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Use secondary ethernet adapter to prevent Windows sleeping?

Last response: in Windows 7
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I have an Asus Striker Extreme motherboard. Since I have a PS3 but access to only one ethernet port, I've bridged my two motherboard ethernet adapters and plugged my PS3 into my computer so they can share the connection.

I'd like to know if it's at all possible to configure Windows somehow to prevent it from going to sleep while there's any activity over the network bridge. Obviously I prefer to keep Windows' power saver scheme intact or I'd just disable sleeping entirely. However I don't want to have to reach over to the computer and bumping the mouse every ten minutes as I'm playing to prevent it from sleeping and cutting off my PS3's network connection.

Is this at all doable or just wishful thinking on my part? I've checked through the Windows and Nvidia network settings but can't find anything relevant (or I'm just missing what I need).

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I'm not sure how DLNA is relevant to the issue. As for a router, if it was an option I could get it and split the ethernet connection that way. It's not an option though, which is why I'm asking about Windows configuration possibilities.
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Windows 7 Expert

you dont have to use dlna just the router,for windows in the power settings just put screen setting to stop after the time you want and put the computer to sleep to never so it will only stop when you push the power switch
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I'm asking if there is a way to prevent Windows to sleep as long AS LONG AS ONE OF THE MOTHERBOARD ETHERNET PORTS ARE ACTIVE.

I know I can change the Power settings to extend or disable the time before Windows sleeps, but as I stated clearly in the second paragraph of my original post, I don't WANT to. The current settings work for me perfectly, and I don't play online with my PS3 often enough to make it worth changing them.

So while I appreciate your attempts to help, I have a very specific question I'm trying to find an answer to. Whether there's a setting to change in Windows or even if there's a small application that'll do the job, is what I want to know.

The 2 ethernet controllers are seen as 2 separate devices, so routing packets is a pure software solution. This means CPU must be active.

And to answer your quesiton, I don't know any SW that can monitor and sleep your PC. There is a possibility, but it's a custom solution: the PS3 completely disconnects from ethernet when shut down, so a program could monitor this and disable sleep while the connection is up. But I don't know any SW that does this, so you (or somebody) would have to make it from scratch.

So in theory it could be done, but a separate switch/router is much cheaper (in terms of time is money).

Oneiros42 said:
I'm not sure how DLNA is relevant to the issue. As for a router, if it was an option I could get it and split the ethernet connection that way. It's not an option though, which is why I'm asking about Windows configuration possibilities.


Just out of curiosity why is a router not an option? Since as for your question the option looniam showed should work for your issue. As it should keep your computer awake or at least wake it up if needed by the PS3.

mathew7 said:
The 2 ethernet controllers are seen as 2 separate devices, so routing packets is a pure software solution. This means CPU must be active.


I'm not really sure quite how Windows treats a Network Bridge. On my PS3, when I download a demo, then in "Local Area Connection Status" and "Local Area Connection 2 Status" Activity I can see the Sent and Received bytes of both of themincrease rapidly, while in "Network Bridge Status" the numbers barely twitch. I thought the Bridge was what moved the data between the two ethernet ports. Either way, Windows knows there's activity on both ethernet ports.

You'd THINK you'd be able to tell Windows not to sleep as long as it's sending or receiving data. I guess not?
Motherboard Expert

It's not that simple though. The PC needs to be able to predict when the PS3 will be sending or receiving packets. It's going to need to power up on networking activity from the PS3 which is actually the easy part using BIOS settings and Windows device configuration. Not only that, it's going to need to maintain a phantom route, ARP state, and DHCP lease on the PS3's behalf to keep it receiving packets. That's the real hard part.

aicom said:
It's not that simple though. The PC needs to be able to predict when the PS3 will be sending or receiving packets. It's going to need to power up on networking activity from the PS3 which is actually the easy part using BIOS settings and Windows device configuration. Not only that, it's going to need to maintain a phantom route, ARP state, and DHCP lease on the PS3's behalf to keep it receiving packets. That's the real hard part.


Just having Adapter #2 active as a sleep preventer would be enough... when the PS3 is off then Adapter #2 says the cable is disconnected. Why does it need to to power up on activity from the PS3? Powering on the computer wouldn't be needed, just to KEEP it on is enough.

Why does it need need the phantom route, ARP state (whatever those are) and DHCP lease (that one I know) to "keep it receiving packets? The PS3 is already receiving data through the computer. The router at the centre of the house assigns the PS3 an IP address and runs the data to it through the computer. The computer is just the pass-through for the data.
Motherboard Expert

Oneiros42 said:
Just having Adapter #2 active as a sleep preventer would be enough... when the PS3 is off then Adapter #2 says the cable is disconnected. Why does it need to to power up on activity from the PS3? Powering on the computer wouldn't be needed, just to KEEP it on is enough.

Why does it need need the phantom route, ARP state (whatever those are) and DHCP lease (that one I know) to "keep it receiving packets? The PS3 is already receiving data through the computer. The router at the centre of the house assigns the PS3 an IP address and runs the data to it through the computer. The computer is just the pass-through for the data.


You could do it as you've described (instead of powering up on LAN activity, simply not powering down on LAN activity) but you'd need a custom program or script to keep the system from sleeping while that network adapter is up. It wouldn't be that hard to write actually, if you have some knowledge of the IP helper API and Win32. You can register for a callback from the system when an adapter changes state and use that to keep track of whether sleep should be allowed or not. I'm not sure of the method to enable or disable sleep though.

PS: NotifyIpInterfaceChange() is the IP Helper API call you want. Just give that a callback and check whether it matches the interface you want when the callback runs.

aicom said:
You could do it as you've described (instead of powering up on LAN activity, simply not powering down on LAN activity) but you'd need a custom program or script to keep the system from sleeping while that network adapter is up. It wouldn't be that hard to write actually, if you have some knowledge of the IP helper API and Win32. You can register for a callback from the system when an adapter changes state and use that to keep track of whether sleep should be allowed or not. I'm not sure of the method to enable or disable sleep though.

PS: NotifyIpInterfaceChange() is the IP Helper API call you want. Just give that a callback and check whether it matches the interface you want when the callback runs.


Sadly I don't have any programming knowledge, unless you count Tasker on Android. :) 

Oh well, looks like I'll just have to set a timer to remind me bump the mouse every so often as I play PS3 to keep the computer from sleeping.
Motherboard Expert

You could also just turn off the automatic sleep timer and sleep it manually when you're done with it and the PS3. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.
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