Question Setting up port forwarding for wake on wan

Sylar1092

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Feb 14, 2023
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Hello, I wanted to set up port forwarding so that I could turn my pc on while I am in another country. I have enabled UPnP in my router and port forwarding is also enabled. The issue is I don’t really know what to put in inside the boxes.
For the first one, do I just put the ip address that I get when I go on websites such as whatismyipaddress? It doesn’t let me put my pcs ip address so I am a bit confused on what I have to put there. I searched it up online and after doing ipconfig on cmd, I found what the last number was for my pc, but I’m still not sure if that is what I have to put there as I cannot put the same ip address that I have on my WOL app on my phone, which I use when I want to turn my pc on using wake on lan whilst I am inside the same network as my computer.

And for the ports I am not sure what to put at all. On the wake on lan app in my phone, I use port 7.

For the protocols I have heard I have to put only tcp?

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
Problem # 1 is there is no such thing as wake on WAN everything that attempts this is a hack. Even WOL is very inconsistent partially because of microsoft being involved and they redefinition of sleep states. The best way to make this work is to buy one of those smart plugs that you can access via the internet. Set the option in the BIOS to boot when power is restored.

The other option is to use a router that lets you log in remotely and then instruct the router to send a real WOL packet. Most asus routers support this.

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So WOL sends a packet to the broadcast mac address that contains a special pattern of data that contains the mac address of the machine to take.

So there are no ip adresses, no port numbers, no protocols. It is purely done with mac addresses and mac addresses can not leave the lan.

Although I could go into detail on how people think they can make this work with port forwarding there is one fatal flaw in all of it. You need a router you can set a static arp entry. Almost no router allows this. You will find a lot of people who cut and paste garbage and even make youtube video showing it work. What happens though it might work for 15 minutes or so whenever the arp times out and this it no longer works.

In addition even if you would find a router that does static ARP entries it depends on how the BIOS actually implements things. The packets it will receive have ip addresses and port numbers in them in addition to the special string. Technically that is not a valid packet it really depends on how closely the follow the standard.

Best just not to use it. Even in the old days when lots of people used WOL it was very inconsistent you many times had to send the command many times.
 
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Problem # 1 is there is no such thing as wake on WAN everything that attempts this is a hack. Even WOL is very inconsistent partially because of microsoft being involved and they redefinition of sleep states. The best way to make this work is to buy one of those smart plugs that you can access via the internet. Set the option in the BIOS to boot when power is restored.

The other option is to use a router that lets you log in remotely and then instruct the router to send a real WOL packet. Most asus routers support this.

----------
So WOL sends a packet to the broadcast mac address that contains a special pattern of data that contains the mac address of the machine to take.

So there are no ip adresses, no port numbers, no protocols. It is purely done with mac addresses and mac addresses can not leave the lan.

Although I could go into detail on how people think they can make this work with port forwarding there is one fatal flaw in all of it. You need a router you can set a static arp entry. Almost no router allows this. You will find a lot of people who cut and paste garbage and even make youtube video showing it work. What happens though it might work for 15 minutes or so whenever the arp times out and this it no longer works.

In addition even if you would find a router that does static ARP entries it depends on how the BIOS actually implements things. The packets it will receive have ip addresses and port numbers in them in addition to the special string. Technically that is not a valid packet it really depends on how closely the follow the standard.

Best just not to use it. Even in the old days when lots of people used WOL it was very inconsistent you many times had to send the command many times.
Any recommended plugs that I can access via the internet?? I only seem to find ones that have apps; but I’m guessing they only work if I am connected to the same wifi network.
 
You don't really want to use the ones that are designed for internet usage directly. Most those have apps they want a monthly fee for. These are those home automation software. This though is the only way to go if you do not have a public IP.

You are going to have to read all the fine print. You want a device that uses IP addresses and connects via wifi. There are some that use bluetooth or proprietary radio protocols that will only work when you are very close in the house.

Key here is you still must do port forwarding except in this case it is normal IP protocols and ports. Now if you actually expose this device to the internet is a different questions. There are massive numbers of lights/door lock/thermostats etc etc that you can control remotely from outside you house if you work at it. These have extremely poor support for security.

Note...even if you managed to get WOL to work that too could be used to run denial of service attacks against your internal network. Partially why they never made a wake on wan version.