Very old question, I know, but still valid. Since I didn't see any C# in the accepted answer, I wrote my own 'Wake On Lan' code.
My goal was to make a universal and easy Wake On Lan class that:
- works with ipv4, ipv6 and dual-stack.
- works with one or multiple network cards (NICS) connected to different networks (both computers).
- works with macaddress in any standard hex format.
- works using multicast (broadcast is buggy in Windows when using multiple NICs and is not supported when using ipv6).
How to use:
All you need, is the MAC address of the wired nic on the computer you wish to wake up. Any standard hex representation will do. Then call the code like this:
string mac = "01-02-03-04-05-06";
await WOL.WakeOnLan(mac);
Here's the class:
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
public static class WOL
{
public static async Task WakeOnLan(string macAddress)
{
byte[] magicPacket = BuildMagicPacket(macAddress);
foreach (NetworkInterface networkInterface in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces().Where((n) =>
n.NetworkInterfaceType != NetworkInterfaceType.Loopback && n.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up))
{
IPInterfaceProperties iPInterfaceProperties = networkInterface.GetIPProperties();
foreach (MulticastIPAddressInformation multicastIPAddressInformation in iPInterfaceProperties.MulticastAddresses)
{
IPAddress multicastIpAddress = multicastIPAddressInformation.Address;
if (multicastIpAddress.ToString().StartsWith("ff02::1%", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) // Ipv6: All hosts on LAN (with zone index)
{
UnicastIPAddressInformation unicastIPAddressInformation = iPInterfaceProperties.UnicastAddresses.Where((u) =>
u.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetworkV6 && !u.Address.IsIPv6LinkLocal).FirstOrDefault();
if (unicastIPAddressInformation != null)
{
await SendWakeOnLan(unicastIPAddressInformation.Address, multicastIpAddress, magicPacket);
break;
}
}
else if (multicastIpAddress.ToString().Equals("224.0.0.1")) // Ipv4: All hosts on LAN
{
UnicastIPAddressInformation unicastIPAddressInformation = iPInterfaceProperties.UnicastAddresses.Where((u) =>
u.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork && !iPInterfaceProperties.GetIPv4Properties().IsAutomaticPrivateAddressingActive).FirstOrDefault();
if (unicastIPAddressInformation != null)
{
await SendWakeOnLan(unicastIPAddressInformation.Address, multicastIpAddress, magicPacket);
break;
}
}
}
}
}
static byte[] BuildMagicPacket(string macAddress) // MacAddress in any standard HEX format
{
macAddress = Regex.Replace(macAddress, "[: -]", "");
byte[] macBytes = new byte[6];
for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
{
macBytes[i] = Convert.ToByte(macAddress.Substring(i * 2, 2), 16);
}
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(ms))
{
for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) //First 6 times 0xff
{
bw.Write((byte)0xff);
}
for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) // then 16 times MacAddress
{
bw.Write(macBytes);
}
}
return ms.ToArray(); // 102 bytes magic packet
}
}
static async Task SendWakeOnLan(IPAddress localIpAddress, IPAddress multicastIpAddress, byte[] magicPacket)
{
using (UdpClient client = new UdpClient(new IPEndPoint(localIpAddress, 0)))
{
await client.SendAsync(magicPacket, magicPacket.Length, multicastIpAddress.ToString(), 9);
}
}
}
How it works:
The code works by enumerating all network cards that are 'up' and connected to your network (that's usually just one). It will send out the 'magic packet' to all your connected networks using multicast, which works with both ipv4 and ipv6 (don't worry about flooding your network, it's only 102 bytes).
To work, the computer, you want to wake up, must have a wired connection (wireless computers can't be woken up, since they aren't connected to any network, when they are off). The computer, that sends the packet, can be wireless connected.
Firewalls are usually no problem, since the computer is off and hence the firewall is not active.
You must make sure that 'Wake on lan' is enabled in the computer's BIOS and on the network card.
Update for .Net 6 (and a bug fix):
Fixed a bug, where if Ipv6 was functioning on the computer that sends the packet but not on the one, that should be awakened, then it would not try Ipv4 (this is fixed in the code above).
Here's the code that works on .Net 6 (borrowed some of @Oskar Sjôberg's code) - implicit usings turned on:
using System.Net;
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
public static class WOL
{
public static async Task WakeOnLan(string macAddress)
{
byte[] magicPacket = BuildMagicPacket(macAddress);
foreach (NetworkInterface networkInterface in NetworkInterface.GetAllNetworkInterfaces().Where((n) =>
n.NetworkInterfaceType != NetworkInterfaceType.Loopback && n.OperationalStatus == OperationalStatus.Up))
{
IPInterfaceProperties iPInterfaceProperties = networkInterface.GetIPProperties();
foreach (MulticastIPAddressInformation multicastIPAddressInformation in iPInterfaceProperties.MulticastAddresses)
{
IPAddress multicastIpAddress = multicastIPAddressInformation.Address;
if (multicastIpAddress.ToString().StartsWith("ff02::1%", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) // Ipv6: All hosts on LAN (with zone index)
{
UnicastIPAddressInformation? unicastIPAddressInformation = iPInterfaceProperties.UnicastAddresses.Where((u) =>
u.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetworkV6 && !u.Address.IsIPv6LinkLocal).FirstOrDefault();
if (unicastIPAddressInformation != null)
{
await SendWakeOnLan(unicastIPAddressInformation.Address, multicastIpAddress, magicPacket);
}
}
else if (multicastIpAddress.ToString().Equals("224.0.0.1")) // Ipv4: All hosts on LAN
{
UnicastIPAddressInformation? unicastIPAddressInformation = iPInterfaceProperties.UnicastAddresses.Where((u) =>
u.Address.AddressFamily == AddressFamily.InterNetwork && !iPInterfaceProperties.GetIPv4Properties().IsAutomaticPrivateAddressingActive).FirstOrDefault();
if (unicastIPAddressInformation != null)
{
await SendWakeOnLan(unicastIPAddressInformation.Address, multicastIpAddress, magicPacket);
}
}
}
}
}
static byte[] BuildMagicPacket(string macAddress) // MacAddress in any standard HEX format
{
macAddress = Regex.Replace(macAddress, "[: -]", "");
byte[] macBytes = Convert.FromHexString(macAddress);
IEnumerable<byte> header = Enumerable.Repeat((byte)0xff, 6); //First 6 times 0xff
IEnumerable<byte> data = Enumerable.Repeat(macBytes, 16).SelectMany(m => m); // then 16 times MacAddress
return header.Concat(data).ToArray();
}
static async Task SendWakeOnLan(IPAddress localIpAddress, IPAddress multicastIpAddress, byte[] magicPacket)
{
using UdpClient client = new(new IPEndPoint(localIpAddress, 0));
await client.SendAsync(magicPacket, magicPacket.Length, new IPEndPoint(multicastIpAddress, 9));
}
}
