Setting up a System w/ Wake-on-LAN and VNC?

andrebsd asks: "I'd like to make myself some sort of webpage where I could startup my system with 'Wake on Lan', and once it is started, use VNC to login. Once I'm done doing what I need the system for I would then like to shut it down again. I'm wondering how one might go about putting something like this together. VNC has various scripts for making that part work, but I haven't seen any scripts that can function as a 'Power on/Power off' button for a webpage. Thanks to anyone with any way of doing this." While there are helpful reference for Wake-on-LAN tools, how would you integrate all of these into a coherent system? How might one keep such a system (relatively) secure?

Comments

what system, dude?!?!?!

[teridon]

It'd be nice if you told us what kind of system you are planning on doing this to. Other hosts on the network that DON'T sleep? info, info, info!

WOL isn't very hard.

[duffbeer703]

You'll need to lookup the precise specifications for WOL. Basically you simply send the MAC address three times to the target machine over UDP. Then the NIC wakes the computer up.

It's not very difficult to do this with a perl script or something similar that can be integrated into a web page.

Another alternative that may interest you if your target computer has access to a phoneline is "Wake on Ring". Some BIOS vendors (Abit was one) allow a modem to power on a PC after a specified number of rings.

Re:WOL isn't very hard.

[revmoo]

Good thinking

Here's a perl script that will do just that, then all you would need to do is combine it with mod_perl and you'd be set. As far as security I don't really think it'd be an issue, besides, you DEFINITLY have security-through-obscurity on your side here :-)

Re:WOL isn't very hard.

[drinkypoo]

Incidentally, mod_perl is neither necessary, nor in many cases a particularly good idea as getting it set up and running can be a PITA. I think that CGI is definitely up to this task :)

Where is your "system"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is your "system"?

You do realize that Wake on LAN is a layer two protocol, right? I.e. it's an ethernet protocol that has nothing to do with IP, UDP, or TCP.

The webserver that is hosting this webpage will have to be on the same local area network [layer two] as your "system." So:

[you at your web browser] -> [THE CLOUD] -> [the webserver] -> [your "system"]

where the final arrow MUST be on the same local area network.

The person who administers the webserver [the second to last point in the diagram] must give you sufficient rights to some daemon on that webserver so as to allow you to send out a layer two [ethernet] packet via that daemon. If you yourself are not the administrator of this webserver, the chances of you getting those kind of rights are between slim and none. The standard sandboxes, such as the Java sandbox, don't allow you to get anywhere near sending a layer two packet.

Re:Where is your "system"?

[Anonymous Coward]

The box which sends the WOL packet doesn't have to be on the same LAN as the target system. The initiator has to cause a WOL packet to be sent to the MAC address of the target machine's network interface. If you set a static ARP association for the last hop, WOL packets can be sent from anywhere. The network interface card ignores the encapsulating higher-level protocol. It just looks for its WOL signature inside the packet.

Well

[SpaFF]

You could write a cgi-program that calls Etherwake. Or you could be even more savvy and write a cgi or php program that just sends out the wake-on-lan "magic packet" by itself. It's just an ethernet packet. Bear in mind thought that the webserver is going to need to be on the same network as the machine that you are trying to wake up or it won't work.

webmin module

[satanami69]

Usually webmin would be the best bet, but they don't seem to have a Wake on Lan module yet.

I suppose you can take one of the hundreds of perl WOL scripts and pretty easily(though not completely pain free Google: "perl wake on lan"), issue a WOL command.

Um, too obvious?

[tunah]

What's wrong with something simple? Throw a .htaccess in a directory with this (untested) script.
<html><body>
<?php
$machine="123.123.12 3.123";
$connect="wakeonlan --wakeup $machine"; // or whatever
if($_REQUEST['connect']) {
exec($connect);
?>
Starting up <?=$machine?>.
<?php
} elseif(ping($machine)) {
?>
<?=$machine?> is up.
<?php
} else {
?>
<?=$machine?> is down. <a href="?connect=1">Start up</a>.
<?php
}
?>
</body></html>

Re:Um, too obvious?

[tunah]

Oops, I forgot to say, I don't know if WOL allows you to shut down, that's easily added. If not, VNC will do it.

Re:Um, too obvious?

[Fizzl]

Yes, I sound like a troll. But just a question about you php coding style. Don't get offended please.

