Editing Wake-on-LAN (section)

{{short description|Mechanism to wake up computers via a network}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2024}}

[[File:Wake on LAN connector.JPG|alt=|thumb|A physical Wake-on-LAN connector (white object in foreground) featured on the IBM PCI Token-Ring Adapter 2]]

'''Wake-on-LAN''' ('''WoL'''){{efn|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'''.}} is an [[Ethernet]] or [[Token Ring]] [[computer network]]ing standard that allows a computer to be turned on or awakened from [[sleep mode]] by a network message.
The message is usually sent to the target computer by a program executed on a device connected to the same [[local area network]] (LAN). It is also possible to initiate the message from another network by using [[#Subnet directed broadcasts|subnet directed broadcasts]] or a WoL gateway service. It is based upon [[AMD]]'s ''Magic Packet Technology'', which was co-developed by AMD and [[Hewlett-Packard]], following its proposal as a standard in 1995. The standard saw quick adoption thereafter through [[IBM]], [[Intel]] and others.

If the computer being awakened is communicating via [[Wi-Fi]], a supplementary standard called '''Wake on Wireless LAN''' (WoWLAN) must be employed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://revolutionwifi.blogspot.com/2010/11/wake-on-wireless-lan.html |title=Wake on Wireless LAN |first=Andrew |last=von Nagy |date=8 November 2010 |work=Revolution Wi-Fi Blog |access-date=28 October 2015}}</ref>
The WoL and WoWLAN standards are often supplemented by vendors to provide protocol-transparent on-demand services, for example in the [[Bonjour (software)|Apple Bonjour]] wake-on-demand ([[Bonjour Sleep Proxy|Sleep Proxy]]) feature.<ref name="macworld-glenn">{{cite journal |first=Glenn |last=Fleishman |title=Wake on Demand lets Snow Leopard sleep with one eye open |url=http://www.macworld.com/article/142468/2009/08/wake_on_demand.html |journal=[[Macworld]] |date=28 August 2009 |access-date=15 September 2009 |quote=How it works, Energy Saver preference pane |archive-date=16 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916005930/http://www.macworld.com/article/142468/2009/08/wake_on_demand.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>