Trouble with Wake on LAN and Wake on Ring

This likely won't solve your problem, but it's worth a shot:

1) Update to the latest bios revision (A15) -- though none of the fixes appear related to your issue.

2) Consider Installing the latest chipset drviers from intel's website.

For what it's worth, I would set sleep at S3.  S1 sleep does not save much power (assuming that is your goal).  Be advised that XP may also require registry hacks to achieve S3 if any of your USB devices are allowed to bring the machine out of standby.

Is it worth flashing the bios and trashing your Mobo. Think about it.

Is it worth flashing the bios and trashing your Mobo. Think about it.

There is always a risk with flashing.  That is true.  That said, if done correctly, the risk is *minimal.*  And if the machine is under warranty with next-day support, it's even less of an issue (in fact, I always advise flashing machines that are under warranty, in case you later find yourself needing the update). 

Nemesis and Trafficflow:  Thanks for your thoughts.  After posting earlier today, I decided to update the BIOS, so I'm now at A15.  No disasters.  However, I doubt it will have any effect, as prior updates also did not help.

Question:  What is Intel ME?  My Optiplex 755 comes with Intel AMT and (I believe) Intel ME.  I shut off AMT a year ago because it was making my PC rev up every ten minutes even when asleep.  However, does the related Intel ME have anything to do with standard WOL or WOR?

Also, some months after I shut off AMT, I ran the Dell Support driver updates for Intel AMT SOL/LMS and/or Intel AMT HECI.  Did any of these ruin my Wake on LAN or Wake on Ring?

I'd really like to make WOL and WOR 100% reliable.

Thanks.

My only use of Wake on LAN is the following:

The PC is at home.  I leave it on and it automatically goes into Standby mode after 20 minutes, as you see above.  From my office, if I need anything from my home PC, I use LogMeInFree.  It should be able to wake up my home PC from standby, but it is not always able to do so.  I do NOT know what type of packet it is sending to my home PC.

As far as I know, AMT and ME are both related to remote management -- and both are significantly outside my area of expertise.  I don't *think* that either would effect WOL/WOR.

You mentioned earlier that wake on lan was unreliable.  This is somewhat vague.  Do all types of WOL fail?  Can you at least get magic packet wakes to work reliably?  For what it's worth, I've never been able to get directed packet wakes to work well -- though usually it's the opposite problem, with the machine turning on randomly (see, e.g., http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-029926.htm ).

I investigated LogMeIn's website, and it's not clear that it supports wake on lan (magic packets).  Do you have a router in front of your home PC?  If so, is there any chance that it supports dd-wrt (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices)?  I only ask, because that firmware will allow you to send magic packets and wake any computer on your network (from remote).

Nemesis:  At home, my DSL modem-router is a Westell 7500, with a Verizon mark on it for Verizon DSL.  The label on the bottom says it is model A90-750015-07, Rev R.  So it is not on the dd-wrt list.  When I access this Westell's internal web pages, I can see its sophisticated programming, some of which I have learned in order to improve my home network (both wired and wi-fi), but much of which is a mystery to me.  Is there anything in the Westell settings I should check to see if it could help LogMeInFree wake my Optiplex 755?

Also, yesterday, in BIOS, I changed Sleep to S3 and then I returned to the special BIOS settings for Intel AMT, ME and ASF.  I made ME a bit more active during S3 sleep mode, and I think I turned on ASF.  However, this morning,  when I tested Wake on Ring (by calling my fax line from another phone), the PC did not answer.  Of course, that is the modem card and not the NIC card.  Tomorrow, from the office, I shall try LogMeInFree again to see whether these settings have improved Wake on LAN.

But please let me know if I should try anything in the Westell 7500 modem-router.

Thanks for your interest, which I hope continues.

I think that some changes on your router could probably solve the problem (or at least work around it).  Log into your router's web GUI.  It should have a page that allows you to setup "port forwarding" (as opposed to port triggering).  You need to forward UDP on port 9.  You need to forward it to all computers on your network.

Assuming your home network uses the range 192.168.1.x, you would make the forward to 192.168.1.255. 

Once that is done, any incoming magic packets sent from remote should be broadcast to all computers on your home network.  There are many utilities that support WoL, that you can use to test, but this one may be the easist: http://www.dslreports.com/wakeup .  If you can use that website to wake up your computer, then you're in good shape.  It will require the MAC address of your card and the IP address that your ISP is handing out (WAN IP), as opposed to the private IP that the router is handing out.

While you're in the router GUI, you should check to see if it supports dynamicDNS.  Assuming that you receive a dynamic IP from your ISP, dynamicDNS can make it possible to find out if your home IP changes while you are at work (see, e.g., www.dyndns.org)

edit:  I should add that I do not think that this is an ideal solution (allowing WAN sources to broadcast on your LAN) as it opens up a few potential attack vectors (see, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurf_attack).  That said, if your router allows the forward to work, it should give you the functionality you are looking for.  A more longterm solution would likely be getting a router (or other small embedded device) that supports Wake on Lan directly (dd-wrt and some buffalo routers) or that supports VPN.

Thank you, Nemesis.  I understand your suggestions, and I had found the dslreports wakeup page two days ago.

So, on my Westell router, I have now added udp port 9 as an inbound port forwarding line to the target PC, and on that PC I have opened udp port 9 as an exception to the XP firewall.  Tomorrow, when I'm at work, I'll see if LogMeInFree or the special dslreports page will wake the target PC. 

