Beginners Guide on Home Assistant Wake on LAN!

Home Assistant allows you to easily manage and control all your smart home devices from a central control system. But have you heard you can add your Windows computer to that list, and Home Assistant will wake your PC with just a click? 

Yes, that’s right. Home Assistant’s “Wake on LAN” integration is designed to allow you to turn on your desktop computer remotely. Do you want to know how?

Continue reading the article to discover more about “Home Assistant Wake on LAN” integration!

Key Takeaway

What Is Home Assistant Wake on LAN?

It is an integration feature introduced in Home Assistant version 0.49. This HA technology can turn off a computer from sleep or low power state with the owner’s command over a network connection. 

This integration allows the user to send a network message called “Magic Packet” to the target desktop computer’s network interface (MAC address) and wake the computer from sleep, standby, power-saver, or hibernation mode.

This Home Assistant feature uses 7.6% of active installations and is classified as Local Push in the IoT (Internet of Things) class. 

However, before proceeding with the setting up task, verify that:

• The network interface card of your targeted computer supports the “Home Assistant Wake on LAN” feature too. 
• Confirm that the “BIOS Settings” of that PC is configured to turn on the “Wake on LAN” feature
• Ensure that your PC is always connected to the network.  

Otherwise, you won’t be able to avail yourself of this feature. 

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How to Set Up Your Home Assistant Wake on LAN? 

Check out the step-by-step detailed method of setting Home Assistant Wake on LAN for your PC:

Step 1: Prep Works Before The Main Task

First, confirm that your device is set up and configured correctly. Check your motherboard manual or Enter the BIOS to enable the Home Assistant Wake on LAN (WoL). 

Usually, one can ensure that by hitting the “Delete” button or specific function keys during the startup (it varies from vendor to vendor). 

Note that if you enable the Home Assistant (WoL) feature via the “BIOS Settings,” it will allow HA to complete the installation and wake your device without even relying on the OS. 

However, different manufacturers name this WoL feature differently on the Computer motherboard.  So, if you are trying to enable the feature from the BIOS screen of your PC, look for one of the following names or options:

If you’re still confused about how to do so, the following example (tutorial) of enabling the feature from the BIOS settings of Windows 10/11/ASUS will help you out:

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Step 2: Turning the Magic Packet On

Next, turn on the Home Assistant (WoL) Magic Packet option in your network adapter or NIC. Follow the below instructions to do that correctly: 

• Go to your desktop’s main menu bar (if you do not have the Device Manager shortcut on the main desktop window) and select “Device Manager.” 

• When you open the “Device Manager,” scroll down a little to find the “Network Adapters” sub-section and click on it.
• You will see “Ethernet Controller,” where you should right-click on it and select “Properties.” 
• Then, from there choose “Advance“> “Wake on Magic Packet“> Then click on “Enabled.” 
• Click on “Power Management“> select “Allow the Computer to turn off this device to save power” and “Allow this device to wake the Computer.” 
• Confirm the configuration by clicking on the “OK” button before closing it.

Step 3: Adding and Configuring “Wake on LAN” integration

Once you are done with steps 1 and 2, it is time to edit your Home Assistant (configuration.yaml file) to add and configure the “Wake on LAN” integration. So, to do that, follow the below instructions: 

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• Go to the “Home Assistant File Editor” to open your “configuration.yaml file”. Inside that, insert the “Wake on LAN” section as shown here. 
• Then, click on the “Search” icon to find the “Switch” section (if you already have it). Otherwise, you have to create it. 

• You can easily create the “Switch” section by adding those lines. You will also need the “MAC address” of your PC to add there.  
• If you do not know the “MAC address,” either check on the owner’s manual of your computer or find the address from your router interface. You can even get the address by using the “Windows command prompt.” Just type the “ipconfig /all” command over there. 
• Once you’ve edited the file just like the above images, make sure to save the file. 
• Go to the “Home Assistant Configuration” section, scroll down until you find “Server Controls” and click on it. Then, click on the “Check Configuration” button Giga Secure. 

If you are seeing a “Configuration Valid” notification, restart your Home Assistant and move to the next step.

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Step 4: Adding the “Wake on LAN” switch in Home Assistant

To add the Home Assistant “Wake on LAN” switch, make sure to follow the below instructions:  

• Go to the top right corner of your main Home Assistant dashboard. 
• Then, click on the “Three dots” menu> select “Edit dashboard.” 
• Click on the “Add Card” and select the “Button” card. 
• Check the button card configuration to verify whether the entity is selected or not. If yes, you are good to proceed but if not just fill up the entity before hitting the “Save” button. 

Step 5: Testing how the Switch Works

Now, it is time to verify whether the Home Assistant Wake on LAN Switch actually wakes your computer or not.

But before that, you need to turn your computer on “Sleep Mode” first. Then, click on the Switch that you just created on the Home Assistant UI dashboard.

If the Wake on LAN fails to wake your PC, try one more time before checking the following:

• Make sure your computer is not powered off when you’re testing the feature. In that case, your Home Assistant won’t receive the ping (ICMP), and if it doesn’t get that response from the “Windows Defender Firewall” of your PC, it can’t perform the integration.
• Recheck your computer to verify that you have set up and configured everything as instructed in “Steps 1 and 2“
• If you have verified that, open your Home Assistant configuration.yaml file and re-examine to confirm that you have written the “Wake on LAN” and “Switch” rules correctly. Make sure to write the “MAC address” accurately and ensure all the letters are in “Lower Case.” Do not skip any instructions provided in “Steps 3 and 4.”
• If there’s no mistake too, try to test your Home Assistant (WoL) with a separate device. In that case, you will need another PC and download the “NirSoftWakeMeOnLAN.” If it works correctly on another device, it means there’s something wrong with your computer setup, update, or configuration.

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