Administrator Guide
16 Configuring Remote Wake-Up Using Dell Client Command Suite
3 Wake on LAN/WLAN
The Wake on LAN/WLAN BIOS feature allows a user to wake a system from S4 or S5 state (including dirty
shutdown – AC/DC power is removed while system is running the OS) using LAN/LOM/Add-in NIC and/or
WLAN.
To wake up the system, a magic packet is sent over the network from another system using target system’s
MAC address. PING and ARP also can be used.
This feature can be set as -
Disabled - The devices do not wake the system when a wakeup packet is received.
LAN Only - A wakeup packet sent to the LAN/LOM/Add-in NIC to wake the system.
WLAN Only - A wakeup packet sent to the WLAN to wake the system.
LAN or WLAN - A wakeup packet sent to either the LAN/LOM/Add-in NIC or WLAN to wake the
system.
LAN With PXE Boot – A wakeup packet sent to the system in either the S4 or S5 state which causes
the system to wake-up and immediately boot to PXE. If booting to the PXE server fails, the boot
process continues to the next item in the Boot Sequence. There should not be any halting error, if the
PXE server is not available.
Note:
When system is in the Deep Sleep state, Wake on LAN functionality is disabled. Click Deep Sleep
Control for more information.
When running on battery, Wake on LAN/WLAN is disabled in order to conserve battery life. The
system must be plugged into AC for Wake on LAN/WLAN to detect the wakeup packet.
When Wireless Switch is set to turn off the radio, Wake on WLAN is not possible. Click Wireless
Switch for more information.
There are also OS and NIC driver options, which are not controlled by BIOS to allow/disallow a user to wake
the system from S3, S4, and S5 states. For S4, even if BIOS ‘Wake on LAN/WLAN’ is set to enabled, the OS
WOL option must also be enabled, otherwise the system is prevented from WOL. The Intel NIC driver has
options for ‘Wake on Magic Packet’ to control wake from S3.
This table summarizes the behavior of Wake on LAN when system is in different power states and also other
wake on options controlled by OS and NIC driver.