Wake on LAN

[pgoelz]

I have my GBPVR server suspending and resuming just fine. It even wakes up when the (file sharing over wireless) client starts. However, it does not always wake up fast enough to satisfy the client, which then errors out with the dreaded red cross (requiring it to be shut down with Task Manager).

I have read most of the suspend / resume threads and have found some possible workarounds. But it would be so much nicer if GBPVR itself either waited a programmable amount of time after it tried to connect to the server or waited for the server to respond and then produced an error message if the server was not available.

Paul

[pgoelz]

FWIW, as of yesterday I have a workaround running smoothly. The server wakes up and goes to sleep as needed and PVRX2 is never started on a client unless the server is responding.

On the clients (I have two), I created a batch file that is called when I want to start PVRX2. The batch file runs a command line "magic packet" program that wakes up the server. It then pings the server by name (so I can still use DHCP). Following the ping attempt, it evaluates errorlevel and if errorlevel 0 (ie., the server is responding), it starts PVRX2.EXE. If errorlevel is not 0 (ie., the server is NOT responding), it just aborts. Works great and I can stick with DHCP since the magic packet program only needs the MAC address of the NIC, not its IP (the server is on the same LAN as the client). I'm just thinking it would be a lot simpler (and easy?) to roll all this into PVRX2 itself.

Paul

[dalabera]

Please post your script....

[fuzzweed]

Try this. I'm not a coder (probably obviously ), just stuck bits together I found via google. I think it works, but feel free to tidy up anything that doesn't look right.
wol.exe needs to be downloaded off t'internet. MACADDRESS and SERVER obviously need replacing with your correct details.

Code:

set start=0
set end=3
wol MACADDRESS

:ping
ping SERVER | find "Reply" > NULL
if errorlevel=1 goto loop
echo server found
C:\Progra~1\devnz\GBPVR\PVRX2.exe
exit

:loop
if %start%==%end% goto stop
set /a start=%start%+1
goto ping

:stop
echo server not online

[pgoelz]

Sorry, missed the request to post my batch file.... here is what I am currently using.

cd c:\GBPVR startup [where the batch file is located on my client machine]
mc-wol [insert your server NIC MAC address here]
ping Ham [the network name of my HTPC]
if errorlevel 1 goto :oops
cd c:\Program Files (x86)\Devnz\GBPVR
start PVRX2.exe
exit
:oops
@echo
@echo
@echo Server HAM not found


Note that I can issue the ping command in this format without using the IP address. this means I do not have to hard code he server IP. If the server is not awake or does not wake up fast enough, the batch just terminates without starting PVRX2. If ther server is awake, PVRX2 is started. I have not tried looping.... it should work though.

Paul

[Innocence]

Note that many network cards today can be configured to wake up the PC on any network activity, not just WOL magic packets. This means a simple PING will be enough to wake it up.

Code:

ping SERVER | find "Reply" > NULL

Users of non-English Windows should note that you need to replace the word "Reply" with the one used by your language of Windows, ie. in Danish Ping returns "Svar fra 127.0.0.1" instead of "Reply from 127.0.0.1".

Also note that in your script the PING will run 4 seconds before checking for status. If you change the line to

Code:

ping -n 1 SERVER | find "Reply" > NULL

, it'll only run for less than 1 second before checking and starting PVRX2.

Very classic script btw., even got retries and timeout values

[martint123]

Note that many network cards today can be configured to wake up the PC on any network activity, not just WOL magic packets. This means a simple PING will be enough to wake it up.

Although I found that my server stayed awake most of the time and if it ever went to sleep, woke up again very soon. Too much traffic from other devices for me using this method.

[Innocence]

Although I found that my server stayed awake most of the time and if it ever went to sleep, woke up again very soon. Too much traffic from other devices for me using this method.

True, that can be a problem.

[liteswap]

The trick here is to set the power management settings of the network card to only allow management stations to wake it up - ie magic packets. The rest get ignored.