Remote Power On/ Power Off the PC

[Marakith]

Hello

I've recently upgraded my PC, thanks to the great advice on here. I'm left with a ASRock Extreme3 Mobo running an old i5 2500k. So I'm thinking about slapping it into a case with a cheap and cheerful PSU, a wifi card and some drives and using it as a media server/ NAS.

The CPU is water cooled - I think I'd like to put a passive heatsink on it, if possible, but what I'd really like to do is be able to turn it on and off remotely. I'm thinking of keeping it in the loft (well insulated) and switching it on with a remote command and off again when not needed.

After a very brief look online I've seen some cards that offer this feature but wanted to see if anyone had done this or recommended against it.

Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Get yourself a set of tapo power plugs and see if you have power settings in the bios to turn the pc when there's power.

I use the Tapo app to turn on the adaptor and the pc can be turned on/off remotely.

It's how I do it and it works over 3g/4g/5g.

I've then got shortcuts on my iPhone to switch devices on/off like so..

 

[pc-guy]

There are plenty mobile Remote Desktop or remote command sender you can use to switch the PC off. But switching it with a wake command is far more difficult. You need special hardware or compatible hardware.

Short answer is you can switch things off but not on. The best option is use a smart switch as above and set the motherboard to resume on ac cut so when the switch is on the pc will boot by itself.

 

[lsg1r]

Isn't this the sort of thing that wake on lan and power settings could handle....


There's also the silverstone eso2-usb but I've no idea how well that works.

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/expansion-cards/ES02-USB/

Universal PC Remote Control - Silverstone ES02-USB

Here we talk about how to turn your PC on and off remotely using the SST-ES02-USB. More info on the SST-ES02-USB (US): http://amzn.to/2lcMjN7More info on the...

www.youtube.com

Some other options of the above, one even looks to use wifi

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/expansion-cards/?page=1&filter=Power_OnOff_addon_cards&sort=Newsest

 

[Sem]

enable wake on lan in the bios and get a wake on lan app for you phone

install chrome remote desktop, anydesk or something to shut it down

you can use a smart plug to cut power when you want to switch it off but that will mean it wont shut down cleanly

you could also try messing with sleep settings let the comp sleep after an hour of inactivty and you can wake a pc from sleep with WoL

 

[Deleted member 77746]

you can use a smart plug to cut power when you want to switch it off but that will mean it wont shut down cleanly

You wouldn't use a power plug to shut it down or turn it off, you would connect to it remotely. Shut it down then turn off the power.

 

[Begbie]

enable wake on lan in the bios and get a wake on lan app for you phone

install chrome remote desktop, anydesk or something to shut it down

you can use a smart plug to cut power when you want to switch it off but that will mean it wont shut down cleanly

you could also try messing with sleep settings let the comp sleep after an hour of inactivty and you can wake a pc from sleep with WoL

Sleep settings + remote via app/Web browser would probably be the easiest.

 

[Marakith]

Thanks - all!

Lots for me to look into!

 

[Semple]

But switching it with a wake command is far more difficult. You need special hardware or compatible hardware.

I'd expect every device to support WOL now. The last 3/4 PCs over bought going back 12 years have all supported WOL and the boards weren't exactly top-of-the-line.

 

[Marakith]

Isn't this the sort of thing that wake on lan and power settings could handle....


There's also the silverstone eso2-usb but I've no idea how well that works.

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/expansion-cards/ES02-USB/

Universal PC Remote Control - Silverstone ES02-USB

Here we talk about how to turn your PC on and off remotely using the SST-ES02-USB. More info on the SST-ES02-USB (US): http://amzn.to/2lcMjN7More info on the...

www.youtube.com

Some other options of the above, one even looks to use wifi

https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/expansion-cards/?page=1&filter=Power_OnOff_addon_cards&sort=Newsest

I've seen some cards that offer this functionality but with an app over wifi - do you know if those are any good? I'm not sure the remote will get through all the walls in my house up to the loft

 

[lsg1r]

I've seen some cards that offer this functionality but with an app over wifi - do you know if those are any good? I'm not sure the remote will get through all the walls in my house up to the loft

the es03 is app and wifi based but I have absolutely zero idea of how well it works.... my pc literally sits a foot away from me.

 

[MartinPrince]

The issue you might run into with using WOL is the router you have. If your router does not have a Static ARP then it won't pass through the MAC address of your network card to allow WOL to work maybe 1 minute after your PC has been turned off.

 

[Sem]

You wouldn't use a power plug to shut it down or turn it off, you would connect to it remotely. Shut it down then turn off the power.

thats why i said install chrome RD or Anydesk
i advised against using the smart plug just i saw it mentioned before in the thread
maybe i should have worded it better