WoL over broadband internet -- How-To?

Hi! Thanks for reading.

There's a computer supporting Wake-On-Lan (WoL) about 20 miles away
that I occasionally need to administer remotely. The user sometimes
needs to turn this computer off, which makes it kind of hard for me to
connect to it. :-) The computer is connected 24/7 to broadband
internet through a DOCSIS cable modem, but it does not have a router.

What I want to do is be able to send a WoL magic packet to that
computer's Ethernet adapter to wake it up over the internet. I know
that if there were a router on that computer, I could send the request
to that router's IP address and have it forwarded to the Ethernet
adapter's MAC address to wake it up, but can it be done without? The
cable modem is connected directly to that Ethernet adapter via a
standard Cat.5 cable. The cable modem does not have a built-in router.
Here are some specs on the remote setup:

Internet IP address of the PC: dynamically assigned via DHCP; changes
occasionally
Cable Internet ISP: Charter Pipeline
Cable modem: Motorola/General Instrument Surfboard SB3100
Ethernet adapter: SMC Networks EZ-Card 1211TX 10/100 PCI adapter

The PC's BIOS supports WoL, and I have already verified that it
properly starts up from a powered-off state when sent a packet from
another PC via a crossover cable. The rest of the PC's configuration
should be irrelevant, as the only hardware I'm interested in
communicating with here is the Ethernet adapter.

I gladly welcome any suggestions. Thank you!

--
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Take a look at:

http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/

Look at W-o-L for Windows and maybe also the ASP/PHP components? I haven't
tried them but they seem worth a look.

Good luck.


"ToasterKing" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:081220032116582817%(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hi! Thanks for reading.
>
> There's a computer supporting Wake-On-Lan (WoL) about 20 miles away
> that I occasionally need to administer remotely. The user sometimes
> needs to turn this computer off, which makes it kind of hard for me to
> connect to it. :-) The computer is connected 24/7 to broadband
> internet through a DOCSIS cable modem, but it does not have a router.
>
> What I want to do is be able to send a WoL magic packet to that
> computer's Ethernet adapter to wake it up over the internet. I know
> that if there were a router on that computer, I could send the request
> to that router's IP address and have it forwarded to the Ethernet
> adapter's MAC address to wake it up, but can it be done without? The
> cable modem is connected directly to that Ethernet adapter via a
> standard Cat.5 cable. The cable modem does not have a built-in router.
> Here are some specs on the remote setup:
>
> Internet IP address of the PC: dynamically assigned via DHCP; changes
> occasionally
> Cable Internet ISP: Charter Pipeline
> Cable modem: Motorola/General Instrument Surfboard SB3100
> Ethernet adapter: SMC Networks EZ-Card 1211TX 10/100 PCI adapter
>
> The PC's BIOS supports WoL, and I have already verified that it
> properly starts up from a powered-off state when sent a packet from
> another PC via a crossover cable. The rest of the PC's configuration
> should be irrelevant, as the only hardware I'm interested in
> communicating with here is the Ethernet adapter.
>
> I gladly welcome any suggestions. Thank you!
>
> --
> <<Please remove the word "SPLAT" from either below address to use it.>>
> Email: private.php?do=newpm&u=
> Visit ToasterKingdom at http://SPLATtoasterking.tripod.com/


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In article <z5gBb.62$(E-Mail Removed)>, George
Hewitt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Take a look at:
>
> http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/
>
> Look at W-o-L for Windows and maybe also the ASP/PHP components? I haven't
> tried them but they seem worth a look.
>
> Good luck.

Thanks, George.

The problem is that I can already send WoL requests -- there's no
problem there. The problem is on the other end, at the PC that's
turned off. Only hardware is involved on that end to obey my requests
-- there is no router or OS running. I need to know if there's a way
the cable modem can forward the magic packet to the NIC's MAC address.

Thanks!

--
<<Please remove the word "SPLAT" from either below address to use it.>>
Email: private.php?do=newpm&u=
Visit ToasterKingdom at http://SPLATtoasterking.tripod.com/

On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 18:31:35 GMT, ToasterKing <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>In article <z5gBb.62$(E-Mail Removed)>, George
>Hewitt <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Take a look at:
>>
>> http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/
>>
>> Look at W-o-L for Windows and maybe also the ASP/PHP components? I haven't
>> tried them but they seem worth a look.
>>
>> Good luck.
>
>Thanks, George.
>
>The problem is that I can already send WoL requests -- there's no
>problem there. The problem is on the other end, at the PC that's
>turned off. Only hardware is involved on that end to obey my requests
>-- there is no router or OS running. I need to know if there's a way
>the cable modem can forward the magic packet to the NIC's MAC address.

