possible

 

(anyone know an answer in the 1%)

[Joanne]

I always thought it was all in the bios... you could try flashing to the latest one maybe?

[enjay]

It is board-related, as the board needs to keep a bit of power running to the NIC in order for it to pick up the wake-up signal. If your boards don't do that, I think you're probably on a loser.

[mac_shinobi]

As per above bios update / flash.

 

If not am prolly wrong in saying this but what about a dedicated NIC or would you still require the mainboard to support WOL ?

 

If so then yes to mainboard replacements.

[DMcCoy]

You need support from the Card, Motherboard and OS

 

If it's onboard NIC it should support it, make sure it's enabled in the NIC driver settings on windows too. Although there should be a mention of it in the bios.

 

If its not onboard then you need a WOL connector on the card and MB.

[Geoff]

The bios needs to support it. If there is no onboard nic, you also need a WoL capable NIC card + the cable to connect it to the WoL socket on the mobo.

[mac_shinobi]

The bios needs to support it. If there is no onboard nic, you also need a WoL capable NIC card + the cable to connect it to the WoL socket on the mobo.

 

thats handy to know

[Geoff]

This the cable, if anyone needs one.

 

http://www.a2zcomputerproducts.com/info.asp?StockCode=NWC/WOL

[comedydave]

Ok everyone, thanks for your responces.

Thinking outside the box now (quite literally)

 

Is there such a device that can accept the wake on lan signal and activate a trip switch?

 

Perhaps it sits inline of the power supply and cat 5, and as a wake on lan signal passes through with its MAC, it activates the power?

[srochford]

You need support from the Card, Motherboard and OS

 

If it's onboard NIC it should support it, make sure it's enabled in the NIC driver settings on windows too. Although there should be a mention of it in the bios.

 

 

I think it depends on what you want to wake from. If you want to wake from standby then you need OS support. If you just want to wake from power-off (Windows shutdown) then you don't need the OS (it's not running so it doesn't get involved until long after the WOL stuff has been processed)