Description
Wake-on-LAN ( WoL or WOL ) is an Ethernet or Token Ring computer networking standard that allows a computer to be turned on or awakened from sleep mode by a network message.
Equivalent terms include wake on WAN , remote wake-up , power on by LAN , power up by LAN , resume by LAN , resume on LAN and wake up on LAN. If the computer being awakened is communicating via Wi-Fi, a supplementary standard called Wake on Wireless LAN (WoWLAN) must be employed.
The message is usually sent to the target computer by a program executed on a device connected to the same local area network. It is also possible to initiate the message from another network by using subnet directed broadcasts or a WoL gateway service.
The WoL and WoWLAN standards are often supplemented by vendors to provide protocol-transparent on-demand services, for example in the Apple Bonjour wake-on-demand (Sleep Proxy) feature.
