WOL works fine but then doesn't

[trentonhenderson412]

I am trying to set up the ability for me to utilize wake on lan for two PC's in my home. One is my normal everyday use Windows 10 PC and the other is a media server running Windows Server 2016. I am using Teamviewer to accomplish this since I can use the WOL feature within the software but also remotely control both machines when I am not home.

I have done plenty of research online and watched many youtube videos on the subject so I think I have done everything I need to do as far as configuration. Here's the thing ... the WOL feature works just fine for a while and then without changing anything it stops working.

So here is a summary of what I have done for both machines:

• 
  1) Have BIOS enabled to use WOL
  2) Made sure that all drivers are up to date
  3) Enabled relevant settings within network card:
  • A) Under Advanced tab: "Wake Up on Magic Packet", "Wake on pattern match", "WOL & Shutdown Link Speed", and "Shutdown Wake-On-Lan" are all enabled
    B) Under Power Management tab "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is unchecked but "Allow this device to wake the computer" and "Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer" are both checked
  4) Set network settings to use static IP address from router
  5) Enabled port forwarding on router for each machine to have its own port (in this case Ports 7 and 9)
  6) Confirmed router is reserving the corresponding IP address for each MAC address
  7) Enabled WOL feature in Teamviewer software on each machine and input the IP address that my ISP assigned to my modem as the "Public Address" in the WOL settings

So after getting everything configured I use the Teamviewer app on my iPhone to test everything. Please note I have my WiFi on my phone turned off so I am going through my cell network as to simulate me not being at home when trying to do this. I open the app, hit the "power button" icon next to each machine and presto they each come on. I am able to connect and remotely control everything with no problem. I will then shutdown each machine and then repeat the WOL process a few times from the iPhone app again and again and it works just fine.

The problem is that it will stop working after a bit of time passes. After I turn them on and off a few times using the iPhone app (using the Verizon network mind you ... NOT connected to my WiFi network) I will then try it again in like 30 mins and *flop* nothing. Neither responds. I don't understand if I do not change anything why it will work several times back to back and then, WITHOUT physically touching either machine, it stops working. Literally nothing is changing; the only variable that I can tell is time.

I am stumped. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will list my motherboard and router below. Thank you in advance!!

• 
  Media Server Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P (rev 2.0)
  Regular PC Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P (rev 2.0)
  - Both MB's have the "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller" NIC
  Router is Linksys EA7500 AC1900

 

[bill001g]

I am not sure how team view solve the problem of arp timeout.

The problem with trying to do wake on lan when you are on the internet is there is not such thing as wake on WAN. Now some people try to port map to the internal IP. The problem with this method is that there may be a port mapping but the IP to MAC in the ARP will time out. Since the machine is not awake and running any form of IP stack it will not respond to ARP to refresh this information.

Very technically WoL has not concept of IP. It sends a special packet to the broadcast MAC address containing the mac of the machine to wake in the data field. Pretty much something must be active on the network to send these packets they can not come in from the internet. Some routers can send these and since they are on all the time you can ask them to send the data to the machine....you still must use a mac address because the machine does not actually have a IP at this point.

 

[trentonhenderson412]

I am not sure how team view solve the problem of arp timeout.

The problem with trying to do wake on lan when you are on the internet is there is not such thing as wake on WAN. Now some people try to port map to the internal IP. The problem with this method is that there may be a port mapping but the IP to MAC in the ARP will time out. Since the machine is not awake and running any form of IP stack it will not respond to ARP to refresh this information.

Very technically WoL has not concept of IP. It sends a special packet to the broadcast MAC address containing the mac of the machine to wake in the data field. Pretty much something must be active on the network to send these packets they can not come in from the internet. Some routers can send these and since they are on all the time you can ask them to send the data to the machine....you still must use a mac address because the machine does not actually have a IP at this point.

I appreciate the response Bill.

I was able to tinker with maybe using sleep state instead of shutdown and I think that might work. I guess I will just keep trying different avenues of approach until I find one that works.

Thank you again!!