Hi All,

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 for my OS system.

I'm trying to wake up my computer(unit1) which also is ubuntu 16.04 system from public network area.

In the past, I could do it with MAC address in the local network area.

I'm using this commend to wake my computer up. `etherwake AA:BB:CC:HH:EE:FF`(xx:xx... means the MAC address of the unit 1)

After some googling, I realized that windows can do it with IP address.

So I'm wondering how can I do it on Ubuntu?

Is that possible to wake it with IP Address on ubuntu ?

Or need me to give more info?

Thanks in advanced!

I would have thought waking by IP would be unreliable, certainly in a DHCP environment where the IP could be re-assigned to a different MAC in the event the host is asleep when the lease expires.

You could use a combination of ping and arp to retrieve the MAC for a given IP. That's probably what the Windows utility is doing.

I assume you want to turn on your home computer from outside your local network. From my limited knowledge on the subject WOL is a layer 2 broadcast message which are generally not routed. However, with subnet directed broadcasts you can usually overcome the limitation. It depends on your home router and if it allows forwarding broadcast packets.

https://www.howtogeek.com/192642/how...-the-internet/

See the example given in https://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/man1/etherwake.1.asp

I have seen a few programs that could wake over wan and you have to set router usually to nat to specific computer.

Doing sweeps of wan I see wol all the time.

Since WOL only works over the LAN, I would just SSH to the router and fire up the program that triggers a magic packet. Because keys would be used for connecting to the router anyway, I'd make a special key just for the WOL call to the one host and have it run a forced command to do just that one thing. The "AUTHORIZED_KEYS FILE FORMAT" section in the manual page for sshd has the details, see command="..." there.

@JeremyBoden

For your example I tried.
But when my computer is in the sleeping mode I can't even ping it's IP Address.
Is the example here `arp -a [IP Address]` the IP Address is mean router's Address or the machine I want to wake up?

For your example I tried.
But when my computer is in the sleeping mode I can't even ping it's IP Address.
Is the example here `arp -a [IP Address]` the IP Address is mean router's Address or the machine I want to wake up?

Now I can using this commend to wake my computer up. `wakeonlan -i [IP Address] [MAC Address]`

Before that, I have to send `arp -a [IP Address]` to my computer which I want to wake up.

Then I can using `wakeonlan` to do it.

Here I've got a question.

Is that possible to wake the machine which is locate at L.A. from my local machine which is locate at New York?

I think what you mean is I have to send an arp to the machine which I want to wake up and using `wakeonlan` to wake it with it's IP Address and MAC Address right?

Maybe, depends on your router/firmware. The link I posted shows some methods you can try.

WOL does work over the wan. Many programs can do it.

However you may have an issue with sleep state or how the lan works.

I'd make a static ip entry in the router and port forward it to wan. You'll need to have a static wan or ddns to have it followed.

Some examples. https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1570275


There should be a few windows programs.


If your router still has ssh able to accessed from wan and you don't mind all the security risks of all this then you can ssh usually to router then perform some tasks.

In any of this there is a high chance that wan scammers will get into your lan and wake your computer.