How to Perform Wake-On-LAN Over WiFi (Solution)

hsehestedt · Apr 9, 2023

EDIT: Forgot to mention one requirement for the Network adapter settings to make this work. Corrected by adding that requirement.

IMPORTANT: In order to make this work, you will need a laptop that has a Wake-On-LAN (WOL) capable Ethernet port. Why the need for an Ethernet port? Explanation will follow below.

Preamble:

I've always wanted a way to be able to get WOL working on a laptop sitting in a remote location where I did not have an Ethernet connection available. Although just about every WiFi adapter has WOL settings, I have never been able to get this to work, likely because it is not implemented in the system BIOS.

After years of wishing that I could make this work, I finally came up with a solution that works.

Requirements:

1) You will need a laptop that has an Ethernet adapter capable of WOL (again, explanation to follow).
2) Either a Travel Router that has an Ethernet to WiFi bridge option or a dedicated Ethernet to WiFi bridge device. Very inexpensive models are available.
3) Optional: A WiFi adapter either built into the laptop or connected via USB.

Overview:

The key to making this work is having a WiFi to Ethernet bridge. These devices are commonly used to provide access to a WiFi network on devices that have an Ethernet port but no WiFi capabilities. As an example, suppose that you have an older printer that has an Ethernet port but no WiFi. You want to put that printer in a location where there is no Ethernet connection available. The solution is to plug in one of these WiFi to Ethernet bridge devices. That device connects to the WiFi network and then bridges that WiFi connection to the Ethernet port on the device.

Detailed Steps:

1) I suggest that you first get WOL working with the laptop plugged into an Ethernet connection (this is optional). By verifying that WOL is working before introducing the Ethernet to WiFi bridge, you make troubleshooting easier if you run into any problems because you already know that your computer is properly setup for WOL.

TIP: To enable WOL on your laptop, make sure that you have this option enabled in your BIOS. Different laptops use different names for this. Some make it very obvious and call it wake-On-LAN, some might call it something like wake from PCIe device, etc. In addition, disable Fast Startup in Windows as this interferes with WOL. To do so, go to Control Panel\Power Options\Choose what the power buttons do. Turn off fast startup. Finally, open the properties for the Ethernet adapter in Device Manager.

2) Obtain an Ethernet to WiFi bridge adapter. At the end of this document, you can find a list of several such devices along with specific suggestions. Go to the Power Management tab and check all three boxes.

3) Confiure the device as per the manufacturer's instructions and then plug it into the Ethernet port on the laptop. Technically, it's just that simple and you could be done here. The only downside to this is that depending upon what bridge device you are using, some of these devices are slow. If you don't care, then you are done. If you have a slow Ethernet to WiFi bridge and you want a faster connection, continue reading. Be aware that these steps are completely optional.

To get a faster WiFi connection, once you have woken the laptop, you could switch over to the built-in WiFi adapter or to a USB connected WiFi adapter if it is faster than the bridge device. But there is a problem accomplishing that. The problem is that if a system has both an available Ethernet connection as well as a WiFi connection, the system will disable WiFi and connect over Ethernet instead, even if that Ethernet connection is slower than the WiFi connection. Windows allows you to set a priority for both Ethernet and WiFi adapters, but even if your WiFi adapter has a higher priority than the Ethernet adapter, Windows will use the Ethernet adapter if one is available. Fortunately, I was able to find a workaround. Continue with the steps below if you want to do this:

4) Make a note of the IP addresses used on your local network. To do this, go to Settings\Network & internet\Ethernet. Find the IPv4 address on this page. Most likly, your address will be something like 192.168.x.x.

5) Open the properties on the network adapter and manually assign an IP address that is not valid on the local network. To do so, go to Settings\Network & internet\Advanced network settings\More network adapter options. Right-click the Ethernet adapter and select Properties. Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Select Use the following IP address. In step 4, if you found that your IP address was 192.168.x.x, set an IP address of 10.0.0.1. If the address was anything else, set the address to 192.168.10.1. Leave everything else at the default setting and then click on OK, then OK again.

The address that we just entered is an invalid address on your network. Because of this, your Ethernet adapter will not be able to connect to anything and Windows will switch over to the WiFi adapter. Great! We now have a faster connection. But you may be wondering how this works. How is the Ethernet adapter able to get a WOL signal if it has an invalid IP address that is inaccessible on the local network? Well, it turns out the IP address assigned to the network adapter within Windows is completely independent from what the Ethernet adapter receives when the computer is shutdown with the adapter still enabled for WOL. When you shut the system down, the Ethernet adapter will get a DHCP assigned address from your router via the Ethernet to WiFi bridge adapter.

