Turning Your Stream Host On/Off Remotely: A Guide

[MC Mjolnir]

[Note]: This guide has been updated since it was originally written to make use of Steam Link instead of using myriad command line tools, simplifying the setup considerably.

So here's a little how-to on managing your streaming host without touching it. The requirements are that your host motherboard supports Wake On LAN (WOL) and you have a wired ethernet connection to your host. Fortunately, most boards do.

(It's possible to do this if your host is connected wirelessly with some setups, but I won't be covering that in this guide.)

Part A: The Host

Step 1: Enable WOL in the BIOS.
Press DEL (or whichever key it says on the boot screen) as your computer starts to enter the BIOS setup. Now not all BIOSes are the same, so I can't tell you exactly what you're looking for, but it'll probably be in the Power Management section or something similar. From there, you need to look for a Wake On LAN setting, or possibly Power On By PCI Devices and enable it. If you can't find the setting, google it to find out and make sure it's supported on your board.

Step 2: Enable WOL in Windows
Now open Device Manager from the control panel and find your ethernet adapter. Double click it and open the Power Management tab. Tick the box that says Allow this device to wake the computer and Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer.

Part B: The Client
Install Steam Link for your client device (the device you want to stream games to).
- Windows
Download from this page. The application can be added as a non-steam game.
- Steam Deck
Search "Steam Link" in the Discover Store. The application can be added as a non-steam game.
- Raspberry Pi (Raspbian OS)
Install using

sudo apt update && sudo apt install steamlink

- Other Linux distros
Search for steamlink in your package manager, or install from flathub[flathub.org].
- Apple Devices
Install from the App store[apps.apple.com].
- Android
Install from the Play store[play.google.com].
- Meta Quest
Install from the Meta store[www.meta.com].

The rest of the setup should be fairly self explanatory.

The original instructions from this post can be found below for posterity, but I recommend the above steps.



Part A: The Host

Step 1: Enable WOL in the BIOS.
Press DEL (or whichever key it says on the boot screen) as your computer starts to enter the BIOS setup. Now not all BIOSes are the same, so I can't tell you exactly what you're looking for, but it'll probably be in the Power Management section or something similar. From there, you need to look for a Wake On LAN setting, or possibly Power On By PCI Devices and enable it. If you can't find the setting, google it to find out and make sure it's supported on your board.

Step 2: Enable WOL in Windows
Now open Device Manager from the control panel and find your ethernet adapter. Double click it and open the Power Management tab. Tick the box that says Allow this device to wake the computer and Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer.

Step 3: Find out your MAC address
Open the command prompt, cmd.exe from the start menu. At the prompt, type

ipconfig /all

The MAC address is listed as the Physical Address. Make a note of this, but replace the dashes ( - ) with colons ( : ).

Step 4: Add a Shutdown Shortcut
The last step on the host is to add a shutdown shortcut to Steam. You can do this by opening your Steam Library and adding a non-steam game. Pick any program you want, it doesn't matter, you'll be changing all the content anyway. Open the shortcut's properties, and call it 'Shutdown'. Set the Target to

"C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe" -s -t 00

Set Start In to

C:\Windows\System32\

Close the properties, save all your work and test it by running the shortcut. Your system should now shutdown. When streaming, if you Stream the Shutdown shortcut it will power off the host.

Part B: The Client

Linux (Ubuntu/SteamOS) (SteamOS users will need to switch to desktop mode).

First, download wakeonlan by opening a terminal and running

sudo apt-get install wakeonlan

On SteamOS, switch to the steam user by typing

su steam

Next, create a script by running

nano ~/wakestreamhost.sh

and make it look like this:

#!/bin/bash
wakeonlan 00:00:00:00:00:00

Replacing the 0s with the host's MAC address. press Ctrl-O, press Y then Enter to save, and Ctrl-X to exit.
Now make it executable

chmod +x ~/wakestreamhost.sh

Finally, add the script as a non-steam game by finding the script in your home directory under "/home/steam" on SteamOS and your home folder on Ubuntu. You should now be able to start your host from Steam on your client.

Windows

Download WakeMeOnLan.exe from https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wake_on_lan.html#DownloadLinks. Save it somewhere practical, and then open steam and add a non-steam game like before only this time, on the client. Change the Name to "Wake Host" and in the Target field put

"C:\your\path\to\WakeMeOnLan.exe" /wakeup 00:00:00:00:00:00

replacing the path, and the 0s with the host's MAC address and including the speech marks.
Then change the Start In field to

C:\your\path\to\

again replacing the path. You should now be able to power on your host.

