disconnecting Ethernet with a switch

You could connect your PC through a small ethernet switch and plug the power supply of the ethernet switch into a timeswitch.

"Sleep-on-LAN" is not a normal function, while "Wake-on-LAN" is part of Windows. This is not a default action for a Windows PC, you must have some software running on it in the background which is causing the issue. It will be a better idea to remove the problem at source by disabling/removing the offending software.

Disable the network connection in question in your operating system? (In Windows in "Network Connections" in Control Panel.)

Are you sure it's not a BIOS setting?

wake-on-LAN exists, sleep-on-LAN not so much (but e.g. if it belongs to a domain, someone could have scripted something).

Heh, shows someone will build it, I wouldn't have expected it ...

Might be useful for someone who has to connect to 'secure' or 'insecure' networks but never the twain shall meet.

Owain

i.e. windows.

If he really wants to do that a simple ethernet switch between his PC and whatever with a switch on it...

Oh. This looks even simpler..

Odd. I'd check your power settings in control panel first.

Tim

OTOH my approach doesn't involve spending money on what I (like others) suspect won't stop the overnight shutdowns; and could be tried tonight .

Just a thought: are you using a bog-standard computer on a bog standard internet connection or are you connected to a company intranet?

Nick

Company pc, no access to bios or the signal switching it off, I do have access to the cable

In which case the "switch off signal" could be a remote execution of the shutdown.exe command from a server, it could be a task scheduler job on the PC itself, it could be controlled via intel AMT which basically "owns" the entire machine.

Have you tested that unplugging it stops the shutdown?

It may be possible the signal to shutdown is actually received a long time before the PC shuts down, For instance the update is downloaded in the day and a shutdown is then scheduled to occur at a convenient later date, outside normal working hours.

So unplugging the cable at night may not fix the problem as the damage may be done in the day. Also if an update is skipped it may be more aggressive in trying to push it through the next time you do connect.

There used to be updates at night, but they were causing issues so they switched off the pcs to avoid the overnight updates.

What signal? Who's sending it this signal?

There is no such thing as a mechanical switch - but you can achieve the same with a small semi-managed switch where you offline the port over SNMP or some other management API.

The "normal" way of doing that kind of thing is with a managed or "smart" switch. Those typically allow ports to be enabled or disabled either manually from a built in web interface, or based on schedules.

I worked at a place that did that to save money on leccy.

Over a year, about 30 PCs (out of 1000 or so) failed, and the logjam of all PCs hitting the server for an update at 9:00 meant no work got done till 9:45