Wake on LAN is a great way to remotely boot a PC by simply sending a signal over the wire to tell the PC to turn on and boot. In many cases, this WAKE ON LAN technology is used by IT staff to perform remote upgrades and other activities, typically done on a local area network.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use TZO along with the WAKE ON LAN technology to remotely boot a PC over the Internet. This can be useful if you want to access a PC but do not want to leave it online at all times. Once you need access to the remote PC, you can send the signal to boot the PC and then remotely control the PC, gain access to files, perform maintenance, and then tell the PC to shut off again until needed.

** BEFORE YOU BEGIN: This tutorial was written to guide you through the basics of setting up Wake On Lan technology on your home or small business network. We use a Linksys router as a guide since they are so popular and readily available.

** !IMPORTANT SUPPORT AND SECURITY NOTICE **

The information in this article is provided 'as is' for 'expert use' only, and is not covered by TZO Support. While at this time there are no known security exploits for Wake on LAN (WoL), TZO advises the extra security provided by closing the port forwarding to the broadcast address when it is not needed. This approach does mean you toggle the port forwarding on and off before and after each wake event, but this is the more secure configuration.

SERVER SETUP - Step 1) Setup your PC's network Adapter to Wake On Lan
The first part of this tutorial will be to setup your PC and enable the WAKE ON LAN option in the BIOS. Go into your system settings, typically by pressing the F1 Key immediately after booting the PC. the WAKE ON LAN option is typically located in the NETWORK section of the PC's BIOS. Review your user manual for your PC to enable the WAKE ON LAN option. Once you enable this, save the BIOS settings and reboot.

ROUTER SETUP - Step 2) Login to your Linksys Router
In this example, we are using a Linksys BEFSR41 router and our PC is hardwired (not wireless) to the Linksys BEFSR41. Due to the fact that the Wake on Lan port needs to be forwarded to the BROADCAST address on the network, we need to make some changes to the Linksys BEFSR41 router configuration. We will set the linksys router to use a netmask of 255.255.255.128, allowing us to forward the Wake on Lan port to the broadcast address of 192.168.1.127

IMPORTANT! - In order to work properly with the Linksys router, we need to make a few changes to the network setup and IP configuration on the router. These changes can cause other PC's on the network to STOP working if they are assigned static IP addresses. If your PC's are set to DHCP, a simple reboot will solve this issue.

Opening ports in your Linksys router is very easy. You first need to log into your Linksys router. Log into the router by going to http://192.168.1.1 and using your username and password to log into the router as shown in the screenshot below:

(The Linksys default username and pw is blank/admin as shown below)

Once you log into the router, Find and Click the APPLICATIONS and GAMING link in the top menu as shown circled in the screenshot below. Your router may look slightly different, but most Linksys routers now have all port forwarding within the Applications and gaming menu.

Once you get into the APPLICATIONS and GAMING menu in the router, you will see a list of ports, and IP's as shown in the screenshots below.

ROUTER SETUP - Step 3) Adding Ports into the Applications and Gaming Menu in the Linksys Router
In the Applications and Gaming menu, add in the "WOL" name within the Application field.
exactly as shown below. Then add in the Start port of 2304, End port is 2304, UDP for protocol and make sure the IP address is set to the broadcast address of the router. In this case, we used 192.168.1.127. Now make sure the port range is enabled. Scroll down and click SAVE SETTINGS to save these settings. You are now done with the port forwarding. Double check your settings before moving to the next step.

ROUTER SETUP - Step 4) Signing up and Enabling the TZO.COM Dynamic DNS in your Linksys router
Make sure you already have a TZO account, or if not, you are at least signed up with a trial account **If you do not have a TZO Key and Domain Name selected, sign up for a free Linksys branded trial domain at http://www.tzo.com/Linksys and you will then see the screenshot shown below.

Select the type of Linksys device you are using, in this case a router, and click NEXT as shown below. You will then be prompted to enter your choice for a domain name (and enter the email address you wish to use. Once you click the NEXT button after entering your email, TZO will then immediately send your TZO Domain Name and TZO key to the email address you used.

IMPORTANT: *** CHECK YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS NOW TO GET YOUR TZO KEY ***


Once you have your TZO Key, Domain name and Email address used written down or available from your email, log into your router by going to http://192.168.1.1 and using your username and password to log into the router. (default username is blank and password is admin)

Once you are logged into the router, click the DDNS link in the lower left of the menu as shown circled in the screenshot below:

You will now see a screenshot similar to the one below. This is the DDNS section of the router. You should enable the TZO Dynamic DNS service, and then input the Domain Name, TZO Key/Password and Email Address/Username into the router DDNS setup. Click Save Settings at the bottom of the page. You now have setup the TZO DDNS properly.

This domain name is good for 30 days for your use and testing. After 30 days the TZO Dynamic DNS service will expire. You can purchase the TZO standard Dynamic DNS service for this domain name at https://www.tzo.com/cgi-bin/Orders.cgi?ref=linksys before it expires. When ordering, use the domain name and the same email address you used when signing up.