The cable modem should pass through anything that comes in to its wan address.
If you use a management station command this should use the wan address and
provide the mac address of the target node (which, as far as I understand it,
doesn't know what its own ip address at that point, anyway) as part of the
command syntax.

fwiw, I have WOL from "outside" working on my lan, but it does have a router,
which I guess you suspect gives my lan an advantage wrt WOL.

/daytripper

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, daytripper
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> The cable modem should pass through anything that comes in to its wan address.
> If you use a management station command this should use the wan address and
> provide the mac address of the target node (which, as far as I understand it,
> doesn't know what its own ip address at that point, anyway) as part of the
> command syntax.
>
> fwiw, I have WOL from "outside" working on my lan, but it does have a router,
> which I guess you suspect gives my lan an advantage wrt WOL.
>
> /daytripper

Thanks, DT. I didn't expect the solution to be that simple. So all
that I need to do is discover the WAN IP address of that cable modem on
Charter Pipeline's network, and it can forward the request to another
MAC address on its LAN side (the target being the NIC in the
WoL-enabled PC in question). That should be easily remedied using the
modem's built-in diagnostics. I did not realize that the WAN address
on the ISP's internal network would be directly accessible from the
internet. Does such a WAN IP address typically change dynamically in a
commercial ISP setting, or is it normally static, based on the cable
modem's own MAC address?

Many thanks!
TK

--
<<Please remove the word "SPLAT" from either below address to use it.>>
Email: private.php?do=newpm&u=
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On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 06:22:42 GMT, ToasterKing <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, daytripper
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> The cable modem should pass through anything that comes in to its wan address.
>> If you use a management station command this should use the wan address and
>> provide the mac address of the target node (which, as far as I understand it,
>> doesn't know what its own ip address at that point, anyway) as part of the
>> command syntax.
>>
>> fwiw, I have WOL from "outside" working on my lan, but it does have a router,
>> which I guess you suspect gives my lan an advantage wrt WOL.
>>
>> /daytripper
>
>Thanks, DT. I didn't expect the solution to be that simple. So all
>that I need to do is discover the WAN IP address of that cable modem on
>Charter Pipeline's network, and it can forward the request to another
>MAC address on its LAN side (the target being the NIC in the
>WoL-enabled PC in question).
>
>That should be easily remedied using the
>modem's built-in diagnostics. I did not realize that the WAN address
>on the ISP's internal network would be directly accessible from the
>internet. Does such a WAN IP address typically change dynamically in a
>commercial ISP setting, or is it normally static, based on the cable
>modem's own MAC address?
>
>Many thanks!
>TK

I expect that most cable companies have their modems set to use DHCP to obtain
their WAN address by default, and offer static addresses for more $$$. My
Comcast account uses DHCP, I don't really need the benefits of static
addressing (yet, at least).

And yes, this means the modem's WAN address may change, and mine has in the
past. It's a bitch if you kinda/sorta really need to reach into your LAN from
The Outside World and - poof - your LAN is gone.

On the up side, the DHCP policy can be set to renew well before the lease
expiration, which almost always means the address stays the same for long
stretches (weeks, at least, in my case).

If it's more than a "kinda/sorta" need, a static address is in order - OR you
subscribe to a for-profit DNS service that has your machine periodically *tell
them* where it is, and they update the DNS entry for your domain. Either one
would work.

cheers

/daytripper

ToasterKing wrote:

> Hi! Thanks for reading.
>
> There's a computer supporting Wake-On-Lan (WoL) about 20 miles away
> that I occasionally need to administer remotely. The user sometimes
> needs to turn this computer off, which makes it kind of hard for me to
> connect to it. :-) The computer is connected 24/7 to broadband
> internet through a DOCSIS cable modem, but it does not have a router.
>
> What I want to do is be able to send a WoL magic packet to that
> computer's Ethernet adapter to wake it up over the internet.

WOL tradition seems to be to send a directed broadcast. If you have
a router that will generate a broadcast packet from a directed
broadcast, it should work.

I believe most cable networks don't enable directed broadcast.

Sending a unicast packet will only work as long as the entry
doesn't time out from the ARP cache of the nearest router to
your host.

To make it work, there must be some device on the network
that can answer ARP queries with the right MAC address, even
when the computer is off.

How many of the little home use routers will do directed broadcasts?

-- glen