3Com (R) Corporation
EtherDisk (R) Diskette for the
3C90X EtherLink XL 10/100 / EtherLink XL NIC Family
Remote Wake Up Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How can I tell if my NIC is Remote Wake Up capable or not?
A: There are 2 methods to check the card. The first method, which is
the easiest if your NIC is currently installed in a PC, involves
running the diagnostics utility (DOS or Windows based). To do
this, perform the following:
DOS:
1) Execute 3C90XCFG.EXE from a clean DOS boot.
2) Click on View NIC information.
3) If the entry for the 'Remote wake-up connector' is 'YES', then
this will indicate that you have a RWU board.
Windows:
1) Double click the 3Com icon at the System Tray or execute
TCAUDIAG.EXE from the Windows\System directory.
2) Click on the 'NIC Details...' button.
3) If the entry for the 'Remote wake-up connector' is 'YES', then
this will indicate that you have a RWU board.
The second method requires the user to remove the cover for the PC
and locate the AUX power cable. This power cable is the one that
connects the NIC to the motherboard. The connector on the NIC is
located to the right of the Bootprom socket with the bracket
positioned facing left.
Q: Is my 3Com Remote Wake Up NIC supported in a PC that is not
capable of Remote Wake Up?
A: Yes. The NIC can be used in any legacy PC that meets the system
requirements outlined in the User Guide but the Remote Wake Up
capability of the NIC can only be utilized in PC's specifically
designed for this function.
Q: Which PC's support Remote Wake Up? Which ones don't?
A: Remote Wake Up is supported in PC's that have a 3 pin header on the
motherboard for RWU, a power supply that provides auxiliary power and
a BIOS that supports RWU. When all three are present, the RWU
functionality of the NIC should work. Presently, only certain Pentium
based machines can possess this feature. No 486 based machines support
RWU. Forfurther information contact your PC manufacturer or vendor to
determine if your PC is RWU capable.
Q: Is there anything in the BIOS that I can check to see if RWU is enabled?
A: Typically, the BIOS contains user configurable settings for waking
up the PC on PME or LAN signals. This might be under the Power or
Boot category of the BIOS. If you are experiencing difficulties
locating this, please refer to your PC's reference manual or contact
your PC vendor for specific instructions on accessing the BIOS
Q: What type of software is compatible for waking up my 3Com RWU NIC?
A: The 3Com RWU NIC is compatible with software that conforms to AMD's
specification for the Magic Packet. Examples are: Intel LanDesk
Manager, Tivoli TME 10, Microsoft SMS, HP Openview Top Tool,
Computer Associates' UniCenter and McAfee.
Q: What is a magic packet?
A: A magic packet is a valid Ethernet packet that contains a
synchronization stream immediately followed by 16 repetitions of
the destination MAC address. The synchronize stream is a 6 byte
field of F's. This magic packet is not protocol specific. It can
be IP, IPX, etc as long as it contains the sync stream and the 16
repetitions. This magic packet can be routed in order to wake up
a remote PC. Since it is a valid Ethernet address, the RWU NIC can
accept broadcast or multicast packets as long as the NIC's MAC
address follows the above format.
Q: What if I want to disable the Remote Wake Up function?
A: You can disable this function by editing the system registry. The
keywords are: WAKEONLINK and WAKEONMAGIC.
Q: What is WAKEONLINK?
A: WAKEONLINK is a registry keyword that when set to "yes" gives the
Remote Wake Up NIC the ability to wake up a PC in stand by or
suspend mode simply by disconnecting or reconnecting the network
cable connection. This feature can be useful when troubleshooting a
system that is not waking up. Note that WAKEONLINK default entry is
disabled.
Q: What OS's support RWU?
A: RWU is currently only supported in Microsoft's Win95 OSR2 and NT4.0.
Q: How do I suspend my PC for RWU?
A: This process will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. If the PC
has its own power sustain mode, you could perform a shut down of the
machine and it will shut down into a suspend mode. This low power
consumption suspend mode will wake up once a magic packet is
detected by the RWU NIC.
Q: What are the pin outs for the AUX power on my NIC?
A: There are 3 pins located on the connector on the board. With the
dovetail key slot at the bottom, pin 1 is located on the right.
Pin 1.....+5V Standby power
Pin 2.....ground
Pin 3.....PME signal
Q: When I install the RWU NIC, the install process doesn't prompt for
any files and the Remote Wake Up functionality doesn't work. What's
wrong?
A: Problems could arise if the user installs a new NIC in a PC which had
Windows 95 OSR2 installed. During the installation of the new NIC,
the Windows NIC install process uses the old W95EL90X.INF file shipped
with the system and will not copy over the new drivers. Moreover, no
warning messages will occur. Thus, with a RWU NIC, the failure to copy
new drivers to the OS will result in the Remote Wake Up function being
disabled. To alleviate this problem, locate the old W95EL90X.INF,
EL90X.DOS, EL90X.VXD files located in the C:\Windows\Options\Cabs
directory and either rename them or delete them. Currently, the Gateway
2000 E-3000 is the only machine that 3Com has experienced this issue.
Q: When my Windows 95 OSR2 machine wakes up from a suspend mode, I
lose my NetWare drive mappings, how can I correct this?
A: Once the machine goes into a suspend mode, the RWU NIC no longer
transmits packets out onto the wire. This becomes an issue for
NetWare since it will drop the drive mapping when it no longer
receives a packet from the station. This is a NetWare related issue
and the current work around for this is to reboot the machine to
reestablish the NetWare drive mappings.
Q: Will my RWU NIC respond to ARP requests when it is asleep?
A: No. Since the NIC will not transmit when it is asleep, it will not
respond to ARP requests. Thus, if the management station and the
Remote Wake Up machine are on different subnets of the router and
the router's ARP table is flushed, the RWU NIC would not be able to
respond to the ARP request generated by the router that results from
the magic packet that is sent from the management station to the IP
address of the RWU client. Fortunately, most management applications
utilize broadcast IP address rather than unicast packets to the RWU
station. A broadcast IP address causes the router to broadcast the
magic packet to the client's subnet which wakes the RWU station up.
Q: What is ACPI?
A: Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. It is a specification
developed by Intel, Microsoft, and Toshiba Corp which allows more
advanced power management features through the operating system to
the hardware interfaces.
Q: Why doesn't the Remote Wake Up feature work through the BNC or AUI port
of my 3C905B-Combo NIC??
A: Both the AUI and BNC ports on the 3C905B-Combo NIC require 12V power
to operate properly. When a PC is shutdown and put in the D3cold state,
(bus power removed, only AUX power available), the required 12V is not
available to the NIC. If the PC is put into a suspend D3hot state,
(bus remains powered with 12V), then the 3C905B-Combo NIC will support
Remote Wake Up. Contact your PC documentation or your PC manufacturer
to determine if your PC supports D3hot during suspend.
(%VER WAKEFAQ.TXT - Release Notes v4.0.3)
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.