How to turn on a computer through LAN

Yesterday I used my laptop and wanted to get some files on my desktop which was at the next room. Both are connected to the same router and they have shared folders which I can use to transfer files between them. All I need to do is to push the power button to turn on the desktop. That's ok if I am near it but I often "travel" everywhere at home and sometimes the door is closed. Here's what I do to turn it on remotely.

First, make sure that your mainboard supports something like "Wake on LAN" or "Power on by PCI devices" by press Del repeatedly (it can be some other keys, just notice the line "Press <somekey> to enter setup..." when you turn on your computer) when your computer is booting in order to enter the BIOS settings, then check the Power Management part and enable them. Because the menu is different between types of mainboards, I can't point the names exactly but the function is the same.

When this function is enable, here's how "Wake on LAN" works:

When your computer is off, if you don't unplug the electric cable, the mainboard still has power and so do everything on it (PCI cards, onboard LAN...). So if your mainboard has "Wake on LAN", all you have to do is giving it a "magic packet" through LAN cable and the computer will be turned on!

I use a free software named WakeMeOnLan:

You can download it here:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wake_on_lan.html

Just press the "play icon" to scan all the computers in your network, right click on the one you want to wake and choose "Wake up Selected Computers", it will send the packet for you. Good luck!