HD300 WOL .... anyone actually using it yet?

[spencerw]

The forced leading 00 octet problem was in both SageTV MC and the HD300 firmware. I can confirm that it was fixed during the beta period with version 7.0.20 and version 20101022-0 respectively. However, when I checked for the latest HD300 firmware today it surprisingly has a date of 2010-10-07. The problem was fixed 15 days after that so apparently it has not made it into the released firmware yet.

Billism, please use the latest beta firmware. I have been using the latest beta firmware versions for months now and they have generally been quite reliable so I wouldn't hesitate to try one especially since it is so easy to go back to the released version if something goes wrong. Just enter 2382 on your remote when you're on the system update page in the extender's standalone mode. You should see beta on the screen now. Proceed with installing the update and let us know how this goes. If it fixes the problem please ask SageTV support when it will be released as non-beta for us. Thanks.

[billism]

spencerw, you are correct. I had firmware 20101007 on the HD300, which is still the latest release. I installed the latest beta (20101209) and now it works - wakes up the HTPC immediately upon turning on the HD300. Thank you very much for the reply.

I will let you know when I hear back from SageTV support about the future production release with this fix.

[ChrisFix]

Originally Posted by billism

spencerw, you are correct. I had firmware 20101007 on the HD300, which is still the latest release. I installed the latest beta (20101209) and now it works - wakes up the HTPC immediately upon turning on the HD300. Thank you very much for the reply.

I will let you know when I hear back from SageTV support about the future production release with this fix.

I've just updated to the 20101209 firmware, but still can't get WOL to work. I just purchased the HD300 and Media Center 7 software, have everything working fine if the PC running the sage server is not sleeping (auto connect works, remote viewing PlaceShifter works), but if the PC is asleep, the HD300 will never wake it. This is Win 7 Premium 64 bit - only one NIC, basic, simple set up running on a wired Gb LAN. NIC and all settings are set for WOL and Magic Packet.

I've added the Force_Mac_Address = (mac address) line to the Sage properties file.

Any suggestions on what to try?
Thanks
Chris

[billism]

Originally Posted by ChrisFix

I've just updated to the 20101209 firmware, but still can't get WOL to work. I just purchased the HD300 and Media Center 7 software, have everything working fine if the PC running the sage server is not sleeping (auto connect works, remote viewing PlaceShifter works), but if the PC is asleep, the HD300 will never wake it. This is Win 7 Premium 64 bit - only one NIC, basic, simple set up running on a wired Gb LAN. NIC and all settings are set for WOL and Magic Packet.

I've added the Force_Mac_Address = (mac address) line to the Sage properties file.

Any suggestions on what to try?
Thanks
Chris

Does your SageTV MC PC's MAC address start with a 00 octet or another value?

Can you run a packet sniffer, like WireShark, to see what MAC address the HD300 is actually broadcasting the magic packet(s) to, if any?

Also, what version of SageTV MC do you have? spencerw did mention that the latest SageTV MC should be used as well.

If you cannot answer these questions for whatever reason, you can contact SageTV support about this, and they will probably advise you to enable logging and request your log files for analysis. You can request support here: http://www.sagetv.com/request.html

Let us know either way.

Thanks,
Bill K.

[ChrisFix]

Originally Posted by billism

Does your SageTV MC PC's MAC address start with a 00 octet or another value?

Can you run a packet sniffer, like WireShark, to see what MAC address the HD300 is actually broadcasting the magic packet(s) to, if any?

Also, what version of SageTV MC do you have? spencerw did mention that the latest SageTV MC should be used as well.

If you cannot answer these questions for whatever reason, you can contact SageTV support about this, and they will probably advise you to enable logging and request your log files for analysis. You can request support here: http://www.sagetv.com/request.html

Let us know either way.


Thanks,
Bill K.

Hi,
Thanks for your response.
The mac address for the NIC in the PC running the SageTV MC and server process starts with 90.

I have the current production release of SageTV MC (7.0.23.246).

I don't have a packet sniffer installed, but will try to do that and see if I can figure out how to use it.

I just bought the SageTV MC 7 and HD300 last week, so I'm new to the platform, but everything is the latest version of their products.

-Chris

Edit: I installed WireShark...I'm guessing this needs to be installed on a PC other than the sage server in order to capture the WOL packets sent from the HD300, since the PC will be asleep and unable to capture anything...correct?
Can you tell me briefly what to filter on so that I can find the mac address being sent in the capture?

Thank you.

[JustMe2]

Yes, I got my system to WOL!!!!!!

Using the information above, I also relized SageTV is picking up my NIC's MAC address as 00-11-22-33-44-55 when in fact it is 90-11-22-33-44-55. So the WOL packet is being sent to the wrong MAC address. This happens even when using a forced_mac_address=90-11-22-33-44-55.

