Who needs Wake on LAN to Auto start a PC?
Learn how to schedule an auto start for your PC without using
Wake on LAN.
In my previous article, I discussed how to calculate how much it is costing both you and your company leaving your computers powered on. I also showed you how to calculate potential savings by reducing the amount of time the computer is powered on. But leaving an organization’s computers powered off creates a quandary for I.T. staff. What about the need to remote to that computer to install software? What about the need to push out important patches and updates?
Well, one option is to purchase a utility that uses the Wake on LAN feature to automatically start the computers at a pre-scheduled time. Those of you not familiar with Wake on LAN, it uses a special network packet, the Magic packet, to send a signal to your Magic packet compliant network card. When the network card receives this packet, it automatically powers on the computer. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, you may discover that pushing out a Magic packet through versus subnets may not work according to plan. And, there is the cost of the software to do this. I’ve tried some free products but they were manual start ups one computer at a time, and not viable for a complex network.
How about poor man’s Wake on LAN? Most modern BIOS have the ability to schedule an auto start. So, you could actually configure the motherboard BIOS to do this for you. For example, Lenovo which is the brand I am most familiar with has an auto start feature. For Lenovo PCs, you get to the BIOS by pressing F1 when the computer starts (POST). Each computer manufacturer has a different startup sequence to get to the BIOS, so watch closely when your computer starts. Some manufactures include the ability to push out BIOS updates across the network. We manually configured nearly 500 computers to auto start each morning at 7:00 a.m. before staff arrive. This offers some advantages: 1) I.T. staff can continue to push out Windows patches throughout the night (we use WSUS). 2) Staff can immediately login when they arrive. This may not sound like a big advantage, but have you noticed how impatient you users are waiting 5 minutes for a 5 year old XP machine to start!?
There may be exceptions - for example, staff working from home or other remote workers. Some VPN manufacturers include the ability to use a Magic packet during a VPN connection - I’ve tested this with mixed results.
There you have it - an easy to save your company money by instructing employees to turnoff their computers each night, and auto starting the PC without requiring Wake on LAN.
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