
               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)