Mac OSX

First of all, download the homebrew package manager by entering the following into the terminal and then following the instructions on-screen:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" 

Homebrew is a package manager (similar to aptitude or yum like you'd find on linux) that allows you to easily download, install and manage programs written by the open source community on your Mac. (If you wish to learn more about it, visit http://brew.sh/.)

Next, use homebrew to download the wakeonlan command line utility:

brew install wakeonlan

Now open steam, add a non-steam game, edit the properties and for the target put

/bin/bash -c "wakeonlan 00:00:00:00:00:00"

replacing the 0s with your host's mac address. Change the Start In field to

/bin/

and close the properties menu. You should now be able to power on your host.


If something doesn't work, please say and I'll amend the guide as I haven't had chance to test everything myself.

[Syrous_PL]

Thank you for your guide.
BTW there is a <<< typo>>> in step 4 the slash should be after the colon >>>>>>>>>> C\:Windows\System32\
C:\Windows\System32\ << correct

[Syrous_PL]

In addition, if your host computer is not on the same LAN, then you will need to specify the IP address as well on your client.

Here is the usage for mc-wol dot exe from their website (matcode dot com)

MC-WOL ethernet-address [/a] [/p]
A description for each argument follows:
ethernet-address - Ethernet MAC address of the network adapter of the destination computer.
ip-address - Multicast IP address of the LAN (see below) where the destination computer is located. This argument is not required if computers are located on the same LAN.
password - Is only required for a few adapter types. The password should be specified in ethernet hex format (i.e. 01:AA:02:BB or 01:AA:02:BB:03:CC:04:DD).


Example1: MC-WOL 00:01:02:58:A3:C7
If a target computer is on another LAN, IP address must be specified. For example you have a segment using the class C network 192.168.5.0. The broadcast ip address of this subnet is 192.168.5.255 - that's what you use as the destination IP address on the packet.
Example2: MC-WOL 00:01:02:5C:A1:B2 /a 192.168.5.255
This multicast packet will be delivered by router(s) to the ethernet switch that comprises the network segment.

[kenQi]

I am sorry I have to ask, but I understand very little of the guide.
Can I use this guide to wake Steam Link from Windows 10 on my host computer?

Right now my Steam Link only wakes when I press a button on a paired controller.
But sometimes I have to pair my controllers with my PC instead (e.g. when I have to use an input wrapper for certain games), so it's a little tedious to first pair the controller(s) with my Steam Link just to wake it, then unpair and pair them again with my PC to launch the game.

I am on Windows 10, WOL is activated, and I know the MAC address of my Steam Link.
What do I have to do next? I'd appreciate it if someone helped me out.

[Chuck]

I would just like to say that this is a brilliant idea and an excellent guide. I just set this up on my gaming desktop (Windows 10) and chromebook (Gallium OS). Works a like a charm. thanks.

[Nixen]

i can't download mc-wol.exe

[(A)lways (H)opeful]

omg i should read all this ? it's better not to use this feature

[RoryIsNotACabbage]

late to the party but I've set this up but my client can't stream the shutdown shortcut.
It can see it but only has a grey'd out install option, and the shortcut definitely works since I can run it on the host

[Menphues]

I am confused.
I never ever needed to do any of this on my old machine, I recently upgraded and re-installed all my stuff and now my Steam Link press start does not turn my computer on.
My BIOS is set and so is the device manager, but I am not going to add more files just to get my PC to turn on, it's bizarre because I did not do this before... So something is off I think and I need to find out what I did without all this above.

[Maypew]

Początkowo opublikowane przez MC Mjolnir:

Windows

Download mc-wol.exe from http://www.matcode.com/wol.htm.

Can you send the file? I can't download anywhere...

[MC Mjolnir]

I updated the instructions to use WakeMeOnLan.exe from nirsoft, hopefully that works for you.

Been a long time since I wrote this guide, there's definitely room for improvement but I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle. A lot of inefficiencies from my poor understanding of the command line back then lol. I think I had hoped this functionality would be part of steam by now

[Maypew]

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Turnspit]

Thanks for the guide, I'm in the midst of migrating to a dedicated streaming Rig, and this is exactly what I've been looking for! :-)

[Blugrave]

I need help with creating the commands. If anyone can help, it'll be greatly appreciated.

[J0s3f4n]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Blugrave:

I need help with creating the commands. If anyone can help, it'll be greatly appreciated.

Wich commands are you having trouble with?

[MC Mjolnir]

*Reminder to self to update the OP when SteamOS 3 becomes available to support Steamdeck*