This concludes the procedure.

Some Available Devices and Recommendations:

IOGEAR GWU637 Ethernet to WiFi N Adapter - https://a.co/d/cd6TQX3
TP-Link N300 Wireless Portable Nano Travel Router(TL-WR802N) - https://a.co/d/3XoJ2tc
TP-Link AC750 Wireless Portable Nano Travel Router(TL-WR902AC) - https://a.co/d/5ASrlq6
TP-Link AC1200 Wireless Gigabit Access Point - https://a.co/d/98IpT9f (several models are available on this page)

The first device in the above list does one thing, and one thing only: It acts as an Ethernet to WiFi bridge and nothing else. The disadvantage is that it is a WiFi 4 device which is fairly slow and operates on the 2.4 GHz band only. This is the physically smallest device in my list (about the size of a thumb drive).

The second device is more versatile because it has other modes of operation as well. For example, it can be configured to act as a router or access point or it can be setup as a WiFi to Ethernet bridge. But it has the same limitations of being WiFi 4 only and 2.4 GHz only. However, even with the greater versatility than the IOGEAR device, it is less expensive.

The third device is almost the same as the second, having the additional versatility of being a travel router, but it is also faster, being a WiFi 5 device.

The fourth listing takes you to an Amazon listing for several devices. Some of these are nice and fast which will negate the need to perform the setting to the Ethernet adapter noted above. In fact, one of the models is a WiFi 6 model which may be even faster than the WiFi adapter built into your laptop.

One additional note: The first three devices above can be powered from a USB port. So, if you have a laptop that can supply power to the USB ports while it is shutdown, you won't need any external power at all. The devices found in the fourth listing will need access to power.

I hope that some of you may find this interesting!

Try3 · Apr 9, 2023

H,

That's interesting but I found the explanation of Ethernet to WiFi bridge confusing.
Wouldn't any WiFi router that also has an ethernet connection be an Ethernet to WiFi bridge?

Denis

hsehestedt · Apr 9, 2023

Try3 said:
H,

That's interesting but I found the explanation of Ethernet to WiFi bridge confusing.
Wouldn't any WiFi router that also has an ethernet connection be an Ethernet to WiFi bridge?

Denis

Denis, yes, you are correct, but we talking about the client PC. Take the example that I gave of a printer that has an Ethernet port and no WiFi built-in. How would you connect it to the WiFi network? You use an Ethernet to WiFi bridge.

In the case of a laptop, as I noted, I have found one where WOL worked using the built-in WiFi. It works only over Ethernet. As a result, you can attach an Ethernet to WiFi bridge to the laptop's Ethernet port and physically locate the laptop where there is no Ethernet running to your router. The bridge will connect to your router via WiFi and bridge all traffic it receives on WiFi to the Ethernet port where WOL does work.

Does that help to clarify it?

hdmi · Apr 9, 2023

For forcing Windows to use the WiFi adapter when an Ethernet adapter is also present, instead of changing the Ethernet adapter's IP like you have described, you can simply disable the Ethernet adapter via pnputil /disable-device.

Further, if the WiFi adapter is from Intel and supports WoWLAN, then it also is possible to use that, and use it WITHOUT needing to keep Ethernet plugged in. This can be especially handy if you, like me, are on a laptop that doesn't have an Ethernet port built in, but even if yours does have, then you STILL might find that keeping the Ethernet to WiFi bridge plugged in is not always that practical or feasible either.

With WoWLAN, one additional caveat is that the laptop tends to wake up each time when the wireless router triggers a GTK rekeying event, albeit on a lot of routers it also is possible to disable GTK rekeying, but if you do that, then, for security reasons you might want to set up a separate WiFi network specifically for WoWLAN so as to still be able to let all your other wireless traffic continue to work with GTK rekeying enabled just like normal.

hsehestedt · Apr 9, 2023

hdmi said:
For forcing Windows to use the WiFi adapter when an Ethernet adapter is also present, instead of changing the Ethernet adapter's IP like you have described, you can simply disable the Ethernet adapter via pnputil /disable-device.

Further, if the WiFi adapter is from Intel and supports WoWLAN, then it also is possible to use that, and use it WITHOUT needing to keep Ethernet plugged in. This can be especially handy if you, like me, are on a laptop that doesn't have an Ethernet port built in, but even if yours does have, then you STILL might find that keeping the Ethernet to WiFi bridge plugged in is not always that practical or feasible either.

