programs waking an iMac from sleep mode

[bhs00]

I currently have a macbook for my laptop. But my main machine currently is a 4 year old budget triple core Windows 7 Desktop. I leave it on all the time because its so slow. Its uses are mainly for media. I connect to its shares to stream video, I record a few shows using Windows Media Center, I use PlayOn, I use Plex, splashtop, and log me in. I am wanting to purchase a new iMac when it comes out in a few weeks/months. I have already purchased Parallels 7 and I plan to purchase EyeTV 3. I will have to set up PlayOn on a VM in Parallels. I would like to be able to let the iMac go to sleep.

My question is, If I am connecting to any of these services through my iphone, will it automatically wake my iMac up or will I have to somehow bring it out of sleep mode in order to connect to it? I guess im just not used to letting computers sleep because it has always been a pain with my machine.

 

[r0k]

I currently have a macbook for my laptop. But my main machine currently is a 4 year old budget triple core Windows 7 Desktop. I leave it on all the time because its so slow. Its uses are mainly for media. I connect to its shares to stream video, I record a few shows using Windows Media Center, I use PlayOn, I use Plex, splashtop, and log me in. I am wanting to purchase a new iMac when it comes out in a few weeks/months. I have already purchased Parallels 7 and I plan to purchase EyeTV 3. I will have to set up PlayOn on a VM in Parallels. I would like to be able to let the iMac go to sleep.

My question is, If I am connecting to any of these services through my iphone, will it automatically wake my iMac up or will I have to somehow bring it out of sleep mode in order to connect to it? I guess im just not used to letting computers sleep because it has always been a pain with my machine.

I leave my Macs on all the time. I got in the habit of leaving them on because Time Machine didn't behave well when I allowed sleep. I'm sure there are wake on Lan features you could enable but you might be happier leaving the iMac on all the time. Plex is available for OS X but I don't use it as it makes my fans run but still fails to transcode much of anything. I use a DLNA aware LG TV and a Synology disk station so I can watch my movies over the network.

An alternative would be AppleTV but then I'd have to leave iTunes running on one of my Macs and I'd rather not leave iTunes running all the time out of personal preference.

hope this helps...