3Com (R) Corporation
TokenDisk(R) Diskette for the
3C359B TokenLink PCI 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: To check if the NIC is RWU capable the user must 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. The connector on the NIC is called the "3-pin header".
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: Sometimes, 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. For
3 pin header remote wake up, BIOS changes usually are not necessary.
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 Token Ring 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 network 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 properties of the installed NIC.
The keyword to look for under the advanced tab is: WAKEONMAGIC.
WAKEONMAGIC by default is set to yes.
Other keywords present under the advanced tab are WAKEONLINK AND WAKEONPATTERN
which are not supported options at this time.
Q: What OS's support RWU?
A: RWU is currently supported in Microsoft's Win 95, Win95 OSR2 and NT4.0.
Q: How do I suspend my PC for RWU?
A: A normal power down such as pushing the on/off switch will ready the PC
for RWU functionality.
This process however will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
In some cases 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: Does the 3C359B stay on the "ring" while in power down mode?
A: Yes, the microcode of the adapter allows the NIC to stay on the "ring" so it can
accept a magic "wake-up" packet.
Q: Does the NIC have to be present on the "ring" to accept a magic packet?
A: Yes, otherwise there is no way for the NIC to receive the magic packet.
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 my PC wakes up from a sleep or power down mode, I
lose my all my network connections and drive mappings, how can I correct this?
A: Once the machine goes into a power down or sleep 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. For other network connections,
when the PC powers down or goes to sleep network connections are lost
and must be re-established upon wakeup.
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. If the PC BIOS and Operating System are ACPI
compliant and a magic packet is sent to it, the PC will receive the wake-up
signal through the PCI bus of the PC.
Q: What are the different power down states and what do they mean.
A: Please refer to the User Guide for information on power down states.
(%VER WAKEFAQ.TXT - Release Notes v1.0)
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.