With WoWLAN, one additional caveat is that the laptop tends to wake up each time when the wireless router triggers a GTK rekeying event, albeit on a lot of routers it also is possible to disable GTK rekeying, but if you do that, then, for security reasons you might want to set up a separate WiFi network specifically for WoWLAN so as to still be able to let all your other wireless traffic continue to work with GTK rekeying enabled just like normal.

Thanks for your comments. Very much appreciated. However, I have some thoughts on this:

If you have a system that has WoLAN capabilities, great, that may be a better solution for you. However, as I noted, this does not work on any of my systems. I have tried 8 systems that all have that option in the WiFi adapter settings, but it works on exactly zero of those systems.

In addition, if I disable the Ethernet adapter as you have suggested in Windows, then the adapter will not arm itself for WOL when the system is shutdown. Again, this is true on every single one of the systems I tested.

Of course, this is not meant to be a solution for every person, every system, or every scenario. I merely thought that it might be helpful to some people.

I know that for me, it makes possible some tasks I could never do before.

hdmi · Apr 9, 2023

hsehestedt said:
Thanks for your comments. Very much appreciated. However, I have some thoughts on this:

If you have a system that has WoLAN capabilities, great, that may be a better solution for you. However, as I noted, this does not work on any of my systems. I have tried 8 systems that all have that option in the WiFi adapter settings, but it works on exactly zero of those systems.

In addition, if I disable the Ethernet adapter as you have suggested in Windows, then the adapter will not arm itself for WOL when the system is shutdown. Again, this is true on every single one of the systems I tested.

Of course, this is not meant to be a solution for every person, every system, or every scenario. I merely thought that it might be helpful to some people.

I know that for me, it makes possible some tasks I could never do before.

Yeah, the network adapter can't arm itself when it's disabled, but you can let it be enabled again automatically, i.e. during the system shutdown task, as tedious as that may sound to some. Changing the IP like you described also does work, but the dependency on finding an invalid IP to make it work does not always make it practical either (or feasible, as this likely will depend on what kind of network environment you have been permitted to use with your laptop, unless of course you are just sitting at your own home where, maybe, you can choose to do pretty much whatever you like) so, I guess there's pros and there's cons to each one of both these two different methods. Over the past 15 years I have been buying a new laptop every ~3 years, always Intel and the WiFi also always Intel. (The one that I currently use is my 5th laptop, 4 of them Medion─from the local grocery store─and the 3rd one was an Asus.) I have never known Intel WoWLAN not to work. I don't know why you've had a total opposite experience with WoWLAN. Maybe try a different grocery store. Either that or just blame Microsoft instead. (Just kidding...)

kelper · Apr 9, 2023

@hsehestedt

Can you 'wake' a laptop if the lid is closed? My laptop receives Windows updates during the night when I have closed the lid.
It's set to sleep when the lid is closed.

I can't use your ploy on my laptop as it does not have an ethernet port and, if I use an ethernet to USB adapter, I don't think the USB will stay awake; I might but a wifi to USB though, just to test this!

Try3 · Apr 9, 2023

kelper said:
Can you 'wake' a laptop if the lid is closed? My laptop receives Windows updates during the night when I have closed the lid.
It's set to sleep when the lid is closed.

I think you need to state whether you have S0 Modern standby or S3 Sleep.
You can find out by running the command
PowerCfg -a

All the best,
Denis

kelper · Apr 9, 2023

Try3 said:
I think you need to state whether you have S0 Modern standby or S3 Sleep.
You can find out by running the command
PowerCfg -a

All the best,
Denis

Only S3.

hsehestedt · Apr 9, 2023

kelper said:
@hsehestedt

Can you 'wake' a laptop if the lid is closed? My laptop receives Windows updates during the night when I have closed the lid.
It's set to sleep when the lid is closed.

I can't use your ploy on my laptop as it does not have an ethernet port and, if I use an ethernet to USB adapter, I don't think the USB will stay awake; I might but a wifi to USB though, just to test this!

For all of my laptops, yes, I can wake them when the lid is closed.

However, note that not all systems will respond to WOL in sleep. For example, my primary desktop won't wake from sleep, but will wake from a shutdown state.

Some systems will behave exactly the opposite (can be woken from sleep and not shutdown). It's like the wild west out there.

