WOL issue

sketchpad

This has been driving me crazy for a while now, here's the problem:
Wake on Lan works just fine from inside my home network, sending magic packet to 192.168.X.XX
From outside the home network I can WoL by sending a magic packet to the routers external IP 89.xxx.xx.xx
However this only works for less than 1 hour after shutting down.
Does my router 'forget' something after a certain amount of time?
Has anyone else had this issue?

What is your DHCP lease time?

sketchpad

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What is your DHCP lease time?

604800 seconds

ED E

You should be sending the WOL packet to a MAC address not an IP.

sketchpad

ED E wrote: »

You should be sending the WOL packet to a MAC address not an IP.

Yes, MAC address & IP.
Like I said, works fine when connected to LAN, works for up to an hour after shutdown only from outside LAN.


WoL enabled in BIOS and network card settings
power saving off

White Heart Loon

WOL works at layer 2, therefore sending a WOL packet to the external layer 3 address of your router (although it works for you for an hour) is not the correct procedure. You need to get the router (or something else on your lan) to send the WOL packet. Most decent routers allow this.

Another idea is to setup a VPN to your lan on your smartphone, connect to it and send the packet. A VPN is a layer 2 tunnel so would overcome this and allow the layer 2 packet to go directly to the Mac address of the PC.

sketchpad

Thanks White Heart.
Just to clarify, if I have port forwarding through ports 7 and 9 pointed to the machine in question
in order to wake from outside lan the magic packet would have to be sent to the routers mac and external ip?
The router is a technicolor tc7200 (upc)

White Heart Loon

sketchpad wrote: »

Thanks White Heart.
Just to clarify, if I have port forwarding through ports 7 and 9 pointed to the machine in question
in order to wake from outside lan the magic packet would have to be sent to the routers mac and external ip?
The router is a technicolor tc7200 (upc)

Port forwarding on layer 3 makes no difference, it's layer 2 and will not pass the router. Also, your pc will not have an ip (layer 3) when it's dormant, it stays awake at layer 2 only (Mac address). I suggest you Google for some info on the difference between layer 2 (switching) and layer 3 (routing) so you understand why it will never work. You need to either get on your lan or get a device on your lan to send the packet

sketchpad

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Port forwarding on layer 3 makes no difference, it's layer 2 and will not pass the router. Also, your pc will not have an ip (layer 3) when it's dormant, it stays awake at layer 2 only (Mac address). I suggest you Google for some info on the difference between layer 2 (switching) and layer 3 (routing) so you understand why it will never work. You need to either get on your lan or get a device on your lan to send the packet

will do. thanks for the input.
Just thought that seeing as though it works for an hour after shutdown there would be some easy way to make it work permanently as is.
I'll explore the VPN route.

White Heart Loon

sketchpad wrote: »

will do. thanks for the input.
Just thought that seeing as though it works for an hour after shutdown there would be some easy way to make it work permanently as is.
I'll explore the VPN route.

I doubt it, you would have to keep the pc's ip alive in the arp table. Investigate if your router can send the magic packet

pug_

I've no idea what kind of router you have or what configuration is possible with what you have, but the fact that it works for up to an hour after suggests your router is at least capable of sending a WOL frame. What's more than likely happening after that time is the router is timing out the MAC address of the machine you've shutdown. This is normal and most networking kit will have a timeout period for dynamically learned MAC addresses.

The trick to getting this to work permanently is to enter a static MAC address for the machine you want to WOL remotely. But because a router is a Layer3 device you'll have to match this with a static IP address too. There are two ways of doing this.

1) Set a static IP address on the machine you want to send WOL to remotely. Take note of the IP and the MAC and enter them statically into the router.

2) Configure your DHCP server to always server the same IP address whenever it sees the MAC of the machine you want to sent WOL to. Again take note of the IP and the MAC and enter them statically into the router.

I don't know which is the easier option for you, it's dependant on experience and your local setup.

The above assumes it's possible to statically map a MAC address on your router to an IP address, if it's not then you'll have to investigate alternatives as suggested. It is also based on the fact that it works for up to an hour after the machine is shutdown suggesting to me that the MAC address being dropped from the table, if there is another reason for this (I can't think of one, but it's possible) then you'll have to investigate other options.

sketchpad

pug_ wrote: »

I've no idea what kind of router you have or what configuration is possible with what you have, but the fact that it works for up to an hour after suggests your router is at least capable of sending a WOL frame. What's more than likely happening after that time is the router is timing out the MAC address of the machine you've shutdown. This is normal and most networking kit will have a timeout period for dynamically learned MAC addresses.

The trick to getting this to work permanently is to enter a static MAC address for the machine you want to WOL remotely. But because a router is a Layer3 device you'll have to match this with a static IP address too. There are two ways of doing this.

1) Set a static IP address on the machine you want to send WOL to remotely. Take note of the IP and the MAC and enter them statically into the router.

2) Configure your DHCP server to always server the same IP address whenever it sees the MAC of the machine you want to sent WOL to. Again take note of the IP and the MAC and enter them statically into the router.

I don't know which is the easier option for you, it's dependant on experience and your local setup.

The above assumes it's possible to statically map a MAC address on your router to an IP address, if it's not then you'll have to investigate alternatives as suggested. It is also based on the fact that it works for up to an hour after the machine is shutdown suggesting to me that the MAC address being dropped from the table, if there is another reason for this (I can't think of one, but it's possible) then you'll have to investigate other options.

The router is UPC's Technicolor TC7200.
From what I have read online, UPC have crippled the functionality of this router. There is no option to enter static addresses or configure the DHCP server (enable or disable only). You are correct that the router is timing out the mac address after a certain period of time, after around 15mins.

Perhaps attaching a hub to the network behind the router might work?

ED E

sketchpad wrote: »

The router is UPC's Technicolor TC7200.
From what I have read online, UPC have crippled the functionality of this router. There is no option to enter static addresses or configure the DHCP server (enable or disable only). You are correct that the router is timing out the mac address after a certain period of time, after around 15mins.

Perhaps attaching a hub to the network behind the router might work?

A hub certainly isnt what you want. Hubs share a common medium and would slow your lan down.

What you need is an internal box to trigger WOL. Id suggest finding a cheap old router that can send a WOL packet, configure it into AP mode and give it a static. Then put a forward in place so you can login to it remotely and tell it to send the magic packet. Make sure to set a good password here as it'll be publicly viewable and probably on port 80.