Answers to common questions about SimpleWOL.
A service to turn on and turn off your computer remotely. Turning on uses Wake-on-LAN and works by voice command on Alexa, through the Alexa app, or with the Turn on button here on the site; turning off works by voice or through the Alexa app and uses a local agent installed on Windows or Ubuntu.
Not necessarily. There are two paths:
If you already have an Echo/Alexa, prefer it to send the WOL packet.
The emitter is whatever actually puts the Magic Packet on the network. Waking a computer over the network requires something already on, on the same network, to send that packet — and you choose which, per computer:
To choose, open the device in the list and use the "What turns this computer on" selector.
In the device list, open the (⋮) menu on the computer that stays on and pick "Use as emitter". Then, on each computer you want to wake, select that emitter.
The option only appears for computers whose agent supports it. If you don't see it, update the agent on that machine. And pick a machine that genuinely stays on: an emitter that is off can't wake anything.
The Magic Packet is a broadcast message: it only reaches the local network and does not cross different networks or VLANs. If the emitter is on one network and the target on another, the packet never arrives — which is why SimpleWOL blocks that combination while you are configuring it, instead of letting you find out on a morning when the PC won't turn on.
Common causes: a separate guest network, Wi-Fi and Ethernet on different ranges, or two routers chained together. The fix is to put both machines on the same network, or pick another emitter that is already there.
If you instead see a warning that we couldn't confirm they are on the same network, it usually means one of the agents is out of date. You can still try it, but SimpleWOL can't promise it will work.
Portuguese (Brazil), English and Spanish.
Alexa instructs your Echo to send a Magic Packet over UDP on the local network; the PC, configured for WOL, wakes up. None of your PC is exposed to the internet.
Enable Wake-on-LAN in the BIOS/UEFI and on the network card, keep the PC in a state that responds to WOL (powered off with WOL active, or in sleep), and preferably use a wired connection. The exact option names vary by motherboard manufacturer.
Yes. You command Alexa (voice or app) from anywhere — the request travels through the Amazon Alexa network to your Echo at home, which sends the Magic Packet on the local network. The Echo and the PC stay on the same home network; you don't need to be there.
With your own emitter it works the same way: you click Turn on from the site (or ask Alexa) wherever you are, and the computer that stays on at home sends the packet over the local network.
Turn on (TurnOn) needs no installation on the computer being woken. With an Echo, you install nothing at all; without an Echo, you need the agent on another machine in the same network that stays on and acts as the emitter. Turn off (TurnOff) requires the agent installed on the computer itself, on Windows or Ubuntu. On the free tier, you can turn on up to 3 computers and keep turn off enabled on 1; the portal shows your account's effective limit.
Check, in this order:
Through "account linking" in the SimpleWOL skill in the Alexa app. Then register your PCs in the device portal.
On the free tier, up to 3 devices per account for turning on and 1 device with turn off (TurnOff) active at a time. Pro licenses granted by support use 5 devices by default and may have a higher individual limit; the portal always shows your effective limit.
Not in normal use — the session is renewed automatically.
A lightweight service that runs on Windows (Windows service) or Ubuntu (systemd service, amd64 and arm64). It receives the command securely and does two things: it turns off the computer it is installed on and, if you mark that machine as the emitter, it turns on other computers in the same network.
If you have an Echo and only want to turn computers on, you don't need to install anything.
It only runs signed commands from your account, stores encrypted credentials, and can be uninstalled at any time (removing access).
Download the installer from the devices portal and run it on the computer. Then open the SimpleWOL app, select Link, and confirm in the portal the short pairing code shown by the app. During approval, you can create a device from a detected network adapter or select an existing device — with no long keys to copy and no reinstall required to switch the link.
SimpleWOL does not request Alexa voice recordings or access to personal files. Details on collection, use, and retention are in the Privacy Policy.
On the devices page (after signing in) you can send feedback, suggestions, and messages to the SimpleWOL team.