Wake on LAN/WLAN option allows the computer to power up from the S4 or S5 state when triggered by a special LAN signal or when triggered by a special wireless LAN signal. This feature only works when the computer is connected to AC. Ethernet connections, including home and work networks, wireless data networks and the Internet itself, are based on packets of data sent between computers. Wake-on-LAN is implemented using a specially designed packet called a magic packet, which is sent to all computers in a network, among them the computer to be woken up. Powered-down or turned off computers capable of Wake-on-LAN will contain network devices able to "listen" to incoming packets in low-power mode while the system is powered down. If a magic packet is received that is directed to the device's MAC address, the NIC signals the computer's power supply or motherboard to initiate system wake-up, much in the same way as pressing the power button would do. In case the computer being awakened is communicating via Wi-Fi, a supplementary standard called Wake on Wireless LAN must be employed.
Below shows the screen shot of BIOS F2 screen which facilitates Wake on LAN/WLAN:
As seen in the screen above BIOS F2 provides 4 options ‘Disabled’,’LAN Only’, ‘WLAN Only’ and ‘LAN or WLAN’. The import of the above attribute values are explained below:
‘Disabled’ – Does not allow the system to power on by special LAN signals when it receives a wakeup signal from the LAN or wireless LAN.
‘LAN Only’ – Allow the system to be powered on by special LAN signals.
‘WLAN Only’ – Allow the system to be powered on by special WLAN signals.
‘LAN or WLAN’ – Allow the system to be powered on by special LAN or wireless LAN signals.
Dell Command PowerShell Provider(DCPP) has strived hard to present this feature to the user closely adhereing to F2 screen as possible. DCPP presents this feature to the user in the form of attribute named ‘WakeonLANorWLAN’
Fig.2
Possible values for this attributes can be obtained with the command as shown below:
Dir WakeonLANorWLAN|Select –ExpandProperty PossibleValues
Fig.3
As seen in the above screen shot, DCPP provides more attribute values apart from default ones as facilitated by BIOS F2. The attribute values and their import is as described below:
LAN Only – Allow the system to be powered on by special LAN signals.
Disabled – Does not allow the system to power on by special LAN signals when it receives a wakeup signal from the LAN or wireless LAN.
LAN with PXE Boot - Enables the network controller and causes the system to wake up
and immediately boot to PXE when a wake packet is sent to the system in the S4 or
S5 state.
WLAN Only – Allow the system to be powered on by special WLAN signals.
LAN or WLAN – Allow the system to be powered on by special LAN or wireless LAN signals.
AddinCard - Enables NICs, plugged into the special power connector, as the source
of any wake-on-LAN signal.
Onboard - The onboard NIC is enabled for wake-on-LAN.
The user can set any of the attribute values as shown in the sample screen shot below:
Fig.4
In the above example the user has set the value of attribute ‘WakeonLANorWLAN’ to ‘LAN Only’ as shown when done ‘dir’.
NOTE: If system or admin password is set then this has to be provided with ‘–Password’ switch. In the above screen shot there is a reference to how user has provided password with ‘–Password’ switch.
