Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.matrox (More info?)

Hello,

I have a PC at work with a static IP address. For several months I've been
using OpenVPN to connect from home. I can easily run Remote Desktop
Connection over this OpenVPN connection.

Now that it's summer, I wanna reduce the amount of heat produced in my
office. So I want my PC to go into standby after half an hour of non use.
But this is where things go wrong. And this is very wierd. Remote Desktop
Connection seems to crash for no apparent reason when I wake my sleeping
office PC from home. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there a fix? I
suspect it's the Matrox driver that's causing problems. Here's the
procedure that causes the crash:

A1) Before leaving work I log off and put my PC into standby.
A2) At home, I send a magic packet to my office PC to wake it up.
A3) After a few seconds, my OpenVPN client successfully connects to my
office PC. This proves the magic packet works.
A4) I can now browse my office PC's shared folders and ping it. This proves
the OpenVPN connection works.
A5) When I launch RDC, it crashes on the login page. My home computer won't
let me do anything (not even control-alt-delete). After a few minutes the
RDC client exits without any error message.
A6) When I get back to work, I find my office PC has crashed and I have to
do a hard-reset.

Also, this doesn't work:

B) Do exactly the same as above but from a PC at work (not using OpenVPN).
The PC successfully comes out of standby and but RDC crashes. This suggests
that the problem I'm experiencing has nothing to do with OpenVPN. Instead,
I fear the problem is that the RDC server dislikes being woken from standby
by WOL. In particular, I have a hunch that the problem has its root in the
Matrox driver.

These things do work:

1) Do exactly the same as the failing procedure (A1-A6) but shutdown the PC
fully (ACPI state S5) instead of putting it into standby. I can boot my PC
from home, initiate OpenVPN and run RDC without fail. This proves the magic
packet can be sent successfully from home and that the OpenVPN is configured
correctly.

2) Do exactly the same as in B but wake my PC by pressing a button on the
keyboard. I then connect via RDC from another machine. This works fine.

So, my question is: why does RDC fail specifically when I wake my office PC
from standby using Wake-On-LAN?

My config is:

Office PC
- Windows XP Pro SP1 fully patched
- Matrox P750 with latest drivers and BIOS
- Matrox RT.X10 with latest drivers (but this is DISABLED in my day-to-day
default hardware profile)
- OpenVPN 1.6
- Intel D875PBZ motherboard with onboard Intel gigabit Ethernet adapter
(most recent drivers & Intel PROset)
- I've set the BIOS to allow the Ethernet adapter to wake the PC
- The BIOS is set to put the PC into ACPI state S3 (suspend to RAM) when the
OS asks for "standby".
- Running Kerio personal firewall. It's configured to allow the relevant
OpenVPN and RDC connections.
- My institute has a hardware firewall with 2 incoming ports open - one for
the magic packet and one for the OpenVPN connection.
- PROset connections: "Enable PME = hardware default"; "Wake On Link
Settings = disabled"; "Wake On Settings = OS Controlled"

Home PC
- Windows XP Pro SP1 fully patched
- OpenVPN 1.6
- 3Com 802.11g wireless network
- Pipex 512k ADSL connection
- Hardware router

Thanks,
Jack