Wake up HTPC from Internet?

[galileo2000]

Hi,

It's not exactly Xlobby-related, but in a way it is...

It's more IT/network question. But it is related to HTPC!! I want to start HTPC from Inet, select input for Slingbox from USB-UIRT and watch my stuff remotely.

Keep HTPC "always on" doesn't appeal to me, I should be able to start it remotely.

I want to be able to wake up my HTPC from Inet., start Xlobby willstart on startup, then I can select input source from the switchbox with Xlobby button to feed Slingbox and watch whatever I want from my media anywhere..

I use Netgear WGT624 v3 router. It works just fine for "Wake-on-LAN" from my home network (yes, BIOS and NIC are configured correctly). But I am unable to wake it from the Inet using correct MAC address. Root of my problem is I don't know how to make router send incoming UDP pocket to subnet 255.255.255.255 (all devices on the LAN).

I was coping with Netgear WGT624 v3 configuration and so far I don't know how to make it happen. Ending address on the router is 254 instead of 255 and it doesn't work if I forward my dedicated UDP port to 192.168.1.254. It "should" work if I could enter 192.168.1.255 instead, but I can't, router software barks on "invalid address".

You guys are so smart, help me out pretty please?

If anybody is able to wake up their HTPC from Inet, what router are you using?

[alaricljs]

This is listed as being specific to linksys routers but it may help you:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/6790

Note that it does say x.x.x.255 is the correct internal destination address. Seeing as how your Netgear will not allow that, you'd need to look at alternatives. Probably a linksys

[galileo2000]

Linksys will it be. I have exhausted my options, seems like Netgear just doesn't want it since it does not have ARP tables saved in memory and doesn't know how to transmit the packet to the right device..so little Linux-based Linksys is coming from newegg. Wow, it is expensive, but well..I want it.

[Marbles_00]

Curious as to why you used a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255. Most home network articles say the subnet mask of the LAN should be 255.255.255.0 (the WAN is usually 255.255.255.255). Besides that, are you using the router's DHCP capabilities (not sure if Netgear can do that or not)? Maybe you could try and define a permanent IP address for the HTPC instead, and not use one set up by the router. Maybe your router has the capabilites to set up a static IP list for specific MAC addresses. I have a Dlink DI-604 and it has that capability (though I'm not using it, each machine has its own unique IP address set at the individual machine).

[alaricljs]

It does not matter if the HTPC has a static address or DHCP provided by any of a number of sources.

The WOL packet is a broadcast packet with no destination IP. All capable interfaces on the local network are required to receive and analyze the packet. Inside the packet is the MAC address of the intended recipient. That recipient (and no other, MACs are supposedly universally unique) should then power on as long as any other requirements within the packet are met such as required passwords.

Being a friday when I read the original post it seems I missed the part about 255.255.255.255. This is incorrect. For 192.168.1.X the netmask is 255.255.255.0 and the broadcast address is 192.168.1.255. The 192.168.1.255 address is not useable by any single interface.

The idea would be to have the outside address UDP port 9 (or whatever the right port is for your WOL util) forwarded to 192.168.1.255. This should re-broadcast the packet to the entire local network. Of course this means that anyone on the outside could send the WOL packet (if they could figure out the right MAC destination).


Anyhow... hope that helps.

[galileo2000]

Guys,

Thanks for the help, but you are missing the point. I can WOL my HTPC from the local just fine, using 192.18.1..whatever. Point is to wake it up from the Inet using my DDNS service!!

[galileo2000]

OK, I found the solution, and it is sweet. You have to have Linksys WRT54G router verion 4 or WRT54GL. Then you go there: http://www.linksysinfo.org/modules.php? ... sc&start=0

Then you enable Remote Management for the router and you enable specific port for this.

What does it mean for all intensive purposes and especially Xlobby?

Well, I can turn on my PC from ANYWHERE as long as I have Inet access>.I can do it from my phone/PDA Sprint 6600.(using NetFront, Pocket IE doesn't work).

Then Xlobby fires up. Then my remote from Xlobby is up. Then I can control my 800 DVDs and my 2 DirectTV sources through Slingbox and I can watch it anywhere...

Thought you would like to know. Toook me a lot of research to get to it. But now I am very very happy.