Remote Wake Up Service

The Remote Wake Up Service, also known as Wake on LAN, or WoL, is a method of switching on a computer remotely across a network. The computer must be plugged into mains power for this to work, but it can be switched OFF: it does NOT need to be in Standby, Hibernate or any other power saving mode.

NOTE: you can't just plug in a computer and expect it to wake, you usually need to shutdown a computer so it is left in the correct state to be woken. Wake on LAN is available on most modern computers and needs to be enabled in the BIOS. If your device supports WoL, the service is described below.

Using the Wake Up Service

You can access the Wake-Up service from the Wake-Up website.

First, shut down the computer you wish to wake up, make sure to leave it plugged in and the network cable is attached. To wake up this computer, from another computer,

  • Browse to the Wake-Up website and log in
  • Select the computers you want to wake up
  • Click the Wake-Up link
  • Confirm by clicking Send WoL Packets

The target computer should then boot. If the computer you want to wake is not listed you will need to contact the IT Service Desk to make sure you are registered as a user of the machine.

To connect to the target computer you will need to enable remote access, for instance, remote desktop or secure shell.