I'm looking for a lightweight, free app to wake up my MacBook remotely so that I can use the various media streaming apps available to me. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would also be willing to pay a dollar or two if it works well.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Free app to SSH wake my MacBook?
- Thread starter iKyle0990
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Not really a complete answer, but a few random comments:
• I assume you're already familiar with the fact that this is a two-step process? 1) Send a 'magic' Wake-On-LAN packet to the host machine to wake it up. 2) Connect via SSH once the host machine is awake and able to receive incoming network connections. There are a few SSH/remote desktop apps that roll both functions in together for convenience, but in fact they are two isolated concepts. (Sorry for being pedantic if you already know this)
• If your MacBook connects via wifi, it may not be possible to remotely wake it from sleep -- it may only work with machines on wired connections. (this *may* have changed, but that is the case with all of my circa 2009 Macs)
• Are you expecting to wake your MacBook from a remote location or just inside your LAN? If the former, you'll need to check and configure your router/firewall to support this.
• Off the top of my head, two apps that support Wake-On-LAN and SSH are iSSH and Remoter VNC. Both are incredibly useful but neither is free.
• Depending on how your MacBook is configured, you may need to do a remote desktop connection to it anyway -- if you have it set up so that waking the unit from sleep requires a password to resume, you'll need some way to enter the p/w before it times out and goes back to sleep and suspends any SSH sessions you might try to open.
Hope this helps somewhat.
• I assume you're already familiar with the fact that this is a two-step process? 1) Send a 'magic' Wake-On-LAN packet to the host machine to wake it up. 2) Connect via SSH once the host machine is awake and able to receive incoming network connections. There are a few SSH/remote desktop apps that roll both functions in together for convenience, but in fact they are two isolated concepts. (Sorry for being pedantic if you already know this)
• If your MacBook connects via wifi, it may not be possible to remotely wake it from sleep -- it may only work with machines on wired connections. (this *may* have changed, but that is the case with all of my circa 2009 Macs)
• Are you expecting to wake your MacBook from a remote location or just inside your LAN? If the former, you'll need to check and configure your router/firewall to support this.
• Off the top of my head, two apps that support Wake-On-LAN and SSH are iSSH and Remoter VNC. Both are incredibly useful but neither is free.
• Depending on how your MacBook is configured, you may need to do a remote desktop connection to it anyway -- if you have it set up so that waking the unit from sleep requires a password to resume, you'll need some way to enter the p/w before it times out and goes back to sleep and suspends any SSH sessions you might try to open.
Hope this helps somewhat.
Last edited: