WOL Ecosystem: Secure Remote Power – State Control of Computer(s) Over the Internet for Telemedicine Purposes and Dementia Patients

Abstract

Many times, we have found ourselves in situations where because we cannot physically be in a specific place, at a given time, we struggle to extract information which is saved on any kind of computer but is powered off. Such an example is when someone is abroad and needs to access a specific set of data that are saved on a computer back home. A solution to that problem is the well-known WOL – Wake On Lan – functionality, but that alone is not enough. Firstly, the WOL is effective only if the target device is being located in the same local network (LAN) with the device which is trying to send the “magic packet” to it. Secondly, it is only effective over the Internet under very specific circumstances. The second way hides some very serious dangers behind it. Thus, in this paper, we introduce the WOL Ecosystem. WOL Ecosystem is being consisted of a RESTful API, running on a server and a client, that is running on a raspberry pi, which in consultation are capable of remotely waking up any computer, that supports the WOL functionality safely and, of course, over the Internet.