Wake-On-Lan

[Ben]

Does anyone know how to make WOL work? Can it be done with Vista machines? Can it be done with a wireless USB adapter either sending or receiving? I've been trying to make this work for a little while and I'm not sure what I'm missing.

[Jared]

That may not be possible on some or "most" PC's because of MS power states;

Device Power States
Until now, the only description of device power states has been in the APM specification. Unfortunately, these definitions are not precise and have led to a wide variety of interpretations, which has caused problems. To standardize the nomenclature, the definitions presented in this section are used for the power states of devices on any bus. These states are defined in terms of the following four criteria:

• Power consumption: how much power the device uses.

• Device context: how much of the operational context of the device is retained.

• Device driver: what the driver must do to restore the device to be fully on.

• Restore time: how long it takes to restore the device to be fully on.


D3 State for Device Power
• Power consumption: Power may have been fully removed from the device.

• Device state: Device context saved by hardware when in the state. The device must be reinitialized, or restored, to fully-on operation upon entering the D0 power state.

• Device drivers: Any device driver associated with the device must reinitialize or restore the device to fully-on operation when exiting the D3 state for the D0 power state.

• Restore time: Total restore time for the device is highest because of the possible need to completely reinitialize the device.


D2 State for Device Power
• Power consumption: Power consumption is equal to or greater than the D3 state. Power usage should be reduced to the minimum level where device state restoration is still possible.

• Device context: Device context might be preserved or might be lost, depending on class-specific definitions.

• Device drivers: Device driver function in this state is according to class-specific definitions.

• Restore time: The time required to restore the device from the D2 state to the D0 state is equal to or slower than resumption from the D1 state. It is acceptable for device restoration time from D2 to be slower than D1 in the interests of additional power conservation. Actual response times are according to class-specific definitions.


D1 State for Device Power
• Power consumption: Power consumption is equal to or greater than the D2 state, but less than the D0 state.

• Device context: Device context might be preserved or might be lost, depending on class-specific definitions.

• Device drivers: Device driver function in this state is according to class-specific definitions.

• Restore time: The time required to restore the device from the D1 state to the D0 state is quicker than resumption from D2 whenever possible. Resumption should incur the least possible delay to avoid user perception of delay. Minimizing delay in restoring the device is a higher priority than power consumption in this state. Actual response times are according to class-specific definitions.


D0 State for Device Power
• Power consumption: This is assumed to be the highest level of power consumption.

• Device context: The device is completely active and responsive.

• Device drivers: The driver is functioning normally.

• Restore time: Not applicable.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/devicepm.mspx

[Ben]

Thank you for the input, I'll let you know if I have a breakthrough