FreeBSD: Wake Up Servers Using Wake-on-LAN ( WOL ) Command

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Wake-on-LAN (WOL) is a feature that allows you to wake up a computer remotely over a network. To use WOL on a FreeBSD system, you need to use a tool that can send a magic packet to the target computer. A magic packet is a broadcast message that contains the target computer’s MAC address.

Here’s how to wake up a computer using WOL on a FreeBSD system:

  1. Install the wol tool: To install the wol tool, use the following command:
sudo pkg install wol
  1. Get the target computer’s MAC address: To get the target computer’s MAC address, you can use the arp command. For example:
arp -a

This will show you a list of IP addresses and their corresponding MAC addresses on your network.

  1. Send the magic packet: To send the magic packet, use the following command:
wol -i <broadcast-address> <MAC-address>

Replace <broadcast-address> with the broadcast address of your network (usually 255.255.255.255) and <MAC-address> with the target computer’s MAC address.

Once the magic packet is sent, the target computer should wake up. Note that the target computer must support WOL and must be configured to allow remote wake-up over the network.

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