WakeMeOnLan

Managing connected computers without the right software can be a huge headache and hard to handle. With many different systems, each having different configurations, waking them up remotely can be impossible even with scripts, which can’t be run. WakeMeOnLan is a utility that can perform this function easily over LAN connections without needing any special packets.

Features

WakeMeOnLan features a dead simple user interface which provides information in a tabular way regarding all connected clients over the Windows domain with their MAC addresses, Computer name, Network adapter and status. The top is filled with menu bar and toolbar which provide all the options. WakeMeOnLan uses Wake-on-Lan (WOL) packets over LAN connections which wakes them up. In order to facilitate these features, Windows options to wake on LAN should be enabled and LAN packet acceptance should be enabled from BIOS settings if necessary. There are shortcut keys available to function faster and the identified remote locations information can be saved in a file to reload on successive executions. Additionally, Obsolete items can be removed from the context menu.

WakeMeOnLan uses internal MAC address database to identify routers but it is static in nature. The list can manually be updated by downloading it from IEEE website. There is also command line options available where specific machines can be turned on from sleep by sending WOL packets along with full network scanning and reporting. The software is available for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 including both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. A large number of languages are supported such as English, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Japanese, and many more!

Comparison

On the Windows platform, there are plenty of alternatives available. Nyxbull Wake on LAN is an almost a similar offering with even more simplified interface but has not extra functionality. FUSION Wakeup LAN is another advanced offering with options such as IP ranges and is best suited for server setups. Wake-ON-LAN Online is an online tool which is great for implementing the solution over Internet and thus there is no extra software installation involved apart from browser. Some other similar alternatives include Depicus Wake on LAN, and Wake on LAN Monitor which is identical in offering.

Conclusion

WakeMeOnLan is a simple and useful utility that send special WOL packets to wake up computers from sleep over a network. Such a utility is essential as this cannot be done using shell commands over the network. Autosave lists for connected hosts are great which saves scanning time and MAC list is updatable. Apart from this, the software is available in all major versions and supports command line arguments – the latter helps in using it in batch programs and other utilities.