Remotely Turn ON and Control Your Computer With WOL and LogMeIn

[xxtoni]

I'm sure that there are a lot of people that are familiar with this but for those who aren't I write this tutorial.


First of all this won't be a step by step tutorial but rather a explanation of concept and general guideline on how to set it up. A lot of people don't know this but you can actually turn a shut down computer on remotely over the internet. This is called WOL or Wake-On-Lan.


The first thing you need to do is enable Wake on Lan in your computer's BIOS. There are many tutorials on the web on how to do this but you shouldn't need one really.


After that login into Windows and enable WOL there. Again there are many tutorials on how to do this and a simple search on Google should give you plenty of information.


For the third step you will need to setup your router to port forward the required ports for WOL and setup a dynamic DNS address that will be used instead of your router's external IP address when waking your computer. Here is a great tutorial that explains the whole process.


Setting up WOL is going to cost you the most time but it's well worth doing so. Even if you don't usually turn your computer off it tends to be off when you need it the most and once you start relying on having constant remote access to your computer you don't want that.

WOL Apps

There are many iOS and Android apps that can be used to wake your computer over WOL. You usually just have to enter the IP/Host, the WOL port (this is usually either 7 or 9, this is configured when you setup port forwarding in your router) and the MAC address. If you don't know how to find your computer's MAC address just Google how to do it, very simple.

My favorite iPhone app for WOL is iWOL. All of the apps basically do the same thing so any app you find in the Google Market or AppStore will basically do.

For PC use I like wakeonlan.me best. It's a very simple site, offers scheduling and works flawlessly.


The Remote Control


So once you setup WOL the remote control part is actually very easy to do. To setup LogMeIn you basically just go to their website, create an account and download the free logmein client. You then install it on the computer you wish to control and that's about it. Afterwards you can control your computer from any other computer by just logging into the LogMeIn Web site and clicking on the right button. You don't have to download anything as it's all done through your browser.


You can also control your computer from smartphones and tablets. You're probably gonna be using it from your smartphone the most. LogMeIn has apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.


Why LogMeIn ?


There are a lot of alternatives to LogMeIn. There is Windows' built in Remote Desktop Connection (RDP), VNC and TeamViewer. Most people are probably familair with the latter. All of these can be setup to do the same thing LogMeIn does but I just found LogMeIn to be the the most convenient to setup and I never really had any trouble with it.




Why should I want this ? What use does this have ?


In this regard the sky's the limit really. I personally use it to launch file downloads so they're done by the time I arrive in the office, to resize photos and copy them into DropBox if I want to show them to someone on my phone/tablet, to encode video files and so on. These are just a few of the things I use WOL and LogMeIn for, I'm sure you could find many more uses.




If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I'll answer them to the best of my ability.


EDIT: Tutorial link disappeared.

EDIT 2: Addition of WOL apps.

 

[Vibrance]

Thanks - always wondered if this was possible but never actually looked into it.

 

[Black.Star]

Or you can just... Use SSH?

 

[zerocoolflo]

Well, you could also use your tablet and control your laptop from distance. It's like having a mobile business.

Just play with it, go outside at a cafeteria , drink a coffee and enjoy your life

Best ever

 

[onlineworker_007]

thanks mate

 

[xxtoni]

Thanks - always wondered if this was possible but never actually looked into it.

You're welcome.

Or you can just... Use SSH?

A lot of people don't know how to use or aren't comfortable using SSH. Personally SSH is too slow or simply can't do some of the things efficiently.

For example you need to encode a video using Premiere or you want to take a look at some files you have on your home PC and don't exactly know where they are so you have to search from them from folder form folder (assuming here that you don't know the filenames). How would you go about doing that over SSH ?

This guide is meant for people who want a painless experience, if you have a SSH server setup on your home PC it obviously isn't meant for you.

 

[scrapefox]

Being able to turn your computer on remotely certainly has it's uses. I use it for similar things to you, starting downloads, setting bots running or just so I don't have to wait for my computer to load.

For my iPhone I use the app mWOL and use iTap RDP to be able to login to my computer remotely from it also.

 

[xxtoni]

Being able to turn your computer on remotely certainly has it's uses. I use it for similar things to you, starting downloads, setting bots running or just so I don't have to wait for my computer to load.

For my iPhone I use the app mWOL and use iTap RDP to be able to login to my computer remotely from it also.

Another very useful thing is controlling your VPS or dedi from your tablet/phone. Whenever I forget to turn some tool on/off I can do it form my phone, very useful indeed.

 

[scrapefox]

Another very useful thing is controlling your VPS or dedi from your tablet/phone. Whenever I forget to turn some tool on/off I can do it form my phone, very useful indeed.

Yeah, I do that also hehe

Home pc and both servers. Controlling scrapebox using a touchscreen takes a little longer, but it's not too bad

 

[knowbody]

I use LogMeIn and never needed to setup or enable port forwarding on my router.

 

[xxtoni]

I use LogMeIn and never needed to setup or enable port forwarding on my router.

The port forwarding is required for WOL, not for LogMein.

 

[xxtoni]

Something I need to do but have always been too lazy to do. Plus I've always wondered if the PC hangs/freezes will this still work and restart it?

WOL is just for turning it on. You can however use LogMeIn for turning it off, though if it freezes and LogMeIn doesn't respond you probably can't shut it down but that never really happened to me to be honest. When LogMeIn gets stuck I just close the current sessions, start a new one and then it works.

 

[nick_is_awesome]

Thanks, I needed access to a server and this has helped a bunch!

 

[richardmaxwell]

Yeah, LogMeIn is pretty slick. It used to be my favourite, but now I prefer using RHUB remote support servers for its better security and easiness of everything in one setup.