Do you actually use this way of putting php together in production system?
I would prolly rip my hair off if I had to be a maintainer coder for this.

I mean, using printf or echo isn't that hard. I think it would maintain the readability of the code better than switching in and out of the php-parser for every write.

Re:Um, too obvious?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're using printf or echo, what's the point of using php? other than you really like everybody's cgi scripts to run as the web user

Re:Um, too obvious?

[tunah]

Do you actually use this way of putting php together in production system?

Making it up as i type it into a slashdot box? Nope ;-) But for things without a template system I do prefer to keep HTML output outside the php parser.

The above was simplistic, but add some real HTML with lots of quotes that need escaping, some indentation, and an editor that syntax highlights HTML differently from PHP (and sure, a bit more thought into layout), and I find it easier to manage. That's just me of course, and i've never developed PHP with more than one other person.

And if I get modded offtopic... ;-)

Re:Um, too obvious?

[Grant29]

Using printf or echo adds overhead and slows the page down. Check out this comment:

In short, when writing themes, HTML should be written as HTML and PHP should be written as PHP. One of the great strengths of PHP is that it allows the coder to break out of PHP and code HTML on a dime with no performance setback by simply specifying closing and opening PHP tags where you want to start PHP code again. In fact, it is faster for your server to process a PHP/HTML mix this way.

Instead of coding HTML where it should be, most theme creators resort to using 'echo' statements to tell PHP to output everything in quotes, and worse yet, include the output in double-quotes, necessitating "escaped" double quotes for any quotes used in the HTML code.

This is not necessary and is in fact, a sloppy way to define a theme whose output is *mostly* HTML. If you look at the modified Extralite theme example at the bottom of this post, you will not see one 'echo' statement in the code. Whenever I need to start coding HTML for the theme, I simply pop-out of PHP with a closing '?>' tag; when I need to insert some PHP code (even if it's in the middle of an HTML block), I go back to PHP with an opening php tag.

Source: http://forums.postnuke.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2 &file=viewtopic&t=18177

--
For great deals on elctronics and computer equipment, check out Retail Retreat

Re:Um, too obvious?

[Trixter]

$connect="wakeonlan --wakeup $machine"; // or whatever

Uh, dude, that "or whatever" is more than 50% of the question he was asking. (Unless you are holding out on us with a "wakeonlan" script you have filed away somewhere...)

Re:Um, too obvious?

[Trixter]

Oops! http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/jpo/software/wakeonlan/

Some simple ideas

[Gudlyf]

I'm pretty sure it's not possible to sent WOL over the internet, since you're accessing the MAC address to turn the system on. It's broadcasting a packet to 255.255.255.255.

I use WOL to turn my Windows XP PC on by SSH'ing to my Linux server on the same LAN, then running the Linux WOL utility to turn the Windows PC on. Then I have the Terminal Services service running on the WinXP system on a non-default port where I can shut it down if I want to (using tsshutdn). It might also be possible to shut the system down remotely from the Linux system with Samba, but I've never tried that.

Re:Some simple ideas

[duffbeer703]

It depends on alot of factors.

WOL uses UDP to send the "magic packet", usually to port 9, where the packet never goes past layer-2 on the receiving end.

In a LAN this is a broadcast packet, but you can also direct the UDP to the last known IP address associated with a particular NIC. Sometimes it works, usually it doesn't.

Re:Some simple ideas

[duffbeer703]

I forgot to mention that since WOL over the internet is less than reliable, something like Wake-On-Ring with a modem or something similar is probaly a better idea.

Re:Some simple ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

It is perfectly ok to send any kind of packet whatsoever, as long as it contains the signature which the network card is looking for (essentially its own MAC address repeated several times, though there are different kinds of WOL packets). The problem is getting the packet to the target network card: If you send it to the last known IP address, the last router on the way will ask (by broadcast) which hardware address is associated with the IP address in the WOL packet (Address Resolution Protocol, ARP). Since the target machine is off, it won't answer, so the router drops the WOL packet and returns a "host unreachable" ICMP packet. Directed WOL only works while the ARP-association is still in the last router's cache or statically set. Practically this means that you have to be in control of the last router on the way to the target machine if you want to use directed WOL. In a home network environment, that last router is usually a Linux box, so you could just as well use broadcast WOL from there and avoid the ARP issue altogether.

