Remotely Powering On-Off Network Devices via a Network Interface Device

A method to enable remotely changing the power state of a network device, the method comprising

• receiving, at a network interface device (NID), instructions from a remote device to change power state of a network device;
• generating, in the NID, magic packets to change power state of the network device;
• and
• broadcasting the magic packets from the NID to all devices connected to the NID.

A system comprising

• a plurality of network devices, wherein a subset of the plurality of network devices include network interface cards that receive limited power and are capable of limiting processing of packets during a powered down state of the network device;
• a network interface device (NID) in communication with the plurality of network devices to provide a link to remote devices via the Internet, wherein the NID includes a magic packet generator to generate power-on magic packets and broadcast the power-on magic packets to the plurality of network devices, wherein the power-on magic packets include a power-on sequence and a media access control address identifier (MAC ID) of an associated network device;
• and
• at least one remote device capable of instructing the NID to generate the power-on magic packets for one of the subset of the plurality of network devices.