As for using a USB Ethernet adapter, it's hit and miss there. None of my systems (at least the few I tested with a USB Ethernet adapter), work. Remember, that USB Ethernet adapter has to receive power while the system is shutdown. So, you might check if a device plugged in still gets power while the system is shutdown. If so, then maybe there is a chance it will work. If not, no chance.

hdmi · Apr 10, 2023

hsehestedt said:
For all of my laptops, yes, I can wake them when the lid is closed.

However, note that not all systems will respond to WOL in sleep. For example, my primary desktop won't wake from sleep, but will wake from a shutdown state.

Some systems will behave exactly the opposite (can be woken from sleep and not shutdown). It's like the wild west out there.

It's often (but certainly not always) just a matter of checking the BIOS settings first to see if the WOL behavior can be controlled in there, before you start to experiment with the Advanced settings of the network adapter through Device Manager. Any WOL related function that has been disabled in BIOS should refuse to work if you try to enable that function with Device Manager, as that's the exact purpose of those specific BIOS settings that relate to the WOL behavior, at least if the manufacturer hasn't been too lazy to implement them of course.

hsehestedt said:
As for using a USB Ethernet adapter, it's hit and miss there. None of my systems (at least the few I tested with a USB Ethernet adapter), work. Remember, that USB Ethernet adapter has to receive power while the system is shutdown. So, you might check if a device plugged in still gets power while the system is shutdown. If so, then maybe there is a chance it will work. If not, no chance.

A laptop that doesn't have a built-in Ethernet port should normally continue to deliver power to its built-in USB ports so, with USB Ethernet plugged in, other devices on the same network can detect that the laptop is still present on the network, but in a powered down state. Normally. But, normal is a setting on a dryer...

cereberus · Apr 10, 2023

hsehestedt said:
EDIT: Forgot to mention one requirement for the Network adapter settings to make this work. Corrected by adding that requirement.

IMPORTANT: In order to make this work, you will need a laptop that has a Wake-On-LAN (WOL) capable Ethernet port. Why the need for an Ethernet port? Explanation will follow below.

Preamble:

I've always wanted a way to be able to get WOL working on a laptop sitting in a remote location where I did not have an Ethernet connection available. Although just about every WiFi adapter has WOL settings, I have never been able to get this to work, likely because it is not implemented in the system BIOS.

After years of wishing that I could make this work, I finally came up with a solution that works.

Requirements:

1) You will need a laptop that has an Ethernet adapter capable of WOL (again, explanation to follow).
2) Either a Travel Router that has an Ethernet to WiFi bridge option or a dedicated Ethernet to WiFi bridge device. Very inexpensive models are available.
3) Optional: A WiFi adapter either built into the laptop or connected via USB.

Overview:

The key to making this work is having a WiFi to Ethernet bridge. These devices are commonly used to provide access to a WiFi network on devices that have an Ethernet port but no WiFi capabilities. As an example, suppose that you have an older printer that has an Ethernet port but no WiFi. You want to put that printer in a location where there is no Ethernet connection available. The solution is to plug in one of these WiFi to Ethernet bridge devices. That device connects to the WiFi network and then bridges that WiFi connection to the Ethernet port on the device.

Detailed Steps:

1) I suggest that you first get WOL working with the laptop plugged into an Ethernet connection (this is optional). By verifying that WOL is working before introducing the Ethernet to WiFi bridge, you make troubleshooting easier if you run into any problems because you already know that your computer is properly setup for WOL.

TIP: To enable WOL on your laptop, make sure that you have this option enabled in your BIOS. Different laptops use different names for this. Some make it very obvious and call it wake-On-LAN, some might call it something like wake from PCIe device, etc. In addition, disable Fast Startup in Windows as this interferes with WOL. To do so, go to Control Panel\Power Options\Choose what the power buttons do. Turn off fast startup. Finally, open the properties for the Ethernet adapter in Device Manager.

2) Obtain an Ethernet to WiFi bridge adapter. At the end of this document, you can find a list of several such devices along with specific suggestions. Go to the Power Management tab and check all three boxes.

3) Confiure the device as per the manufacturer's instructions and then plug it into the Ethernet port on the laptop. Technically, it's just that simple and you could be done here. The only downside to this is that depending upon what bridge device you are using, some of these devices are slow. If you don't care, then you are done. If you have a slow Ethernet to WiFi bridge and you want a faster connection, continue reading. Be aware that these steps are completely optional.