Re:Some simple ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

What if you directed an IP packet to the internet IP address of the machine in question and then added the "magic" part of the packet inside the data segment?

Re:Some simple ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

That's precisely the situation which I described. The last router on the way won't broadcast the IP packet to the net on which the target machine resides. It tries to find the MAC address of the target network interface, and if that's not cached or statically set, then the router broadcasts an ARP request. It doesn't get a response, so it drops the IP WOL packet.

"If the router won't broadcast the IP packet, why not send the packt to the network broadcast IP address?" Theoretically this could work, but most routers don't route directed broadcasts (or even global broadcasts), because allowing directed broadcasts gives attackers a way to perform smurf attacks.

Re:Some simple ideas

[DrSkwid]

> I have the Terminal Services service running on the WinXP system on a non-default port where I can shut it down if I want to (using tsshutdn).

Security through obscurity - the golden path to heaven

you might want to go read these pages

particularly this one

your non-default port is worth 0 points

Re:Some simple ideas

[teridon]

You can wake up a system on a remote subnet by using two methods. One, you mentioned, is by using the remote IP. This probably won't work unless the router on the remote subnet still has the MAC address for that IP in its ARP cache. This isn't likely because if the system is sleeping the ARP cache probably expired already. And when the router for the remote system sends an ARP request (who has IP X), the sleeping system will of course not answer, so the router reports IP X as being down.

The second method is to send to the remote subnet's broadcast address (vice the LAN broadcast). e.g. if the IP is 128.183.23x.xxx, subnet mask 255.255.252.0, the remote broadcast address is 128.183.235.255. The router on the system local to the subnet with then broadcast it, so the sleeping system will see it.

The perl WOL utility allows you to specify the IP to use -- in this case specify the remote broadcast address and it should work. (unless of course there's a firewall blocking it :( )

Re:Some simple ideas

[Violet Null]

Why bother running Terminal Services on a non-default port? Why not have the Terminal Services connection tunnel through SSH?

(I can only assume that your Windows box is behind a firewall, and not directly accessible to the world. If it is, well, this is a moot question.)

Re:Some simple ideas

[op00to]

I bet the guy doesn't have a chain and 3 deadbolts on the door to the room where his computer lives. He better get with the program, right!

Re:Some simple ideas

[jamesh]

I've done this before with the directed broadcast. The remote systems are linked via gre tunnels (ipip tunnels didn't work), and the remote routers are cisco 837's. Under current IOS versions you have to enable ip directed broadcast, it used to be on by default but now it's off. Make sure you put appropriate firewall rules in too, directed broadcasts are great for DoS attacks.

Re:Some simple ideas

[Tower]

No, but he does have some ill tempered sea bass...

Re:Some simple ideas

[Gudlyf]

I guess I should've specified that I port-forward through SSH. My bad.

Port-forward through SSH = Give Gudlyf cookie and 20 points

Let me clarify that.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can make this more complicated if you like:

[you at your web browser] -> [CLOUD 1] -> [the webserver] -> [CLOUD 2] -> [some box that is always on] -> [your "system"]

But the idea is that, as before, the "box that is always on" must be on the same local area network as your "system," and you must have been granted sufficient privileges at the "box that is always on" so as to be able to send a layer two [ethernet] packet.

This will be nigh unto impossible unless you are the owner of said "box that is always on," in which case your "system" might as well be "always on" itself.

maybe

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have a home lan and run the website off one PC that's always on, it should work.

I'm not sure how well Wake-On-Lan works when the packets are being sent from the internet to a cable modem with a PC that's off. Specifically, if no IP address is allocated to you, why are they going to route any packets in your direction?

If there is a correspondance between physical 'neighborhood' and IP subnet, then perhaps it will still work.

I tried getting WOL to work once and didn't have much success. There are plenty of command-line utilities for generating the packets. I think they just sent special packets to a particular (unused) UDP port.

Good Luck!

Why WOL?

[i.r.id10t]

Why WOL? Why not use a ultra low power unit, set to start VNC or whatever on modem ring. Perhaps set it up to something like a dialup script, where it expects and the phone sends certain tones in order for authentication.

What I do. . .

