Wake on WAN?

[hansolo77]

Anybody know of a program I can have my brother (in a different state) use to wake my home server computer up when he wants to watching something?  Wake on LAN utilities galore in the world, and they work great if you're physically on the same network, but he's not.  Any ideas?

[stigzler]

Doesnt it mainly depend on your mobo, bios and os?

Do you not leave your server running 24/7? There is a way to do it hans cos I set this up for a pliugin I made. Sadly, I cant remember how I did it and it was hit and miss. Think it uses the same system as wol aa essentially same thing... magic packed via the ethernet to the serever.sorry cant be more help

 

 

 

[tthurman]

Check this

[hansolo77]

I try not to have the server running 24/7.  It's in closet so it gets hotter than my regular computer even with the door of the closet open.  There's 24 drives in the thing so that alone makes it hotter than a standard computer.  Besides the computer getting hot, it also makes my bedroom hot.  In the summer time, I really don't want to come home to a bedroom in the 100's (Fahrenheit).  Also, the cost of having a computer on all day every day is expensive on the electric bills.  So I try to have the system go into standby when it's not in use within 10 minutes.  It works great most of the time, and I can easily wake it up from my computer or my Raspberry Pi (Kodi) when I want to access something on the server.  The problem is, right now it only wakes either on scheduled task, or via the Magic Packet sent on demand from other LAN connected devices.  My brother, living like 7 states away, can access the stuff I'm sharing on the server through Kodi.  But if the computer is in standby, he can't.  While locally I can wake it up from Kodi, he can't.  That's why I'm trying to find a solution that he can use.  It doesn't have to be INSIDE Kodi.. he has a computer, smart phone, iPad, etc.  If I can find some way for him to remote wake the server, that's what we're looking for.

@tthurman Reading that bit makes me wonder... all I have to do is open up the ports on the router?  That still doesn't sound like all I would need.  MagicPacket WOL requires the MAC address, to wake that SPECIFIC device on the network.  If I open up the ports, how is the remote client supposed to connect to my network to send the packet to the MAC?  It sounds like I'd need to have the computer on a DMZ and be 100% exposed to the internet, then all he'd have to do is send the WOL request to the MAC of the computer over the internet, causing every computer on the internet to verify if it is that address or not.  Seems like more work than necessary.  I wonder if there is a more simpler solution.  Like some kind of app that asks for input of the IP address and MAC.. in which case he would simply execute the command that connects to the IP address of my modem then through the router sends the request to the MAC.

Uhg I'm getting confused.  That's why I asked for help. 

[tthurman]

I'll start this off by saying I've never done this, but I wouldn't think it would be any different than a mac address based access list.  You basically allowing those ports to be open to pass traffic to your server.  The requesting nic will be inbound with an allowed mac address.  I would think you would need to use mac address access rights in your router (which I do anyway for extra security).  Naturally each router is different, but you should have the ability to allow network access at the mac address level.

You brothers computer (with the MAC of his NIC in your routers access list) sends the packet, the router allows his mac to pass the packet through (since it's in the allow table), and forward the specific ports to the server address on your local network.

Should be a fairly simple exercise, that will probably find collecting the mac addresses the most time consuming.

[hansolo77]

OK, so step by step then:

1 - Set my router to allow passing of ports that WOL uses to pass through to IP address of my server.
2 - Obtain his device's MAC address.
3 - Configure MAC Address filtering to block all but allow HIS MAC (I think I'm on block all already) and any other local MAC's.
4 - Put the server to sleep and test it.

Am I missing anything?  Suppose he's using his phone?  Do they have MAC's too?  And ideally he'd be using this on his Pi box running Kodi.. could his Pi's MAC be all we need?  Also, would I really need ALL MAC's as referred in Step 3, or just his?

[Kustom Kid]

That looks about right. You'll have to mess with your MAC filter settings to see how you need to set different things up based on how they connect (local area network, Wi-Fi, etc.) but you're on the right track. And his phone's MAC address will need to be added if you want him to be able to connect with that. All internet connected devices have a MAC address. If he's running an Android device go to Wi-Fi, Advanced Settings, and scroll down to get the MAC address. Godspeed!

[Adultery]

More importantly, you'll need to get no-ip or something since your IP address is most likely dynamic. Unless you mentioned that and I missed it, he would need to send that packet to a specific IP address, right? Your server IP on your LAN may be static, but it's not likely that your WAN IP is.

[hansolo77]

Heh, I use no-ip already.  Hopefully he can get through on a no-ip DNS rather than specifying an IP address directly.  That's how he's able to connect to my server now on Kodi, by pointing Emby to my no-ip DNS.

[Kustom Kid]

Doesn't Emby send a magic packet to wake the server automatically?

 

Also, check your NIC properties and make sure you have the box ticked to allow it to wake up the server.

[stigzler]

When you guys finally sort this, could you post a definitive how to guide as would be interested to see.

[hansolo77]

@Kustom Kid Emby will send a magic packet if you're using their client on a computer that is connected on the same network.  I've not been able to to use the wake system in the Emby Client on any other device (via Kodi, BluRay Players, etc).  As for the NIC settings, I have already done this, and it works fine for any "same network" connected devices.  I'm trying to figure out how to make it work via remote "different network" connections.

@stigzler You bet.

[Kustom Kid]

Right on. Just throwing the NIC thing out there because I wasted a few hours of my life troubleshooting a problem that was just a stupid box not being ticked. :-O

[hansolo77]

Ok, after hours of searching and experimenting, I've come to the conclusion that it won't work with my router.  A nice walkthrough and explanation of the steps in simple terms can be found here:

http://www.howtogeek.com/192642/how-to-remotely-turn-on-your-pc-over-the-internet/

Essentially, you need to port forward the UDP packet to the router's "broadcast address" (typically something like 192.168.1.255).  The magic packet that is sent contains the MAC address of the computer want to wake up, so don't have to worry about it waking up all of your computers.  The problem I have is that my router blocks access to that port and won't let me configure it.  This is a safety feature of a lot of home routers.  My only solution is to buy a new router which would support subnet broadcasting.  Either that, or install a generic 3rd party firmware that overrides that lockout.  I don't want to go that far.  Oh well.

[Adultery]

If it's DD-WRT firmware compatible it's worth it. The pros far outweigh the cons.

/my 2c

[hansolo77]

Yeah I already looked, my router isn't on their supported list.

[RIP-Felix]

You can pick up an old linksis WRT series router at the goodwill for ~$6. Not sure if dd-wrt for the one you find will have the specific features you want, but I'v done the firmware upgrade with no real issues. I keep one with DD-wrt around for testing or extending my network as needed (I got an Ethernet Through Powerline router that solved my connection issue, so I don't use it anymore, but it's good to have around).

[Draco1962]

Here is a link to the site Flashrouters.com. If you see a router with features you like using DD-WRT, buy it yourself and do the work yourself! I reference their site just to see what routers they are promoting for flashing as partof my comparison shopping. Buying from them will have you paying double what the router costs because you are paying them to do what you can easily do yourself. They do, however, have some good advice in various places on the blog so worth the read.