SleepOver - Tutorial

The first time you run SleepOver, you will be met with a message telling you that you currently have no hosts defined.

Tap the button to dismiss the message and you are taken to SleepOver's main screen, which is currently empty. Tapping the Edit button on the main screen will reveal the Add (+) and Edit buttons. If you already had some hosts defined, then tapping the Edit button would allow you to re-order or delete them.

Since we don't have any hosts defined yet, let's add our first one. Tap the Add (+) button and you will be taken to a screen where you can specify the details of your new host.

First we will give our host a recognisable name. Tap on the Name field and enter a name for your host. I would like to be able to wake my Mac Mini home theatre over my Local Area Network (LAN), so I will enter Theatre here. Tap the Save button to accept your chosen name.

We can also add an optional description for each host, possibly to remind us what kind of machine it is. Tap the Description field and enter a description for your host. I will describe my home theatre here. Tap the Save button to accept your chosen description.

Here you can see the details I have entered so far. Next we will enter the settings necessary for waking this host over the LAN. Slide the switch to enable to Local Area Network profile.

The most important field is the MAC address, which identifies a particular physical network connection. It is made up of 6 pairs of hex digits and looks something like 00:00:00:00:00:00. For wake-on-LAN to work this must be a wired connection, not wireless. You can usually find the MAC address for your host by looking in its network configuration or by looking for a sticker fixed to the host itself. I will enter an imaginary MAC address of 00:11:22:33:44:55 for my home theatre. Tap the Save button to accept your chosen MAC address.

We must now enter the IP address of the host on the LAN, again you can usually find this information by looking in the network configuration on the host itself. Tap the Save button to accept your chosen IP address.

Next is the subnet mask of the host on the LAN. Tap the Save button to accept your chosen subnet mask.

Here we can see the Local Area Network details that I have entered so far.

SleepOver needs either a valid hostname or IP address but not both. If you specify both, the hostname will be used. If you do not have a hostname to use then leave it empty and specify an IP address instead.

Now let's say that I also want to be able to wake my home theatre from the Internet. I will need a different set of network details to reach my home theatre from the Internet. I can enter these details by using the slider to enable the Internet network profile. The MAC address will normally be the same as for the LAN profile.

This time, you are specifying the network address where the magic packet will enter your LAN from the Internet. So you must use the public hostname or IP address (usually the public hostname or IP address of your router).

The Lookup button allows you to test if the iPhone can resolve the entered hostname into an IP address. If the hostname cannot be resolved into an IP address it could be because you have entered the hostname incorrectly or the iPhone cannot contact any DNS servers to perform the lookup. Tap the Save button to accept your chosen hostname.

If your router has a firewall, then the network port number that you specify must be a port which has been opened in your router's firewall, otherwise your router will simply discard the magic packet. Your router must also allow the incoming magic packet to be broadcast on the LAN, which not all consumer routers will allow. Tap the Save button to accept your chosen port number.

Here we can see the Internet details that I have entered so far. Tap the Done button when you have finished editing this host.

SleepOver needs either a valid hostname or IP address but not both. If you specify both, the hostname will be used. If you do not have a hostname to use then leave it empty and specify an IP address instead.

Now that we have come out of edit mode, we can see the host information screen showing all the details that we have just entered. Tap the Hosts back-button to return to the main screen.

Here we are back at the main screen, and we can now see our newly added host. If you need to see the host information again, tap on the blue arrow to the right of the host's name. To try waking it up, first put the host into sleep mode, then connect your iPhone or iPod touch to the Local Area Network using the Wi-Fi connection, then tap on the host's name in the SleepOver main screen.

Since we have entered two different network profiles for this host we now have choice of which one to use when we try to wake it up. Tap the "Wake over LAN" button and you should see your host come back to life. If it does not wake up please visit the support page for more information on network setup and troubleshooting.