[MikeDawg]

I have a couple boxes on my network, one of which is a linux box that is "always-on". I have the SSH port (port 22) open to incoming connections from outside the network, and I have a VNC port open able to get to from outside the network, on the windows machine. I just ssh into my linux box, and run a simple perl script (I already recorded the NICs MAC address) to send the magic packet to the windows machine, give it a couple minutes, and then VNC on in to my windows machine. . .

always-on appliance with an IP address

[Futurepower(R)]

Maybe one piece of the puzzle of making Wake-on-LAN over VNC work would be to have a DSL modem, and some kind of always-on appliance that could be programmed to turn on the computer. The appliance must have an Internet address. This is the idea, but it is too expensive: Internet Power Switch. Maybe this would be better: 1-Port Serial Device Servers, but no price is listed.

You have a good basic idea. You don't want to leave the computer on all the time, but you would like to VNC the computer when you need it. Actually, I want that too.

All you need is a low-voltage switch with an Internet address. You can adjust the OS to turn on when the power switch is pressed and hibernate if the power switch is pressed, if the computer is already on. If you need a cold re-boot, you can run the shutdown command from VNC, using a time delay.

A switch with an Internet address need cost no more than $50. The question is, who sells such a switch?

Re:always-on appliance with an IP address

[3waygeek]

Another alternative is an APC Masterswitch; it allows you to control multiple devices via web or telnet. It also works with an APC UPS to allow you to control how your systems behave when the power goes out (i.e. shut down non-essential boxen immediately to preserve battery power for the essential ones).

You can pick up one on eBay for a few hundred dollars, which works out to less than $50 per switched device.

I picked up a Masterswitch Plus (basically a switch with a serial port that can signal a computer to do an orderly shutdown) for about $300 on eBay about 6 months ago, and use it to control several computers and my network hardware.

Shouldnt be that hard

[fmlug.org]

Set it up like this

internet -> Webserver -> priv network -> Machine

You use the internet to hit the webserver which is a machine that is on both the internet and the private network. The web server has scripts that allow it to run some WOL script to wake the machine and then checks every now and then to see if the machine is started and the vnc server is running, now that you have the machine running be sure it is configured to run the java vnc server so all you have to do is connect to the vnc server machine with a web browser, not sure how to do this but im guessing there is a way to do it with some sort of url hacking. And as for shutting the machines off when you done, use vnc to turn them off, that always works for me.

Hope that all makes sence to you because it does in my head.

Apple Remote Desktop

[sakusha]

I do this all the time on my MacOS X systems, with Apple Remote Desktop. It has the ability to wake or sleep CPUs by remote control over the LAN. Right now I'm in bed using my laptop, I left my main CPU in my office downstairs doing a download, I checked its progress remotely just like VNC works, it just finished a few minutes ago, so I issued a remote sleep command. If I want to remotely wake it and start some other task I can do that too. ARD is built in to every Panther system, but the ARD Client software must be purchased separately. But you get what you pay for. ARD is killer software.

Can be done with GSM

[krishnaD]

If you want to do it with GSM and SMS, you will have less things to worry about and more control. I had something similar to control el. devices using GSM. Take a cheap cellphone, take an Atmel or a philips micro-cont, poll the cell phone using handmade module and connect a live circuit, as soon as predefined sms comes complete the circuit. Depending on the controller you use, you can control up to 8 devices.

Any cheap routers capable of sending WOL?

[WoTG]

I see lots of posts for using a local server that is always. I guess this will work for a lot of techie places... but what about everyone else?

Are there any cheap routers that can send a simple WOL message? Are there any that have been hacked so that someone can add this function?

Re:Any cheap routers capable of sending WOL?

[delus10n0]

SMC routers have always had this. You can log into their web interface and get a listing of DHCP clients. You put a check next to the ones you want to wake, and press "Wakeup". Done!

Consequently, I have a 3Com 3C510 Home Gateway (not made anymore) and it can also do the same wake up functions (not surprisingly, since it contains the same internals as SMCs)

Re:Any cheap routers capable of sending WOL?

[mcowger]

My SMC Barricade 7004AWBR can do this from its web interface. Its a great router in general too, and linux friendly.

Catch

[Unominous Coward]

The only catch to all of this is that you need to have another computer on the same LAN that is always switched on.

Having said that, you may as well have your extra PC always turned on as well, but with power saving enabled.

If only you could wake up machines straight over the internet...

This is utter and complete bullshit.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, but I've gotta call you on that.

Even if there were such a thing as "static ARP association for the last hop", there ain't a network administrator in the world who would allow that kind of traffic to pass over his routers.