By going to my systems NIC's Properties, selecting the Advanced tab and scrolling down to the "Network Address" a value can be entered for a new MAC address. I just changed the 90 to 00 or "001122334455".

Everything worked fine after a system restart.

Any way this can be corrected in SageTV?

[ChrisFix]

Originally Posted by JustMe2

Yes, I got my system to WOL!!!!!!

Using the information above, I also relized SageTV is picking up my NIC's MAC address as 00-11-22-33-44-55 when in fact it is 90-11-22-33-44-55. So the WOL packet is being sent to the wrong MAC address. This happens even when using a forced_mac_address=90-11-22-33-44-55.

By going to my systems NIC's Properties, selecting the Advanced tab and scrolling down to the "Network Address" a value can be entered for a new MAC address. I just changed the 90 to 00 or "001122334455".

Everything worked fine after a system restart.

Any way this can be corrected in SageTV?

I also have a NIC with a leading 90 in the mac...I used your info and changed it to 00...verified with ipconfig that it is changed. I restarted everything...modem, router, pc, HD300...but still no joy in getting my HD300 to wake up the PC to find the server.

Did you do anything else to get this to work?
Thanks,
Chris

[JustMe2]

Originally Posted by ChrisFix

I also have a NIC with a leading 90 in the mac...I used your info and changed it to 00...verified with ipconfig that it is changed. I restarted everything...modem, router, pc, HD300...but still no joy in getting my HD300 to wake up the PC to find the server.

Did you do anything else to get this to work?
Thanks,
Chris

Well here is what I went through.

1) Make sure you power on and fully allow your HD300 to log onto the SageTV server once before you attempt to use the WOL. It needs to learn the correct mac address! Then - power down your HD300 and put your system in to sleep mode.

2) I added "forced_mac_address=00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E" (use your MAC address) to both the sage.properities and sageclient.properties files. I am not sure if it needs to be added to the sageclient.properties file. Make sure to stop your sageTv server from the servies window and your HD300 is offline before making changes to these files or they will be overwritten again with the old version later if either are running! Restart the server and/or your system after saving the files.

3) Make sure "Wake on Magic Packet" and "Wake on pattern match" are enabled on your NIC's properties Advanced Tab - where you changed the MAC address.

4) Under the NIC's properties Power Management tab - make sure "allow this device to wake the computer" is checked. You may also need to check "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" if the previous option is grayed out.

SIDE NOTE: Under the control pannel > power management > Advanced settings also makesure your Multimedia settings > When sharing media is set to "prevent idling to sleep" or your system will go to sleep xx minutes into your movie watching.

5) Check your systems BIOS settings to see that sleep is enabled - I think I have mine set to S1 and S3. Sometimes there is also an option to enable WOL. Every MB is different and not all have these options.

6) Check what MAC your HD300 is sending (Using WireShark) to wake your system and that it matches your systems MAC. I just unplug my LAN cable to my server and turn on the HD300 while monitoring on my LapTop or another system. Make sure it other computer is on the same network - wireless networks are sometimes use a different IP range!!!

If you have not alread checked #6 - I would start there because calling to the wrong MAC will not wake your system. Other wise I would go through the above one at a time. Full restarts of your system after each may not be need but would not hurt. This makes sure settings are being applied!

Please let me know how it goes!

[ChrisFix]

Originally Posted by JustMe2

Well here is what I went through.

1) Make sure you power on and fully allow your HD300 to log onto the SageTV server once before you attempt to use the WOL. It needs to learn the correct mac address! Then - power down your HD300 and put your system in to sleep mode.

2) I added "forced_mac_address=00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E" (use your MAC address) to both the sage.properities and sageclient.properties files. I am not sure if it needs to be added to the sageclient.properties file. Make sure to stop your sageTv server from the servies window and your HD300 is offline before making changes to these files or they will be overwritten again with the old version later if either are running! Restart the server and/or your system after saving the files.

3) Make sure "Wake on Magic Packet" and "Wake on pattern match" are enabled on your NIC's properties Advanced Tab - where you changed the MAC address.

4) Under the NIC's properties Power Management tab - make sure "allow this device to wake the computer" is checked. You may also need to check "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" if the previous option is grayed out.

SIDE NOTE: Under the control pannel > power management > Advanced settings also makesure your Multimedia settings > When sharing media is set to "prevent idling to sleep" or your system will go to sleep xx minutes into your movie watching.

5) Check your systems BIOS settings to see that sleep is enabled - I think I have mine set to S1 and S3. Sometimes there is also an option to enable WOL. Every MB is different and not all have these options.

