Magic Packet Wakeup Remote System (1 Viewer)

[Axodious]

MediaPortal Version: 1.1.0
MediaPortal Skin: Maya
Windows Version: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU Type: Core 2 Duo E8500
HDD: 140GB Western Digital Sata2
Memory: 8GB
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-EM


Looking for something that can wakeup a remote system when I start Mediaportal. I have a lot of my media on a separate system that I've recently been sleeping, so when I go to watch a movie I now currently have to go to the other room and turn on the system or run a 3rd party application on the Mediaportal system to send the magic packet wakeup.

 

[VdR]

MediaPortal can send a WOL to the TV server. So if your media and TV server are the same no problem.

In my case it is the same machine, but still I run a third party utility to start the TV/media server with a WOL packet at startup of the MP client. This way the wake-up is initiated much earlier.

I can only access my TV/media server through Remote Desktop from my development machine. So there I have a little batch on the desktop that sends the WOL package.

VdR

 

[Axodious]

MediaPortal can send a WOL to the TV server. So if your media and TV server are the same no problem.

In my case it is the same machine, but still I run a third party utility to start the TV/media server with a WOL packet at startup of the MP client. This way the wake-up is initiated much earlier.

I can only access my TV/media server through Remote Desktop from my development machine. So there I have a little batch on the desktop that sends the WOL package.

VdR

Don't have a TV server, silly Canada.

 

[VdR]

But why is it a problem to use a third party utility?

I used to have separate TV and Media servers and never considered this an issue.

VdR

 

[joz]

Besides third party apps there's also a third party plugin called HTPCInfo which can do the job.
There are more plugins out here for the same purpose.
You could also create something yourself with a batchfile + multishortcut plugin.

Depending on your usage scenario you can also dump that same batfile in the startup folder of your main HTPC. Everytime windows boots the fileserver will boot up too. The same thing can be achieved when getting out of standby, although in a different manner.

I'm also looking into something decent for my linux based NAS (which is just a desktop actually). Not sure yet on how to approach my problem though; I think I'll be writing a bash script that monitors filelocks and goes to sleep when there are none left (that's the NAS part).
What would be ideal (at least for me) that MP will fire off a WOL packet when it can't find/access a share. This should be done in a backgroundworker (so no GUI freezing up) and accessing the share should be retriggered after an X time period. That would be ideal but I think it will not be implemented any time soon, if at all. Should drop a request somewhere.

---EDIT---

Eventghost can also trigger a magic packet. So that way you can assign a button on your remote too WOLling the PC in question. There are tons of solutions, which fits best to your case depends though.

 

[Gixxer]

But why is it a problem to use a third party utility?

I used to have separate TV and Media servers and never considered this an issue.

VdR

can you say which utility do you use to wake up the server?

 

[Axodious]

Besides third party apps there's also a third party plugin called HTPCInfo which can do the job.
There are more plugins out here for the same purpose.
You could also create something yourself with a batchfile + multishortcut plugin.

Depending on your usage scenario you can also dump that same batfile in the startup folder of your main HTPC. Everytime windows boots the fileserver will boot up too. The same thing can be achieved when getting out of standby, although in a different manner.

I'm also looking into something decent for my linux based NAS (which is just a desktop actually). Not sure yet on how to approach my problem though; I think I'll be writing a bash script that monitors filelocks and goes to sleep when there are none left (that's the NAS part).
What would be ideal (at least for me) that MP will fire off a WOL packet when it can't find/access a share. This should be done in a backgroundworker (so no GUI freezing up) and accessing the share should be retriggered after an X time period. That would be ideal but I think it will not be implemented any time soon, if at all. Should drop a request somewhere.

---EDIT---

Eventghost can also trigger a magic packet. So that way you can assign a button on your remote too WOLling the PC in question. There are tons of solutions, which fits best to your case depends though.

Think the best option I've found is using a command line utility (WolCmd.exe). Now how would I get Mediaportal to run this when it starts? I looked at Multishorcut but it looks like it only works by going to it once Mediaportal is running.

 

[joz]

Yup Multishortcut is only able to create shortcuts (like the name suggests ) inside MP.
So you want to fire up MP and sent a WOL? That's easy just write a batch with something like;

"C:\Program Files\MediaPortal\mediaportal.exe"
"C:\Program Files\MediaPortal\PowerOff\poweroff.exe" wol -ip 192.168.x.x -subnet 255.255.255.0 -mac SOMEMACADDR

Fire that instead of double clicking MP shortcut.
I use Poweroff as you can see. It can do these sorta things and has great commandline support, just google for it.

 

[VdR]

But why is it a problem to use a third party utility?

I used to have separate TV and Media servers and never considered this an issue.

VdR

can you say which utility do you use to wake up the server?

Yes, I can, but I'm afraid the answer is still the same!

things i am trying right now...

1. i have set the "during the day" energy plan created with the software above, to make my server go to sleep after x minutes but only if i am NOT sharing media. lets see how it goes :O
2. i dont have a proper watt meter logger just what you saw before so i have placed a webcam infront of the display and make a software take a picture every 5 minutes. after 1 or 2 days i will place all readings to an excel file and analyse the data. cool idea ehh yeah i know...cheap haha
3. i still need to find out how to send WOL to my server by my htpc when it wakes up from sleep. "without using tvclient as that htpc is not used for tv". ideas are welcome.

2.

3. I use a batch file:

cd I:\Program Files\wol
wolcmd 002185123DBE 255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255

You can find the wolcmd utility on the net. I run this when the client powers up, there are utilities that will run a batch when coming out of standby. That should do it.

VdR

VdR

 

[Gixxer]

thanks i must have missed/forgot about that answer.

nevertheless, im still looking for an utility that will send magic packets to the server every Xmin so that if the client is awake, then the server is also.(even if its not using the server, just so its ready in case of need)

have not found it yet