Re:This is utter and complete bullshit.

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you mean, "that kind of traffic"? It can be a normal TCP SYN packet, a UDP packet from/to port 53, anything really. It just needs to contain the MAC address of the machine which you want to wake up (6 bytes of $FF, followed by the MAC address repeated 16 times, to be precise). There is nothing noteworthy about such a packet. Only without a static ARP entry do you have to resort to directed IP broadcasts, which I would agree is "that kind of traffic".

it's not IP, so it won't get routed

[graf0z]

At least the "standard AMD Magic Packet format" of WoL is ethernet-type 0x0842, not IP (0x0800). Instead of an IP-packet with dest- and source ip address it just contains repeatedly

"FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 11 22 33 44 55"

(if 00:11:22:33:44:55 is the target MAC). So it won't pass any routers, You have to do this in an ethernet-segment. Try

# ether-wake 00:11:22:33:44:55

and catch it with Your favorite sniffer.

It would be senseless to use IP for WoL, as the arp-table of the last router has already forgotten the MAC of the dest ip and cannot resolve via arp-request it as the destination host is sleeping. If You have no machine next to Your target, You're lost.

graf0z.

Re: it's not IP, so it won't get routed

[graf0z]

I have to correct myself: You may use ANY packet You want (IP, IPX, whatever), as long as it

• contains the "magic sequence"
• is contained in a valid ethernet frame
• is address to the target's MAC- or a multicast address (including broadcast).

Because of the handshake You cannot use TCP, but any UDP or ICMP (ping!) packet including the magic would do it. It has to pass the firewall (if any). The dest address could be

• unicast if the last router has a static arp entry for the dest
• broadcast if the last router forwards broadcast packets
• multicast if You have a multicast routing path from You into the last subnet.

Read AMD whitepaper and a howto.

/graf0z.

Re: it's not IP, so it won't get routed

[sydb]

Mod parent up, most informative post of this story.

Thanks, this will be useful to me!

Re:you can use IP...

[teridon]

It would be senseless to use IP for WoL, as the arp-table of the last router has already forgotten the MAC of the dest ip and cannot resolve via arp-request it as the destination host is sleeping.

You're right, but you can use IP if you use the remote subnet's broadcast address (i.e. no ARP request is needed). The perl WOL utility allows you to specify the IP to use.

New Wrinkle

[cam_macleod]

Everybody seems to have great solutions for that question, so let's make it tougher:

How about when I've got only one system, and it connects using PPPoE to the outside world... can anybody solve *that* one?

How about if pull out the power plug before I leave for work in the morning?

Re:New Wrinkle

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Modify the Ambient Orb so that the Internet access doesn't change the light, but triggers a robot to plug in your PC (and flick the power switch, or make turn-on automatic after plug-in somehow). Make a startup script that connects PPPoE.

APC 9210 power switch

[toygeek]

Get an APC 9210 power switch off Ebay. Then make sure that your system turns on immediatly when power is applied. Login to the power switch, turn on the power to that box, and viola.

We use these where I work for remote control of systems that have to be cold-booted every so often.

May I add to this question?

[zaqattack911]

Not too long ago I was given the "Kiosk project" at my work environment.

As far as your concerned these are winXP machines. We have 4 on the same lan. I was thinking of having a wake-on-lan system that would force a kiosk to send a "wake-on-lan" request to a neibooring kiosk if it was offline.

But that doesn't really help me if the kiosk is crashed and online. Is there a similar "reset-on-lan" feature out there?

Re:May I add to this question?

[drinkypoo]

Google search: hardware watchdog timer windows. That'll be twenty dollars and a four-pack of guinness stout in cans, please.

Here's my solution

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't implemented it yet but I don't think I'll have any problems since I'm doing it manually right now...

Computers and their ethernet addresses are in a database(MySQL for me).

Apache/PHP generates the page from the database and a small script to determine whether the computers are on/off(SNMP for me though a single ping would work--access limitation would be a given for this page anyway).

Wake-up link simply runs etherwake with the address from the database--yeah, external calls to suid root utils are bad...access limited to the page anyway and data validation is mandatory.

VNC is provided by a simple link to the Java port--http://computername:5900.

On a somewhat related note ...

[Etyenne]

I know the WOL connector on the motherboard provide 5V, but I wonder how much mA one can pull out of it ?

Think powering an out-of-case device (in my case, a IR receiver).

