Hello everybody!
In this video, I’m going to show you how to turn a computer on remotely with a smartphone.
I think each of us had this idea, at least once in a while: what if you could turn a
computer on in a different way?
Can you do it with a smartphone?
Your Windows operating system offers an option to schedule when exactly your computer turns
on.
But in this video, I’ll show you how to wake your PC by Wi-Fi with an Android smartphone,
and how to turn on a computer remotely even if you are far away.
First of all, let’s explore how a computer can be turned on from a smartphone connected
to the same network.
How to turn on a computer from a smartphone with Wake-On-Lan
Let’s start with configuring the network adapter in BIOS.
The steps may differ a bit depending on a specific computer model, but the settings
you need to go through are more or less the same.
In BIOS, you need to configure the option Wake-On-Lan.
It makes sure that power is supplied to the network adapter all the time; the adapter
examines all received data packets and turns on the computer when it sees a packet which
says it’s time to do it.
To make the whole system work you need a motherboard supporting this feature and a smartphone with
Wake-On-Lan application or similar software.
All right, power on the computer and access BIOS.
Usually, you can do it by holding the Delete button while the computer is booting.
Look for an option with the name like Wake-On-Lan, (Power on by PME device, Power on by Ethernet
card): now you can see all possible names on the screen.
In my case, it is Lan Power On.
If you are using a discrete network adapter, activate the option “Power On By PCIE Devices.”
Enable it.
Press Escape, Save changes and exit.
Then save the changes and leave BIOS, or press F10.
Now you need to download the Wake On Lan application to your phone.
I’ll leave the link under the video, but there are many similar apps out there, so
feel free to choose a different one if you want.
The app is quite easy to use.
Just connect the smartphone to your network by Wi-Fi, and make sure that the computer
is also connected to the same network.
In the application window, tap + to add and swipe down to search for any devices in this
network or type the address manually.
If there are several computers connected to your network, try to find the one you need
by disconnecting their cables from the router or just disconnecting them from the network.
Search for devices in the app, remember what devices were detected, and then reconnect
the computer to the network and search again; the new device will be the computer you are
looking for.
Select it from the list.
You can find the MAC address of a computer in Windows by opening the Run window and entering
the command msinfo32.
Open Components - Network - Adapter.
On the right, you can see the information on all network adapters working with this
computer, including their MAC addresses.
Select it from the list of devices in the application on your phone.
You can give it a nickname and select color.
Add device.
Now it appears on the list of available devices.
That’s all: now all it takes is to tap this device on your phone and the command to wake
up will be sent to the computer, so it will turn on again.
If the computer doesn’t respond to the command, try updating its network adapter drivers.
If it doesn’t help either, disable fast startup.
To do it, open Control Panel / Power Options / Choose what the power buttons do / Change
settings that are currently unavailable.
Uncheck the box for “Turn on fast startup.”
How to wake a computer from a smartphone by Wi-Fi or remotely with TeamViewer
If the Wake On Lan function is configured on your PC, you’ll be able to turn it on
even remotely, when your phone works with a different network and is far away from the
actual computer.
You can do it with the help of the well-known utility, TeamViewer.
Previously, I’ve already covered this product in one of my videos, so I will leave the link
in the description below.
To be able to wake up a computer remotely, TeamViewer should be configured so that such
computer could be wakened with its public IP address.
For security reasons - to make sure that you are the only person who can turn on the computer
in such a way - you should link it to your TeamViewer account.
Here is how you can do it: 1.
Start TeamViewer on your computer.
2.
In the main menu, select Extras - Options.
3.
Go to the category “General.”
4.
In the section “Account assignment,” click the “Assign to account…” button.
5.
The “Assign to account” window will open.
Type your email address and password.
7.
Click the “Assign” button.
8.
Congratulations, you have just linked the computer to your TeamViewer account.
In addition to the settings, you also need to configure port forwarding on your router.
Follow the link in the description to learn more about forwarding and watch a detailed
video on this topic.
If the computer doesn’t have a public address, you can also wake it from another computer
via the local network.
Both computers should be powered on, and TeamViewer should be installed and configured to start
with Windows.
In this case, you’ll be able to turn on Wake-On-LAN options through the local network.
To do it, you need to enter TeamViewer ID for the computer which will be used to wake
up your PC.
This way, the signal will be sent through a certain computer, and to the computer which
you want to wake up.
In the main menu, click Extras - Options - General.
Go to Network settings - Wake-on-LAN, and click the Configure button.
Here, check the box for “Other TeamViewer within your local network.”
In the TeamViewer ID field, type the ID for the computer which should be the one sending
the signal to wake up, then click the Add button.
ОК.
Now the computer can wake up with the help of a saved TeamViewer ID.
To wake up the computer, open TeamViewer, sign in to your TeamViewer account and go
to Computers & Contacts list.
Select the computer you want to wake up and right-click on it, then choose Wake Up.
The computer will turn on and appear both in the network and on the Computers & Contacts
list.
That is all for now!
Hopefully, this video was useful.
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Thank you for watching.
Good luck.