While playing with the Tasker PC control project I came across the Wake On LAN app. The older one I used was working, but always seem lacking and required the app to be launched by Tasker to work. The Wake On LAN – Tasker Plugin works much better so I thought I would share it with you! It’s also free, therefore there is no reason not to have it!
Wake On LAN – Tasker Plugin
If you never came across this before WOL or Wake On LAN allows you to wake up a device from a sleep, over the internet. It requires the sleeping device to be connected to the internet via LAN or a WIFI card that supports WOL.
The application works as a standalone app, or as the Tasker plugin. The Tasker usage is pretty simplistic, and there isn’t much to it. You can wake up a previously configured device or a group of devices. If you need some help configuring your wake on LAN services I have the tutorial just for you.
Since there isn’t anything else to configure in Tasker, let’s take a look at the Wake On LAN – Tasker Plugin options.
Wake On LAN – options
The app has pretty much everything that you would need in the WOL situation. Once the device is configured, you can simply add it to your Tasker profile.
If your device is on the same as your network, you can simply search for it. A scan should show you all the hostnames and you can pick the device to add from the list. An excellent idea since typing out the MAC addresses manually is a pain. Otherwise, you can add the device to the list manually.
Device
You can call your device anything you want and add a colour to it. A great way to organise your list.
Group
The devices can be grouped in lists. Something that can be handy if you want to boot all the devices in the same location or the same type of devices. To select a default Tasker group – check the settings of the app.
MAC
The address of the device (or your network card) often used to send a magic packet. When used, you can get away without knowing your device’s internal IP and simply broadcast the packet to all devices. Only the device with a matching MAC will be booted up.
Hostname/IP/Broadcast address
The DNS, internal/external IP or a broadcast address of the target device.
- yourhostname.ddn.net (sample DNS)
- raspberrypi (sample hostname)
- 192.168.1.2 (sample internal IP)
- 82.160.11.22 (sample external IP)
- 192.168.1.255 (sample broadcast address)
You can choose one of the methods to find your target device on the network. Note that port forwarding is needed if you are trying to WOL from outside of your network.
Port
The default ports for WOL are 7 -9 but you can assign a port manually. Unless using from outside of your local network, you are fine leaving it at the default values.
Device IP
The IP of the actual device. This will be usually the local IP and will be used to check the online status of the device.
Online Status Port
Used with the option above – allows sending a ping to determine the target device is online. (overrides the ports specified in the settings.
Device ID
An arbitrary ID to recognise the devices.
SecureOn Password
A password for the WOL wakeup call. Must be supported by the target device. Allows more secure WOL routine.
All the options can be exported/imported which makes it easier to back up and share with other devices. The application is well designed and will save you a lot of time. My criticism of the Wake On LAN – Tasker Plugin would be the lack of support for multiple groups from Tasker (you can call in groups by chaining tasks as an alternative) also, having the access to the online status of the device would be great. You can ping the device with the run shell action.