By the way, this Westell router has a lot of parameters in its port forwarding additions.  I think I have them right, but there is no guide anywhere to what they mean.  (Good job, Westell!)

In the meantime, I'm going back to the special BIOS for Intel AMT, ME and ASF to turn that stuff off again.

I am NOT going to do dynamic DNS at this time.

Do you think the opened udp port 9 channels pose a security risk?  If yes, how bad?

It will be interesting if this works because all along I have felt that my troubles with Wake on LAN (the NIC card) and Wake on Ring (the modem card) have the same source:  a faulty BIOS.  If this DOES work, how then do I fix my intermittent Wake on Ring problem for the modem card?

Thanks again, and please keep an eye here.

You can't use a forwarding rule to the target computer's IP.  This is because the target computer will not have an IP address when it is turned off (or sleeping).  You must instead forward to the broadcast address (per my previous post).  Likewise, you do not need to make any changes to XP's firewall -- it is not active while the computer is asleep.  Some routers will not allow you to forward to the broadcast address.  If yours won't, we'll need to think of something else.

Forwarding to a broadcast address poses some risk, but I do not think it is major.  The biggest concern is that it may allow your network to be used in smurf attacks, but this is a minor issue unless you have a lot of computers on your home network.  Should someone use your network to assist in a smurf attack, it would not harm your computers. 

Forwarding could also (obviously) allow someone to wake your computer(s) remotely if they know your MAC address(es).  I consider this a minor concern as well.

I have suggested that we test magic packet wakes first for two reasons.  The first is that directed packet wakes (while much easier to setup), do not work consistently in my own experiance.  Likewise, I have no experiance with wake on ring.

If you have an extra computer at home, you should be able to test your setup using the dslreport's webpage without going off-site (to work).

Nemesis:  Interesting, and I'm learning something.

But I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the "broadcast address".  On my home network, the DHCP function of the Westell modem/router assigns addresses to my seven or so devices from 192.168.1.x to 192.168.1.y , and y is a lot less than 255.  I have not seen 192.168.1.255 mentioned, and "ipconfig /all | more" also does not show that number.

But if 192.168.1.255 is the correct broadcast address, I'll try it.

Also, FWIW, the GUI pages on my Westell for adding a Port Forwarding item make me first choose between Host and Dynamic.  I think this is Host, in which case it then prompts me for the name of one of my devices OR for a "LAN IP".

Thanks.

The broadcast address (192.168.1.255) is not a real IP address, per se.  Rather, it is telling the router to forward the packet to the entire 192.168.1.x subnet.  This must be done because the sleeping computer has no IP address to forward to directly.  With WOL enabled, however, the network adapter will listen for a magic packet.  This packet is basically a data packet with the target network adapter's MAC address repeated over and over.  As I stated before, some routers will not allow you to forward to the broadcast address.

Should you ever find yourself needing to calculate a broadcast address, this webpage may be helpful: http://www.tech-faq.com/calculate-broadcast-address.shtml .  Per, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_address , a broadcast address of 255.255.255.255 might also work.

I would agree with you that Host is likely the option that you want.  LAN IP will be the broadcast address (if the router will accept it).

If you have another computer on your network, you should be able to test this immediately.  Create the port forward.  Put the computer to sleep.  Use another computer to visit the dslreports webpage and enter your WAN IP address and the target card's MAC address.  See if it powers on.

I have also been in email contact with Dell about this problem, and a Dell person from "US_ACS_REL_Outstanding_Issues" has just suggested that I re-install Windows.  What does everyone think of such suggestion?

Nemesis:  The last two days, (a) in the Westell modem/router, I added the udp9 port forwarding specifically to the affected Optiplex 755, and (b) in the Optiplex 755, I opened an exception in my WinXP firewall for udp9.  However, today from the office, Wake on LAN and Wake on Ring both do NOT work, and http://www.dslreports.com/wakeup (with the correct IP and MAC addresses) does NOT wake up the 755.  Tonight, in the Westell modem/router, I shall follow your suggestion fully and add a port forwarding item to the broadcast address 192.168.1.255 and try again tomorrow from the office.

I find it interesting that BOTH Wake on LAN and Wake on Ring do not work, since the source signals are via completely different wires into the PC.  This feels like a permanent hardware problem with my Optiplex.

I can't give good advice for wake on ring.  I really have no experiance with it.  If you have the spare time (and knowledge), reinstalling windows is always an option.  I would recommend doing a full image of your system beforehand though, so you can quickly restore back to where you were if things don't improve.

Do you have another computer on your LAN at home?  You've indicated several times that you have many devices, but you've never clearly answered that question.  If you do have other computers, please test from home using the DSL reports page.  This would be a better test as it would remove router issues from the equation.

With regards to wake on ring, my (uneducated) suggestions:

1) if there are any bios options related to it, make sure they are properly set

2) Ensure that the modem is set to be able to wake the computer in device manager under the modem's power management tab.

3) Ensure that any modem driver settings related to power management correct under its "advanced" tab.  (This is semi-related to WoL -- the OS has one setting via the power management tab that can be overruled by settings under the Advanced tab)

4) Microsoft has a (vista) KB article that implies that the audio device may also play a role in the wake.  Ensure that it is set to also be able to wake the computer.  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944799

5) Use google to try and find a more recent (or older) modem driver (and perhaps audio driver).