Working on Linux based PC is fun when you’re on networkand doing stuffs, have you ever tried to wake up your computer remotely? You can
do this with almost all Linux, we are basically taking example of Most used
Linux distribution i.e. Ubuntu.
Welcome back to
Intelligent Computing, today we have an networking, Linux and Geeky administrator
related stuff and its worth sharing that how you can Turn on your Linux PC
remotely from your Local Area network or Even from far by using Internet.
For your Knowledge,
today’s most of Motherboard manufacturer embedded feature called, wake on LAN. You can see the option in
your BIOS or it may be there with similar names. Wake on LAN feature allow motherboard
to turn the power on of a computer making sure it’s connected to the power
supply.
Wake on LAN works
on special packet which is routed through the port 9/UDP and your computer,
router or Firewall must be able to receive this packet or device must be
implement this new port rule.
Beside these all,
you need to be connected to your PC via a Good strength network like LAN or
high Speed and reliable Internet. Assuming you have all, let’s start the setting
up.
Setting your Ubuntu PC to turn it on remotely
For this, Restart
your target computer and open the BIOS by tapping Delete or similar Function key
as per your model. Once you open the BIOS,
1. Search the
option ‘Wake on LAN’ and Enable this Feature.
2. Look if there is
option like, ‘Deep Sleep’; disable this feature.
No you’ve done your
target PC work.
On your Host PC, or
Remote PC you are using, need to do some more setup. Make sure you have MAC
address of your target PC to be turn on.
Also, you need to
install the Small application called, Wake
on LAN on your host PC, this Application sends Magic Packet to your target
PC so that it get turn on.
You can download
and install this package from Ubuntu app page
In home Directory
of the host PC, create the file named let’s say, home.wol.
You can use the
command like this
you@host~# touch home.wol
you@host~# vi home.wol
// open this file with text editor vi or you can use vim as well
|
Now inside the
file, type the MAC address of the target PC, it will be look like
76:fr:4g:9j:FC:w2
Now open the
terminal on your Host PC, you may not be Root, this can work for non root user
as well.
Just type the
command
wakeonlan -f home.wol
Your remote PC named home will be start within second. You can enter many addresses in home.wol file to start them all or you can name each PC’s file individually in separate file to start them individually.
How to turn on your Ubuntu PC remotely from Internet
This is similar
concept, you need to have IP address of Unique Hostname, MAC address of the PC
and port number, by default it is 9/UDP as mentioned earlier, else you can use
as per your choice.
Again make sure you
have firewall rule that allow such packet to enter the network.
Enter the IP
address, MAC address and port number and click on Send button, if everything,
networks work well, your Remote PC should start immediately.
Bottom line
While working on
network, this feature will help you a lot, specially using your Home PC or
office PC and work with it using SSH or similar protocol. Share it with your
friend and comment below if you have any question and don’t forget to be
Intelligent.
