Wake-on-LAN Tool

A Wake-on-LAN tool is designed to wake up powered off devices remotely by generating a WOL magic packet that can remotely power on PCs attached to networks.

Imagine you need that one last document to finish a project, but you shut down your work PC. With a Wake-on-LAN tool, powering up a remote PC is no longer an issue. When the remote network adapter receives a magic packet created for its unique MAC address, the network interface card alerts the power supply of the computer to power on.

In more practical terms, if Wake-on-LAN is enabled in the computer's BIOS settings, when you enable the Wake-on-LAN software from wherever you are, the computer system will start up just as if the power button has been pressed. When a device is shut down, its network interface card is still receiving power and keeps listening on the network for a magic packet to arrive, like the one a Wake-on-LAN tool can generate and send.

Wake-on-LAN software can give you the ability to turn on your devices from wherever you are, even if you turned them off. In a world where you can be called upon to complete a project or start a new one at any time, whether it’s after work hours, on the weekend, or even in the middle of your vacation, being able to turn on devices remotely to access documents and other information stored on them is incredibly valuable.

Wake-on-LAN tools are also important because they can let you switch your computers off or into low-power mode even if you think you might need to access them before you next come into work. There’s no need to waste power simply because you think you might need to access your device.

Wake-on-LAN software works by generating a magic packet that can remotely power on sleeping computers connected to your network. It does this by contacting the specific MAC addresses of your devices.

Before a Wake-on-LAN tool can turn on your devices, it first needs to be configured on each of your devices. Typically, Wake-on-LAN functionality is disabled by default on most computers. While the process of enabling Wake-on-LAN varies with each computer manufacturer, it generally follows the same basic steps. To enable Wake-on-LAN, you may need to:

• Enter the computer’s BIOS setting screen during the device’s power-on self-test.
• Click on the Power Settings option and then navigate to Power Up Control.
• From there, you can enable settings related to Power Up in LAN, Network, or PCI card.
• Click Save to make sure the settings stay after you exit the BIOS settings screen.

Once Wake-on-LAN has been enabled on your computer, your Wake-on-LAN tool can begin scanning your network to collect the MAC addresses of all the computers on your network. It does this when your computers are powered on, compiling a list of all the computers on your network and their MAC addresses. Then, when your computers are powered off or in power save mode and you need to turn them on, you can use that stored list of computers to identify the one you want to turn on. Once you select the computer you need, the Wake-on-LAN tool will generate a magic packet for a specific MAC address. That WOL magic packet can then turn the computer on, giving you access to the information saved on it.

SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset comes with a Wake-on-LAN tool in addition to more than 60 other tools designed to help you manage your network and troubleshoot issues that arise. These tools can help with everything from network discovery and monitoring to analysis and problem solving.

Some of the tools included in ETS are:

• Interface Monitor
• MAC Address Finder
• Network Traffic Generator
• Memory Monitor
• Traceroute
• DNS Analyzer
• Syslog Server
• WMI Browser
• Port Scanner
• IP Network Browser
• Subnet List
• Ping Sweep
• Network Sonar
• Network Discovery Tool
• SNMP Sweep
• Switch Port Mapper

To learn more about other tools included in Engineer’s Toolset, check out this page.