My very large and loud server is in my bedroom. When I or my shared users are not using Plex for a while, I would like the server to sleep (save on energy and noise). I have all of the settings set-up for WOL on my Windows 10 server, and Plex wakes up the unit as intended. But because Plex doesn’t use “magic packets”, i cannot select “only use magic packet to wake the computer” in the power management option for my Ethernet. When magic packet is selected, i can no longer turn on my server via a Plex app.
Problem is, by only selecting “Allow this device to wake this computer” and not the magic packet option, any home network traffic wakes the computer several times throughout the night and the server is constantly turning on and off at all hours of the day. If Plex would send a magic packet, it would solve this issue that seems to be common to a lot of people on other forums. Could this be implemented?
Don’t forget that this is “Wake on LAN”, and not “wake on WAN”.
A “magic packet” can only travel in the local network segment, but cannot cross network boundaries, i.e. your router.
So waking up the server from remote is out of the question.
Don’t Magic Packets work from anywhere with Port forwarding? From this link;
Wake-On-LAN uses UDP. Many utilities use ports 7 or 9, but you can use any port you like for this. You’ll need to forward a UDP port to all IP addresses behind your router—you can’t just forward to a specific IP address. The Wake-on-LAN packet must be forwarded to every device running behind your router, and a device will only wake up if the information in the WoL packet matches it. This is known as a “subnet directed broadcast.”
To do this, you’ll need to forward the port to the “broadcast address,” which will broadcast the packet to all computers on a network. The broadcast address is ..*.255. For example, if your PC has the IP address 192.168.1.123, you’d enter 192.168.1.255 as the broadcast address. If your PC has the IP address 10.0.0.123, you’d enter 10.0.0.255 as the broadcast address.
Wake-On-LAN uses UDP. Many utilities use ports 7 or 9, but you can use any port you like for this. You’ll need to forward a UDP port to all IP addresses behind your router—you can’t just forward to a specific IP address. The Wake-on-LAN packet must be forwarded to every device running behind your router, and a device will only wake up if the information in the WoL packet matches it. This is known as a “subnet directed broadcast.”
To do this, you’ll need to forward the port to the “broadcast address,” which will broadcast the packet to all computers on a network. The broadcast address is ..*.255. For example, if your PC has the IP address 192.168.1.123, you’d enter 192.168.1.255 as the broadcast address. If your PC has the IP address 10.0.0.123, you’d enter 10.0.0.255 as the broadcast address.
Well, maybe my informations are outdated. Use their “magic packet creator” and try to wake up your machine from outside your home network. I’d be interested to know the outcome.
Anyway, Plex clients don’t create magic packets, so you’ll have to distribute other tools/apps to your users so they can wake your server before trying to use their plex app.
I just tried this and was able to send a Magic Packet from my android phone to wake my server without being on the home network (via 5g cell network). Therefore, it can be done…
I had once used my NAS to host a webpage that when accessed would sent a WOL to my server on the local network.
The issues were the wake up time on the server to be accessible (15+ seconds), training my family to go to the page first and another port open on my network.
Wondering if you could do a IFTTT with another device on your network like an Echo or Raspberry Pi to send a WOL to your server… hmmm.
Thank you for all of the advice - but my server is in the room with the Ethernet, and i don’t want to run it through my house. And I really don’t want to replace a $3400 machine just because the fans run when it’s on.
As for the zen question… it still serves when it’s off, as long as it turns on when i request. Problem is, it’s over serving and running when I don’t need it.