Re:On a somewhat related note ...

[brianjcain]

I think most motherboards require that the power supply deliver 1A on the +5V during standby, else they don't support the standby mode(s).

Cygwin's shutdown command works for windows

[zorkmid]

I usually just shut mine down to hibernate with
shutdown -h 25

$ shutdown --help
Usage: shutdown [OPTION]... secs|"now"
Bring the system down.

-f, --force Forces the execution.
-s, --shutdown The system will shutdown and power off (if supported)
-r, --reboot The system will reboot.
-h, --hibernate The system will suspend to disk (if supported)
-p, --suspend The system will suspend to RAM (if supported)
--help Display this help and exit.
--version Output version information and exit.

To reboot is the default if started as `reboot', to hibernate if started
as `hibernate', to suspend if started as `suspend', to shutdown otherwise.

Fun with WOL

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting Anonymously to protect the guilty party.

OK, so on our dorm LAN, we register users MAC-adresses. So one night, my buddy wonders aloud: "Hmmm, what would happen if we made a nice little perl script that got all the MAC adresses, and send them some wake-up packets...?"

We laugh a little, and I promptly forget about it.

OK, so we used to have a little graph over how many machines responded to ping on the network. Sampled every five minutes, usually very sine-like, with top around 10pm, and bottom around 4am.

So a week later, I get a screendump in the mail, of our graph, with a notable rise right around 3.30am, quickly flattening out. Turns out the BOFH-in-training had actually gone ahead and done it. Had quite a chuckle over that...

shell ap

[man_ls]

Use a shell app that sends a WoL packet to the system, executed using the php shell_exec("command") operator.

That'll turn the system on, then, VNC as necessary.

To turn off, VNC in and click shutdown or shutdown -k now or w/e.

Routing WOL across internet, through firewall

[EMIce]

Wake on LAN through a router/firewall

One thing worth noting is that the windows software they used to send magic WOL packets sent them to UDP port 2304. I don't know if this port is standard, so if WOL works through your firewall with their program but not ether-wake or some other software, find out what port your software uses and subsititure that into the firewall forwarding rules.

Zero hits on "static ARP association".

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

I'm getting zero hits on this mystery technique called "static ARP association":

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22static+ARP+assoc iation%22&safe=off

Doe it have another name?

Re:Zero hits on "static ARP association".

[Anonymous Coward]

TCP/IP stacks for ethernet devices need an ARP table in which to store associations of IP addresses and ethernet MAC addresses. That's called the ARP cache. The associations are also called mappings. If you manually add a mapping to that cache, you usually end up with a static ARP mapping, thereby associating the MAC address with the IP address of the target system even when that system is turned off, so the router knows the target MAC address without performing the ARP broadcast/response protocol (which would fail). Linux users should read the arp manual page: 'man arp'.

Re:Zero hits on "static ARP association".

[Anonymous Coward]

you, sir, are a fucking retard.

Yes.

[FreeLinux]

Yes, this capability is available but it requires special hardware.

There are two solutions that offer what you seek. First you can use server hardware like HP/Compaq with built in Out Of Band(OOB) management cards or Lights Out management cards in them. These cards are IP addressable and connect into the system's BIOS. They allow you to power the system on and off as well as view the boot up screens and even access and change the BIOS settings, all remotely. These are very powerful and indespensible for managing remote servers but, they are not cheap options that you will find in desktop class hardware.

The second option, and the one you will most likely want to use because it is far less expensive, is the IP enabled power switch. There are many different ones but, here is a simple example. Simply send the power on/off command to the power outlet and it restarts your system for you, remotely via TCP/IP. Not nearly as powerful as the Lights Out management card but it gets the blue screened PC rebooted, which is what you said you wanted.

Re:Yes.

[zaqattack911]

Thanks! The second option seems fine. anything to prevent me from physically have to approach and reset a kiosk.

From what I can tell, the only downside is that it'll need its own IP address. (Which we try and conserve at my workplace).

Re:Yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

RFC 1918....

plenty of addresses there....

[it IS possible to have multiple IP addresses on a machine... Give the infrastructure devices and management devices IPs in the RFC 1918 range..]

WOL works fine across the internet

[BigDish]

It seems to be a common misconception that WOL doesn't work across the internet. WOL works across the internet just fine. I've used DSLReport's web based utility here and it works perfectly.