If you never heard of wake on lan you may ask what this utility is good
for. Had you ever had the problem that you wanted to work with a computer in another office
but it was powered down? Well, if the remote computer is wake on lan capable the Wake On Lan
Tool is your soultion. Wake on Lan (WOL) is a standart introduced by AMD. WOL capable
computers can be powered on from any other host in the network by simply sending
a packet to the host telling it to power on.
This utility is able to remotely switch on every wol capable host in the network
you are currently connected to. You can select a single host or a range of hosts
and switch them on.
Additionally the Tools supports shutting down or restarting hosts.
Every computer in a network has a DNS name (the computers name in the network),
an IP address (the computers address in the network) and a physical address
(the MAC address of the network card).
A WOL capable computer has a network interface card (NIC) that always
(even if the computer is powered down) listenes to the network traffic.
This is indicated by blinking LEDs at the back of the computer even when its powered off.
If a special network packet (a magic paket) is recieved the NIC looks if the
magic packet was send to its physical address (as the NIC does not know of the
computer name or IP address) and if yes it powers on the computer.
In order to use WOL you need to enable the feature in the BIOS of the destination
computer. Nowadays most computers come with WOL preeabled. If you think your Computer is not WOL
enabled consult the mainboard manual. See how to enable "Wake On Lan", "Wake on PCI" or "Wake by Network".
Some older computers (<1999) may not support WOL at all.
In oder to user WOL over the Internet you will have to configure your router / VPN settings.
The port used for sending the WOL UDP Broadcast is 7 (ECHO). Make sure that this port is routed
to your local subnet broadcast address. Eg: if you use a class C network route the port 7 UDP to 192.160.0.255. (You may also specify ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff as destination MAC.)
The Wake On Lan Tool is made for everyone. Beginners, advanced users and
professionals. The design goals were simplicity, stability, portability
and functionality. To whatever usergroup you belong to, the tool is
designed to enable you to do what you want.
The WOL Tool 2 is delivered as a 7-Zip archive. To get things started you
at first may want to extract this archive using the free
7-Zip archiver that is avaliable for
many plattforms.
After extracting the archive start the WOL Tool 2 by double clicking on
the WOL2.exe. If you're using Mac OS or GNU/Linux you will have to use
WOL2.sh. If the tool does not start, please ensure that your system meets
the
System Requirements.
If the tool is running you will automatically see the main window. On the
first run an empty file is created. Now you can use the 'New Host' button
to add computers manually. Alternatively you may use the
build in network scanner. After you have added
all your hosts save the file using the 'Save File' button.
To wake, reboot or shutdown a host or a range of hosts select them and
click the appropriate 'Wake', 'Reboot' or 'Shutdown' button. You may configure
the options for shutdown and reboot using the options dialog.
Shutdown and reboot does currently only work on Windows machines.
You may also define a timer to let the WOL Tool 2 wake a host automatically.
To do this choose the host from the list and click the 'Edit Timer' button
to open the 'Edit Timer' window.
CSV Import
The WOL2 Tool has a CSV import option. The CSV file must have the following format:
Host Name;Comment;IPv4 Address;MAC Address;Subnet Mask;Groups;Secure On Password;DHCP Flag;IPv6 Address
The first row is interpreted as header.
Toolbars
By pressing the ALT-Key you can re order the main toolbar. The settings are saved when the application quits.
Attention: You can only re order the main toolbar!
Tools
You can use the WOL2 Tool to control other applications that are installed on the computer. Go to "Options/Tools" to set them up.
You can use the following place holders:
%name% = Hostname
%ip% / %ipv6% = IP Address
%snmask% = Subnet mask
%mac% = MAC Address
%comment% = The comment of the host
%groups% = Comma separated list of all groups
%dname% = Either the IP or the host name as specified by the DHCP flag.
%dipv4% = The IPv4 address of the host as looked up in the DNS.
%dipv6% = The IPv6 address of the host as looked up in the DNS.
You can also use the environment variables of the local computer. (Eg. %programfiles%)
The Wake On Lan Tool 2 allows you to organize your network in groups.
To add a new group right click on the 'All' tab in the main window.
From the context menu choose 'Add Group...'. In the following input
box enter the name of your new group and click the 'Ok' button.
To add a host to a certain group right click it, and choose 'Add to group'
to add it to a certain group or 'Set group' to specify one group this
host belongs to. You may also define the groups in the 'Edit Host' window.
To rename or delete a group activate it first. Then right click on the
appropriate tab page and select 'Rename Group...' or 'Remove Group...'
from the context menu. When renaming a group, the tool automatically
assigns all hosts that belonged to the old group to the new one.
Groups do also have timers to allow you to wake all computers belonging
to a certain group at once.
The network scanner is a simple but efficient tool to create or
update host files.
You can start the automatic network scanner by choosing the menu action
'Scan for new hosts' from the 'Edit' menu.
It will automatically search new computers on all networks that your computer is
attached to. It will add computers to the currently open host file
if the network scanner is able to determine the MAC Address using ARP.
Another option is to use the Network Scanner Window you may already know
from WOL Classic. To open the window please choose 'Open network scanner...'
from the 'Edit' menu.
Please note, that the destination computers need to be turned on and
connected to the network in order to be found by the network scanner.
You may configure the scanner in the options dialog (Menu 'Edit' -> 'Options').
The network scanner uses an ICMP ECHO request as described in
RFC 792.
The scanner does currently only work on Windows machines.
The network monitor monitors the online states of all hosts in the currently loaded host list. It is displayed in the "State" column. The icon also represents the current state.
You can configure a command (or batch file) that should be run as soon as a state changes. See the settings window.
The following place holders are supported: %ip%, %ipv6%, %mac%, %name%, %snmask%, %comment%, %state%.
The monitor currently only works for hosts (not for groups)!
The Wake On Lan Tool 2 is a complete rewrite of the successfull Wake On Lan Tool Classic.
The WOL Tool 2 is written in C# and requires the
.NET Runtime Framework (4.0 or newer)
for Windows or the
MONO
Runtime Framework for GNU/Linux and MacOS X.
Please note that the Wake On Lan Tool 2 does currently only support IPv4.
An active IPv6 stack should not constrain the tool.
Tested Operating Systems:
- Windows XP Pro SP3
- Windows Vista Ultimate
- Windows 7 32+64 Bit
- Windows 8 32+64 Bit
- Ubuntu 8.10 (running, WOL not tested yet)