Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 3 down vote favorite
1

So here is my current network setup: There is a central 'Cisco' router for the apartment. I connect wirelessly using an old router of mine (WRT54Gv2) with DD-WRT installed as a client to the central wireless network.

My router, using DD-WRT, supports dynamic dns and the like (and I'm open to that solution).

So, I would like to send a magic packet to my client router (or to the central router, if that isn't messy) to wake up my computer remotely, so that I can access it when I'm not at home.

I have an ASROCK|P67 EXTREME4 motherboard with support for Wake-On-Lan. The computer would automatically boot into an Ubuntu 11.10 that I would tunnel into using ssh or for graphical usage something like VNC.

share|improve this question
I have been trying to figure this out literally for a few years, but have not been able to figure it out with my DD-WRT and Linksys routers. – dpollitt Oct 6 '11 at 1:32

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

WOL packets need to be issued from the network the machine to be woken is on. They are sent to a MAC address and so cannot be routed across networks - they cannot be forwarded by routers from one network to another. Is the dd-wrt router on the same network as the PC?

If so, you could issue the wol packet from the dd-wrt router

share|improve this answer
Did something similar to this with an ASA-5505. Basically, you manually add the mac/ip address pair to the router arp table so the powered down system is findable by ip and then send the magic packet to the actual assigned ip address, not the broadcast address. I can light the system over VPN from 3000 miles away. – Fiasco Labs Oct 6 '11 at 2:40
Oh really? That is interesting! So you have the arp entry statically defined. And you issue the wol packet to 10.1.1.1 from wherever, it gets routed all the way to the ASA, then the ASA looks at its arp table and sends the WOL to the mac it has for 10.1.1.1? Clever. You should add this as an answer, as it wasn't exactly what I was suggesting and is a great idea. – Paul Oct 6 '11 at 3:59
up vote 2 down vote

Wake-On-Lan packets cannot be routed (they work on local network only, routers won't pass them through.

However, according to Wikipedia article on Wake-on-LAN, there is such thing as "Subnet Directed Broadcasts", which, if supported by all routers along the path and by the target computer, could be used to send WOL packet across the router boundary. I highly doubt it.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.