Did you know that your computer may have the capability to be turned on and off without ever physically pushing its power button? Besides helping you feel like a wizard, your computer’s Wake-on-LAN feature has many convenient applications for your business, including saving time and energy, and aiding your campaign to create a greener workplace.
What is Wake-on-LAN?
We’re glad you asked. Most computer users don’t know about this hidden gem capability. After you read this, you’ll sound like the smartest person in your office, as you brag about how much you know about Wake-on-LAN.
Wake-on-LAN is a feature that enables your computers to start up and shut down to by simply sending a signal through its Local Area Network. In other words, with Wake-on-LAN, you can send remote signals to your computers to trigger start up and shut down through your network connection without physically touching their power buttons. More practically, you can turn your office computers on and off by sending them a message through your network connection.
Save with Wake-on-LAN
This kind of technology has been dreamed about since the old science fiction movies and stories. Now that it’s a reality, WoL has the potential to do more than make you feel like a superhero; it can save your business time, energy, and ultimately, money.
Time
How much time does it take for you to turn your computer off? Maybe worse yet; how much time does it take for you to start your computer? If you maintain your machines and keep them healthy, your boot time may take as little as a fraction of a minute. However, some computer users say their machines take up to ten minutes to start up, and another ten to shut down. Yikes. WoL allows you to remotely boot up your computers through your network connection (and even the Internet, with certain capabilities)! If your machines take ten minutes to start, you can trigger them to fire up ten minutes before your employees show up to work, without having to make the rounds and physically push the buttons, saving you time all around!
Energy
Not only can Wake-on-LAN save you time, but it can save your company lots of energy. In order to receive the boot up signal from the network, your machines only need to be plugged in and ready to receive power. This allows for your computers to be completely shut off and still receive the command to wake. This significantly saves energy consumption for your company, by not requiring all of your computers to stay on overnight in order to be ready for the next day of work. With WoL activated, you can reduce your energy consumption and advance your company’s Green initiatives!
If you are interested in learning if your machines are capable of supporting Wake-on-LAN and want to know how to activate it give Think Tank NTG a call at 800-501-DATA today! We can walk you through the activation process, and show you how to practically implement this simple tool into your business plan.