To get a faster WiFi connection, once you have woken the laptop, you could switch over to the built-in WiFi adapter or to a USB connected WiFi adapter if it is faster than the bridge device. But there is a problem accomplishing that. The problem is that if a system has both an available Ethernet connection as well as a WiFi connection, the system will disable WiFi and connect over Ethernet instead, even if that Ethernet connection is slower than the WiFi connection. Windows allows you to set a priority for both Ethernet and WiFi adapters, but even if your WiFi adapter has a higher priority than the Ethernet adapter, Windows will use the Ethernet adapter if one is available. Fortunately, I was able to find a workaround. Continue with the steps below if you want to do this:

4) Make a note of the IP addresses used on your local network. To do this, go to Settings\Network & internet\Ethernet. Find the IPv4 address on this page. Most likly, your address will be something like 192.168.x.x.

5) Open the properties on the network adapter and manually assign an IP address that is not valid on the local network. To do so, go to Settings\Network & internet\Advanced network settings\More network adapter options. Right-click the Ethernet adapter and select Properties. Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Select Use the following IP address. In step 4, if you found that your IP address was 192.168.x.x, set an IP address of 10.0.0.1. If the address was anything else, set the address to 192.168.10.1. Leave everything else at the default setting and then click on OK, then OK again.

The address that we just entered is an invalid address on your network. Because of this, your Ethernet adapter will not be able to connect to anything and Windows will switch over to the WiFi adapter. Great! We now have a faster connection. But you may be wondering how this works. How is the Ethernet adapter able to get a WOL signal if it has an invalid IP address that is inaccessible on the local network? Well, it turns out the IP address assigned to the network adapter within Windows is completely independent from what the Ethernet adapter receives when the computer is shutdown with the adapter still enabled for WOL. When you shut the system down, the Ethernet adapter will get a DHCP assigned address from your router via the Ethernet to WiFi bridge adapter.

This concludes the procedure.

Some Available Devices and Recommendations:

IOGEAR GWU637 Ethernet to WiFi N Adapter - https://a.co/d/cd6TQX3
TP-Link N300 Wireless Portable Nano Travel Router(TL-WR802N) - https://a.co/d/3XoJ2tc
TP-Link AC750 Wireless Portable Nano Travel Router(TL-WR902AC) - https://a.co/d/5ASrlq6
TP-Link AC1200 Wireless Gigabit Access Point - https://a.co/d/98IpT9f (several models are available on this page)

The first device in the above list does one thing, and one thing only: It acts as an Ethernet to WiFi bridge and nothing else. The disadvantage is that it is a WiFi 4 device which is fairly slow and operates on the 2.4 GHz band only. This is the physically smallest device in my list (about the size of a thumb drive).

The second device is more versatile because it has other modes of operation as well. For example, it can be configured to act as a router or access point or it can be setup as a WiFi to Ethernet bridge. But it has the same limitations of being WiFi 4 only and 2.4 GHz only. However, even with the greater versatility than the IOGEAR device, it is less expensive.

The third device is almost the same as the second, having the additional versatility of being a travel router, but it is also faster, being a WiFi 5 device.

The fourth listing takes you to an Amazon listing for several devices. Some of these are nice and fast which will negate the need to perform the setting to the Ethernet adapter noted above. In fact, one of the models is a WiFi 6 model which may be even faster than the WiFi adapter built into your laptop.
mi
One additional note: The first three devices above can be powered from a USB port. So, if you have a laptop that can supply power to the USB ports while it is shutdown, you won't need any external power at all. The devices found in the fourth listing will need access to power.

I hope that some of you may find this interesting!

Yep WOWLAN - wake up on wireless lan is very rare and difficult to get working

However, using a second router wifi bridge linked to man route with second router connected to pc works as it is using the more common WLAN. As far as pc is concerned, it is using ethernet.

I have been using this (now and then when travelling) for years using a little TP Link travel router like item 2.

As an aside, my main router (brand new from Vodafone) had a fault and only transmitted in 5 GHZ band (got a new router after hours of discussion with numpties in call centres). Not all my devices are 5GHZ capable. I attached the little tplink as a 2.4 ghz wifi access point temporarily - not fastest but adequate.

I must try wlan via bridge link again with new ISP router and new laptop.

kelper · Apr 10, 2023

Did you have to quote the entire post of Hesehestedt's? Why not just highlight a sentence and then quote?

cereberus · Apr 10, 2023

kelper said:
Did you have to quote the entire post of Hesehestedt's? Why not just highlight a sentence and then quote?

Using a mobile phone and selecting text fiddly so there!

kelper · Apr 10, 2023

These little travel routers are handy when......................................travelling! Some hotels' wifi allows only one device to connect at a time and these get around that.