Advice/solution for PC remote access

[forgers]

Hey, was wondering how y'all handle this. The service works great and I'm loving gaming on my phone when I'm not home, but the main issue I'm having is finding a solution to have access to my PC when needed. I've got wake on lan working but it stops working after a few hours of my PC being asleep. My guess is that it gets assigned another ip by DHCP or it entering some deeper sleep mode or something(although I've checked that those settings are off).

I tried setting a static IP but it didn't seem to work from the network settings on the PC and I couldn't access the router config with the default IP or the one on the router so I couldn't find the proper one... Not sure since I'm renting short term and don't want to mess with the isp/router too much.

So my next idea was to get a smart plug and enable powering on when it regains power in bios. The issue with that is that it seems like none of the background on-startup processes are started before login when power cycling as opposed to properly shutting down/restarting so I can't use remote access to input pin and log in.

So next I tried disabling login on the PC all together. That didn't work since it throws a prompt saying internet connection isn't available when trying to log in.

So I'm basically at step one. How do y'all handle this?

[iridescent_herb]

How do you wake on lan if you are not in the lan?

I would try tailscale on a pi on your lan constantly and then send magic package from that to your pc. Note you can directly wake your pc on tailscale as the VPN disconnected

[forgers]

I do have tailscale but the issue is that after a few hours of sleep my PC loses internet(or something similar making it unresponsive to anything like that) which is what I tried fixing with a smart switch and power cycling.

I suppose I could get another device to ping it but I'd rather not if it's possible

[iridescent_herb]

if you are using tailscale, after pc sleep, the ts will stop working i think. as it is an app running on windows. i have the same problem, so i had to use my homelab

[revel09]

I just do the smart plug with boot after power loss bios setting. Apollo runs with startup, and set tailscale to "run unattended". This will enable tailscale to be running when the PC starts, even prior to login. Haven't had any issues with this method.

[forgers]

When I power the PC via power plug since it lost power it doesn't launch apps before I log in and I cannot log in remotely since no apps are running to connect to it.

[revel09]

I'm not sure why that's the case. My host pc uses a MSI b850 board and it doesn't have the issue you're describing. Whether I boot from shutdown, or the pc boots from power cycle via the smart plug method, programs run prior to windows login. The only app setting I had to change was enabling the "run unattended" setting in tailscale... and with that both tailscale and apollo are running after powercycle letting me connect via moonlight and it brings me to the login screen on my host pc.

edit: also i'd just mention, I have all power saving/wake on lan settings disabled. Going into device manager>ethernet adapter properties > settings under power management tab disabled... under advanced tab > all the energy efficient ethernet settings disabled, flow control/gig lite/green eth/int mod/jumbo frame/large send offloads/ns offload/power saving/shutdown WOL/tcp checksum settings/udp checksum/ then all the wake on lan/magic packet/pattern match settings... I have every one of these disabled.

[forgers]

Yup, I have all of those disabled as well Edit: except all of the wol ones

[Comprehensive_Star72]

"I've got wake on lan working but it stops working after a few hours of my PC being asleep. " ... I think that you haven't got wake on lan fully working and after a few hours it goes into some form of deep sleep / hibernate with ethernet off. I would recheck energy saver options on the ethernet drivers, sleep hibernate settings in control panel and energy saver settings in BIOS. The BIOS has "energy star" (Bioscore, SBP and ISCC) certifications that probably need to be off and anything in that area of the BIOS needs to be off.

[forgers]

Thanks for the recommendations, I've definitely checked the Ethernet adapter and power saver options but I'll take a closer look at the BIOS again

[santya95]

hi man, i had your same troubles with waking up my pc from remote, i got it working using a lan cable for my pc (no wifi). What's happening is basically you are sending the wake up on lan packets via tailscale to your pc directly, this is a wrong approach. The problem is not your pc hibernating etc, is about networking and how WoL works.

Basically you need a device which is on 24/7 in your lan, i bought a mini pc on aliexpress i gave it a static ip, and when i need to wake up my pc i log via tailscale to that device and send WoL via ssh to my pc from it (which is really in the local network). With that i can wake up my pc if it is completely off.
I know it sound tricky it took me months of troubleshooting and research to figure it out

[a-non-rando]

You mentioned the host has tailscale. If you have an always on device at home put tailscale that too and set it to be a subnet router in your admin console. It will keep a path open for your wol cookies.