Wake-on-LAN & Windows Remote Desktop Question

[primexx]

I don't have a computer to test this with yet, and I'm just reading about WOL & remote desktop, and I'm confused about how to set this up.

From my understanding WOL works by having a computer on the network send a magic packet to a computer that's turned off. This is the easy part. I should be able to send the packet from my router when I'm logged in via SSH. But if WOL only turns on the computer, how would you actually log into the computer once it turns on? Surely you mustn't always leave the computer turned on in order to remote desktop into it? Are you able to remote desktop to the computer before it's logged in (I noticed that it's a service)?

It'd probably be clearer if I was able to test this, but I'm really curious right now, could someone enlighten me on how this would work?

On a related note, on the computer that I'm remote desktoping into, would I be able to specify exactly what clients are allowed to even attempt a connection? This would be on Win7.

Thanks!

[offroadaaron]

To remote desktop the service needs to be on and the port listening, you need to computer on and at the welcome screen at least to login to the machine.

It sounds like you know what WOL is.

[Choto Cheeta]

First of all, as soon as you try to turn on Remote connection in Windows 7, it will warn you that Remote desktop wont work if PC is in sleep or Hibernation..

Secondly, its pretty easy if you are attempting it in LAN, just right click on My Computer and visit properties..

Now just turn the feature on and make sure what ever firewall is running is having RDC as in its exception list [:D]

Now to access this PC (which has to be remotely operated), just fire up the RDC panel in other PC (Windows XP / Vista / 7) and enter the name of IP address (local) of the said PC.. You can log in with any user (by entering user name and password) of this said PC..

[QcR]

I would recommend RDP only for Server systems ! For Home PC you should use either VNC or Teamviewer

[shan]

I would recommend RDP only for Server systems ! For Home PC you should use either VNC or Teamviewer

+1

use team viewer to login , i use it all the time..

[sc302 Veteran]

f vnc. teamviewer or logmein, logmein can even WOL if there is another pc/server on and has logmein loaded on the same network.

[XerXis]

I would recommend RDP only for Server systems ! For Home PC you should use either VNC or Teamviewer

Yeah, I like teamviewer, but VNC is crap compared to RDP, and if I had the choice between RDP or teamviewer I would choose RDP

[primexx]

I would recommend RDP only for Server systems ! For Home PC you should use either VNC or Teamviewer

what would be the significant difference?

from the wiki comparison chart it looks like RDP supports the most features.

running it over an SSH tunnel should be fine for home use, no?

---

on a slightly different note, how would I make a shortcut to automatically issue a WOL command to putty?

the DD-WRT tutorial says I can send a magic packet by using this command "/usr/sbin/wol -i 192.168.1.255 -p PP AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF" in ssh

I want to be able to just save that in a file and click on it to issue the command. So basically my workflow would be something like this:

1. launch putty, open session

2. click shortcut to WOL

3. do whatever

I couldn't really find anything on google that tells me how to craft the shortcut/batch for step #2.

Thanks!

[+BudMan MVC]

just put that command in a .sh file on the dd-wrt -- and then run that .sh file = done.

To be honest your file could be anything, linux does not care what the file is called that you run - if it has the command in it your good.

[primexx]

just put that command in a .sh file on the dd-wrt -- and then run that .sh file = done.

To be honest your file could be anything, linux does not care what the file is called that you run - if it has the command in it your good.

thanks for the suggestion!

I found this which solves how to put files onto the router, but where should I put it? the wiki says there are several writable places. I also couldn't find anything on how to run a script that's on the router. do i just type in the script's path?

Just out of curiosity, would it be possible to do what I described and save the script on the computer to pass to putty, instead of saving it on the router?

Thanks!

[+BudMan MVC]

You can put the file wherever you want on the router, worse case is its gone after a reboot or reset.

But sure you could store the command anywhere on your machine and just copy paste it if you wanted.

Here I run dd-wrt, you already had ssh access so you don't need to use sftp or scp to access to create a file.. here I just did what you need to do, I used port 7 (common wol port) And clearly the mac is not correct to wakeup on anything on my network -- but the command takes it.

So I ssh to my dd-wrt box

DD-WRT v24-sp2 std © 2009 NewMedia-NET GmbH

Release: 10/10/09 (SVN revision: 13064)

Authenticating with public key "rsa-key-20050817"

==========================================================

____ ___ __ ______ _____ ____ _ _

| _ \| _ \ \ \ / / _ \_ _| __ _|___ \| || |

|| | || ||____\ \ /\ / /| |_) || | \ \ / / __) | || |_

||_| ||_||_____\ V V / | _ < | | \ V / / __/|__ _|

|___/|___/ \_/\_/ |_| \_\|_| \_/ |_____| |_|

DD-WRT v24-sp2

http://www.dd-wrt.com

==========================================================

BusyBox v1.13.4 (2009-10-10 02:13:39 CEST) built-in shell (ash)

Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

root@wrt54g:/# /usr/sbin/wol -i 192.168.1.255 -p 7 AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

Waking up AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF...

root@wrt54g:/# echo /usr/sbin/wol -i 192.168.1.255 -p 7 AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF >/tmp/wakeup.sh

root@wrt54g:/# cat /tmp/wakeup.sh

/usr/sbin/wol -i 192.168.1.255 -p 7 AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF

root@wrt54g:/# /tmp/wakeup.sh

-sh: /tmp/wakeup.sh: Permission denied

root@wrt54g:/# chmod 755 /tmp/wakeup.sh

root@wrt54g:/# /tmp/wakeup.sh

Waking up AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF...

root@wrt54g:/#

So there you go -- you have any other questions? That took all of like 2.3 seconds to do.. Now you ssh to your box and type /tmp/wakeup.sh and it will wake up your box ;)

btw - you can skip both the first time I send the command and the cat step.. just did those to show you want the command did, and then sent to file with echo and >

the used cat to show you what was in the file, etc. etc..

[primexx]

You can put the file wherever you want on the router, worse case is its gone after a reboot or reset.

But sure you could store the command anywhere on your machine and just copy paste it if you wanted.

Here I run dd-wrt, you already had ssh access so you don't need to use sftp or scp to access to create a file.. here I just did what you need to do, I used port 7 (common wol port) And clearly the mac is not correct to wakeup on anything on my network -- but the command takes it.

So I ssh to my dd-wrt box

<snip>

So there you go -- you have any other questions? That took all of like 2.3 seconds to do.. Now you ssh to your box and type /tmp/wakeup.sh and it will wake up your box ;)

btw - you can skip both the first time I send the command and the cat step.. just did those to show you want the command did, and then sent to file with echo and >

the used cat to show you what was in the file, etc. etc..

oh I see, that was very clear, thanks!

[+BudMan MVC]

No problem -- any questions just ask!

[primexx]

hmm i'm reading the links at the bottom of the DD-WRT WOL tutorial, and two questions came up:

some posts in the forums didn't include the port number, just "/usr/sbin/wol -i [ip address] [mac address]", what is the difference between this command and the one that includes the port?

someone used the actual IP of the computer instead of the broadcast address, and was told to use the broadcast address. what is the significance of using the broadcast ip?

thanks again!

[+BudMan MVC]

To send to a directed IP the router would need to know the mac of that IP in its arp table already or would send to its gateway if not on the local network, with broadcast you just send it out.

You would use directed and port if you were going to send over the internet, so that port could be forwarded if you want, etc.

I would test if you can use without the port in the command, etc. But yeah best to use the broadcast address for your network.

[primexx]

oh i see, thank you =)