The TZO Dynamic DNS is now monitoring your IP address of your broadband connection. If your IP address changes your TZO Dynamic DNS running in your router will then update the TZO DDNS servers. You can now go to the last step and start using your TZO Domain name to power on your PC over the Internet!


ROUTER SETUP - Step 5) Changing your network setup within the Linksys Router
Now that we have the DDNS and port forwarding setup, we need to change the configuration of the Linksys router to enable forwarding packets to the broadcast address of 192.168.1.127 as we set earlier. You should now go to the main setup page of the Linksys router titled BASIC SETUP (this is the default page you come to when you login)

Once you are in the basic setup, scroll down until you come to the NETWORK SETUP section. We are going to change the SUBNET MASK of the router from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.255.128 as shown in the screenshot below. Pull down the network mask and change it to 255.255.255.128 and then click save settings. If you do not do this, Wake on Lan will not work. By default, Linksys routers cannot forward to the broadcast address if the netmask is 255.255.255.0, so we must change this for this to work.

IMPORTANT: If you have PC's on your network that use DHCP, you MUST reboot these PC's in order for them to communicate with the router. This is due to the netmask change. For any PC's using Static assignments, you must make sure that the netmask is set properly and that the Static IP's fall within the new IP range of 192.168.1.53 to 192.168.1.126




SERVER SETUP - Step 6) Setting a Static IP on your server
Now that we have the router setup, the last step is to setup a Static IP on your system you wish to boot remotely and also jot down the MAC address of your network adapter that has Wake On Lan enabled. Since we changed the netmask of the router, we need to set a static IP using certain values in order for the PC to communicate on the LAN. Follow these instructions on setting the Static IP on your system so it works properly with the new netmask we set.


SERVER SETUP - Step 7) Determining the MAC address of the Wake on Lan Server
Now that we have the static IP setup on your server, we need to determine the MAC Address of your local LAN adapter that we enabled WAKE ON LAN. To find the MAC address, open a dos prompt as shown in the Static IP tutorial linked above. Once you open the DOS window, type "IPCONFIG /ALL" (without the quotes) and hit enter

This will bring up some information about your network adapters on the local system. Look for the section that shows your new IP address of 192.168.1.52 and find the MAC ADDRESS (its known as the PHYSICAL ADDRESS) as shown circled in red in the screenshot below. Your MAC address will be different from what is shown below - write this down and save it - you will need this to send the remote power on signal from you Laptop or other PC.




Client SETUP - Step 8) Downloading the Magic Packet utility
Now that we have the router and server setup to handle Wake on Lan, we need to download the AMD Magic Packet utility from here

You should install this on your laptop or other PC that you wish to use to SEND the wake up signal from. For example, if your "server" is at home and you wish to wake it up from work, you would install this utility on any PC you wish to send the "wake-up" signal from. This means installing it on your laptop that you use at work.


Client SETUP - Step 9) Using the Magic Packet utility to wake up a PC
You should now leave the location where the "server" is located and perform all of your tests from a remote location. Having a friend or co-worker at the server can help you troubleshoot while you are sending the remote wake on lan signals.

You now must run the Magic Packet utility. Keep in mind that the install package does NOT put this in your program files folder or in the start menu, you'll have to locate the final manually. Default install of the Magic Packet utility is in the c:\pcnet\magic_pkt folder - Open this folder and locate the MAGPAG.EXE file. Run this file by double clicking on it and you will see a screen similar to the one show below



Client SETUP - Step 10) Sending a Magic Packet to your remote host

In order to power on the remote host, we need 2 things. The DOMAIN NAME you selected when you signed up with TZO (such as YourName.tzo.net) and the MAC address of the PC you wish to remotely boot.
Click the MAGIC PACKETS menu as shown in the screenshot below and select POWER ON ONE HOST



You will now see a dialog box as shown below. This is where you enter in the TZO DOMAIN NAME you selected for the remote location, and then enter in the MAC ADDRESS/DESTINATION ETHERNET ADDRESS as shown in the dialog box below. The MAC address is the one we wrote down and saved from the server in step 7. Once you click SEND, this sends the magic packet over the Internet to the remote domain name and will instantly boot the PC!




That's it! You can setup other port forwarding rules for accessing the PC for tasks like remote desktop or any other application you wish to use once the PC boots.

SECURITY TIP: Leaving the port forwarding enabled to the broadcast address in the Linksys router may not be the best idea when you are not using the Wake On Lan technology. This is because someone can use this to push a DOS attack (Denial of Service) to your local network. In order to remotely enable or disable this, you can enable the REMOTE MANAGEMENT of the router in the ADMINISTRATION section. Once you enable remote management, you can then remotely gain access to the router via a browser, log in and enable the port forwarding to 192.168.1.127 only when you need to remotely boot a PC. Once you have sent the signal, you can log back into the router and disable this for security purposes.

Important!: Keep in mind that if you enable remote management in the router that you should change the admin password of the router to a safe and secure password!