Remote wake-up for sleeping computers

The School of Informatics has a remote computer wake-up service. It can be used to wake a machine which is sleeping. It should be able to wake most personal computers: DICE desktops, Windows managed desktops, and self-managed computers which have a fixed IP address. (See Computing platforms for an explanation of self-managed machines, and see the Informatics network pages to learn about their network needs).

Use a VPN

If the device you're using isn't on the Edinburgh University network, it will need a VPN client. Either the University VPN or the School VPN will do.

How to use the wake-up service

To use it, visit the following web page:

wake.inf.ed.ac.uk

When you visit the page you will see a list of computers which you can wake, and a "Wake the computer" button. To wake a computer, choose it from the list then click "Wake the computer".

A computer will only appear on the page if the computer inventory knows that you should have permission to wake it. If your computer is missing, ask computing support for permission to wake your machine(s) with wake.inf.

The same wake-up process can also be run from the command line. Login to one of the ssh servers then type the command

wakeweb name

where name is the name of a computer to be woken.

If your personal or self-managed machine cannot be woken this way, even when it is listed correctly in wake.inf.ed.ac.uk, try updating its BIOS and software, and enabling "Remote wake-up" or "Wake on LAN" settings.

The University also has a central Wake On LAN service, but network compatibility and data issues mean that we can't use it with Informatics computers. This is why we have our own service. If you want to know more about the University's service anyway, it is provided by Information Services and there is a helpful PDF document Activating Wake on LAN/Remote Access for Your Office Computer on its Off-site working pages.

See also Automatic sleep on DICE machines. For background reading see Connecting from outside the University - an overview.