This is the one I had overlooked...and the reason it wouldn't work. I found the BIOS setting "Power on by onboard LAN" which was disabled. Enabling it fixed the problem instantly. Thanks for the helpful check list!!

6) Check what MAC your HD300 is sending (Using WireShark) to wake your system and that it matches your systems MAC. I just unplug my LAN cable to my server and turn on the HD300 while monitoring on my LapTop or another system. Make sure it other computer is on the same network - wireless networks are sometimes use a different IP range!!!

If you have not alread checked #6 - I would start there because calling to the wrong MAC will not wake your system. Other wise I would go through the above one at a time. Full restarts of your system after each may not be need but would not hurt. This makes sure settings are being applied!

Please let me know how it goes!

5) Check your systems BIOS settings to see that sleep is enabled - I think I have mine set to S1 and S3. Sometimes there is also an option to enable WOL. Every MB is different and not all have these options.

This is the one I had overlooked...and the reason it wouldn't work. I found the BIOS setting "Power on by onboard LAN" which was disabled. Enabling it fixed the problem instantly. Thanks for the helpful check list!!

[billism]

BTW, I got an email from SageTV support yesterday saying they did not have an ETA for the leading non zero octet MAC address WOL fix to be in a non-beta release.

[baradanikto]

In trying to resolve my WOL problem, I stumbled across this thread. What is the recommended configuration when the SageTV server is not wired, that is, it connects to the network wirelessly? I'm trying to get WOL to work with no luck. I've seen some posts about using a wireless bridge. Is that the recommeded way to go? If so, can anyone recommend one?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by baradanikto

In trying to resolve my WOL problem, I stumbled across this thread. What is the recommended configuration when the SageTV server is not wired, that is, it connects to the network wirelessly? I'm trying to get WOL to work with no luck. I've seen some posts about using a wireless bridge. Is that the recommeded way to go? If so, can anyone recommend one?

It looks like it's possible via WoWLAN but it is a supplimental standard so probably not uniformly supported. Also, just given the small sampling of posts I've read it appears to be difficult and problematic. Probably best to stick to regular wired WOL.

[JustMe2]

The use of WOL across a wireless connection is possible. WOL can be very temperamental on its own, adding wireless adds one more level of potential problems. A few things to consider:

1) make sure your wireless network is on the same IP and subnet as the other components. If you have your extender working this should not be a problem.

2) take a look at the IP address of your server wireless connection and make sure it starts with 00. if it does not, look at the previous post on a forced mac address to fix problem the Sage software.

3) check your wireless access point/router and make sure it is forwarding the WOL packet. Some hardware does not allow this information to be forwarded peripherals and/or wired/wireless networks. You can use a packet sniffer on your server to see if the packets are being received from the extenders.

4) Check the settings on your wireless network connection Control Panel>Network Connections and make sure Wake on Magic Packet is enabled. There may not be an option depending upon your wireless connector possibly indicating it is not supported on your adapter.

5) Also check the other possible problems I outlined in the post on 12/12/2010.

Good luck

[baradanikto]

I finally got around to digging into this. I've used WireShark as was previously recommended by JustMe2. However, I'm a bit confused by what I see. I can see a UDP packet from my HD300 for port 31100, but, I don't see a WOL packet. Also, it appears that the destination for the packet is 255.255.255.255. That does not appear to be correct. My router subnet is 255.255.255.0. Also, the HD 300 manual states that ports 31009 and 31100 should be active. I've forwarded traffic on those ports via my router. Is there something else I need to do on the server? I'm running Norton security on the server.

[andyvr4]

Typically wake on lan packets are sent on port 9 however they don't necessarily half to be. I'm pretty sure that both of the ports that you listed are used by sagetv placeshifter and client software.

You half to check a box when you first connect to the server from the hd300 to try and wake the server up if it can not connect, did you check that box? Also in wireshark when you first boot up the hd300 you should see packets labeled as WOL listed coming from the hd300. I know that I did when I was first trying to diagnose my WOL problems from the hd300. Right now from what I've seen you've got to use the beta firmware as the latest stable firmware as WOL bugs where it sends the wrong first set of hex values for the MAC address.

[JustMe2]

A few questions for you.

1) where are you running wireshark? I normally run it on my laptop so I can have my server fully shut down (or its network cable unplugged) and monitor the network traffic while the HD300 trys to wake the server.

2) What version of SAGE is running on your HD300 (From your HD300 go to Setup>System Information)? I am running 7.1.5.252 which does resolve the IP address issue. This is a BETA version and only switch to it if you are comfortable using beta software. I have not had any problems sense switching a few weeks ago.

I will try and grab a screen shot of the Wireshark WOL packet so you have some idea what to look for. It may be a few days before I have time to set it up.