Mac – “Wake on LAN” the Mac Mini from the PC

macNetworkpcsleep-wakewindows

I would like to be able to use the Wake On LAN feature to wake up my Mac Mini from my Windows PC, and I have tried two different programs (Solar Winds and NirSoft) but it is not working.

I have already enabled "Wake for Network Access" in the settings on my Mac Mini.
I have Mac Mini connected to my (Linksys) router with an Ethernet cable.
I have a Windows 10 PC connected to the same router over WiFi.
I can use VNC to screen share and control my Mac Mini from my PC. This works really well.
I can ping the Mac Mini (when it is on) from my PC and it responds.

Any ideas on how to close the loop on this?

Best Answer

You normally have to access a shared resource on the Mac rather than use a magic packet.

The simplest way is to set up file sharing (allowing SMB for the PC) and try to access that from the PC. This could be any folder you like so you do not have to worry about it being visible to others on the network and can (should) be password protected.

Other things that should work are:

Shared printers / scanners
Music
Music play lists
Screen sharing (I think but that may have been via VNC on the Mac)

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I resolves this by the using an answer from this question that links to this blog post, and incorporating this Wake UP NAS applescript into the automator app (Changing the MAC and local broadcast IP address to suit)

Wake Up Nas Script:

do shell script "python -c \"
import socket
data = '\\xff'*6+'\\x00\\x13\\xd4\\xdc\\xf2\\x80'*16
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_BROADCAST, 1)
s.sendto(data, ('192.168.1.255', 80))\""

The automator app is as follows:

pause 10 seconds
run the above WakeUpNas script
pause 4 mins (let the nas start up if needs be)
Get Specified Servers (add the servers that you want to wake)
Connect to Servers

Then adding the above App to the startup items to reconnect to drive when the Mac restarts.

By following the blog post you can also call the app when the computer wakes from sleep by installing Sleepwatcher and a little extra work.

Best Answer

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