Remote Desktop

[Dan Strong1]

So I was going to ask if Surface 2 Pro supports Wake on Lan but I guess if I left it at home in the dock, its just asleep anyway so could I could connect any time I like? I have a big power eating PC so Surface would be perfect, I leave my PC on all the time and wish I didnt have to.

Thanks

 

[MBytes]

Wake on lan will not work. If your SP2 is sleeping your router has no IP address for it. So over the internet, you can't make it wake up.
You might try locking the IP address and define properly the port forwarding for remote desktop, if your router supports this, but for a home router, I never seen it actually work reliably or at all.
But I am no expert on Wake on LAN, should do more reading.

 

[Dan Strong1]

Well if using the dock it will have an ethernet port, which could be used for wake on lan?

If its plugged into the dock, does it have an ip address then?

 

[Dan Strong1]

Well if using the dock it will have an ethernet port, which could be used for wake on lan?

I mean by sleeping, I mean pushing the top button. Sorry I only have a Surface RT at the moment, im just looking to replace my PC.

If its plugged into the dock, maybe it will work?

 

[MBytes]

If its plugged into the dock, does it have an ip address then?

If the system is off (or well sleeping), Windows (or wtv OS you are using) can't allocate and IP address. The router can't ping the device to know that the device is sill in the house. In your router eyes, you just threw away that computer in the bin. But like I said, you have to see.. Some router might have the ability to lock a computer to an IP address, and that COULD make it so that the router assumes that there is always a computer there, and that will make wake on LAN work, as it would know how to redirect things. All I can say, is you have to try.

 

[jmshub]

Wake on LAN only works within the LAN. You can't send a wake packet through your gateway. I've been experimenting with wake on lan over VPN, but haven't found a solution that works yet.

Wake on LAN doesn't use ip addresses. It uses MAC address, and works at a lower level than ip. But MAC doesn't leave the Ethernet thus the inability for WoL to work outside of your network.

 

[MBytes]

Aha interesting! Thanks.

 

[Dan Strong1]

Yeah I understand WOL, and I use VPN to connect to my network at home. But usually the computer has to support WOL. I just don't have a Surface Pro 2 to test it so was wondering if someone else has? If I was using VPN it should work because I could use another device on my network (My Synology NAS) to send the packet, or even my remote pc if using VPN?

I just don't know how Surface Pro works, is it always awake? If so it wouldnt matter. From what ive seen of it, it looks like its always awake with just the screen off.

 

[WScottCross]

Some services such as LogMeIn.com can actually wake a sleeping PC from outside your local network.

 

[Dan Strong1]

Yeah I've used logmein, its pretty decent, but remote desktop ive found faster.

Im still looking for the answer. My scenario is that I will connect to my home network via vpn, so technically im in my home network. Does the Surface have WOL support or is it even asleep or what? My Surface RT seems like its always awake but the screen is off.

Is this what the connected standby feature might be when pro 3 arrives? Help!

 

[thatotherdude24]

I have a TP-Link WDR3600 router and in the admin it gives the option to set static IPs through the MAC address of a specific computer. I then have VNC running on all the computers in the house. Yes, this way I wake via LAN to a computer that is hardwired, I have no tried to a computer that is wireless. I did have to enable wake on LAN in device manager under the NIC settings.

 

[Cleavitt76]

As others have said, WOL via a "magic packet" depends on the MAC layer and requires a hardwired LAN connection. With a docking station it is possible since you said you can get a local device to trigger the magic packet, but it depends on the implementation and drivers for the docking station's network interface. I can't speak for the Microsoft docking station, but I do have a Toshiba Dynadock dual monitor docking station that I use with my SP2. The hardware/driver does support WOL and it does work. I suspect the MS docking station would also support it.

Even if the MS docking station doesn't work with WOL, you could always configure a custom power profile that "never sleeps" when your SP2 is connected to the power adapter or docking station. The screen would still shut off, but your SP2 would still be awake. It would only use a few percent of the power that your desktop is probably using and it would be awake and listening for a remote desktop connection.

** EDIT **

As a side note, in recent versions of Windows there are two different "levels" of Wake On LAN functionality. You can see them by viewing the properties of your network adapter(s) under Windows Device Manager and then the Power Management tab. The first level is "Allow this device to wake the computer." This option will wake the computer any time another computer on the LAN tries to talk to it. This makes it a very light sleeper. For example, if you have drives mapped on another PC to a PC that is trying to sleep, the sleeping PC will wake up any time those mapped drives are accessed (including just opening My Computer).

The second level is "only allow a magic packet to wake the computer." This used to be the default and it requires a utility and some manual effort to wake the remote computer. I had to check this option on my Windows 8 desktop because by default it was not checked. My desktop was waking up all the time due to LAN activity, mapped drives, etc.

I mention this because if you look at the same power management properties for some wireless network adapters (including the SP2) the first level option is there, but unchecked by default. That implies that you can wake the SP2 via WiFi by simply pinging it or anything else that attempts a connection. Of course this also means that the network adapter would have to remain active which would use some amount of power in sleep mode.

** Edit 2 **

I just tried the wake option on my SP2 wireless network adapter. It doesn't seem to work so I have no idea what that checkbox is supposed to do. Anyway, the options are still helpful for wired connections.

** Edit 3 **

Last edit, I promise. Here is an MS article that explains the required steps to enable Wireless WOL. It seems as though the WiFi adapter on the SP2 supports this (based on the previously mentioned checkbox being shown in the UI), but I haven't tried it myself...

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee851581(v=WS.10).aspx