Starting your computer from your phone

Introduction

We all try to make our work and everyday life as easy as possible. Imagine this scenario: we are drinking our morning coffee when we suddenly remember something we need to do on the computer today. Instead of waiting for the computer to start, we can switch it on from our phone and, as soon as we finish the last sip of coffee, sit down at a workstation that is ready to go. How do you do it?

WOL

WOL stands for Wake On LAN, which means waking a device over a LAN, i.e. a network connection. Unfortunately, not every device can use this feature, so first we need to check whether our computer or laptop supports WOL. We can check this in two ways:

-By searching the internet for the device name together with "WOL"

-By checking in the Windows settings whether the WOL option is available

Configuring WOL

First, check that the BIOS settings are correct. While the device is starting up, hold down the F2 key (this depends on the motherboard or laptop model). Then check the WOL setting – depending on the BIOS model it may be named differently. If you have trouble with this, it is best to search the internet for your BIOS model +"bios WOL"; this way you will see what WOL is called on your device.

Next, start the operating system. Search for Device Manager. From the list of devices, select Network adapters and then the network adapter you are interested in. Right-click it and select Properties.

Go to the Advanced tab and check whether the magic packet option is enabled.

Then go to Power Management and make sure that none of the settings prevents the device from being woken up.

Once all the steps are complete, your computer is ready to be started remotely with WOL. All that is left is to download an app that makes this possible. Personally, for a mobile app I recommend "Wake On Lan" by Mike Webb, and for a desktop app I recommend "Easy WOL (Wake on LAN)" by Arunas Adomaitis.