Wake on Lan

[JDavie]

Hello,

We recently started using new device management software that supports turning devices on via Wake on Lan. However, no computers will power on.

When sending the magic packet from the Meraki Dashboard, the device power up, confirming the computers had been setup for WoL. The management software is cloud based, and we believe Meraki is probably blocking the incoming magic packets. Are there any settings that we should change?

[Brash]

How does the solution work?

Where does it send the WoL packet from?

[Enduro]

Theoretically, you can send magic (WOL) packets over WAN, but it doesn't work with MX (according to my tests, if MX has no IP and MAC address binding in ARP table, it drops the packet, it also prevents sending packets over WAN to IP broadcast address). A good solution to this problem would be to enable WoL packet sending via API, but this is not implemented. It stays through the dashboard, but it is not scalable with a network with over 150 branches. 😐

You can try to vote for WoL through the API:

https://community.meraki.com/t5/Developers-APIs/Wake-on-LAN-API/m-p/110831

[JDavie · Accepted solution]

Nevermind, we got it sorted out. For anyone who has a similar problem in the future, WoL is sending the magic packet from another device local on the same lan (the name wake on LAN should have been a hint) with the management software on it. In our case, port isolation is blocking the magic packet, but a firewall blocking port 12287 would also interfere.