Use a smart plug or remote control to activate the PC from outside your house.
Use a smart plug or remote control to activate the PC from outside your house.
So you can power on your PC from within your local network, using moonlight and Playnite. When it’s active, you can stream to Moonlight and control it via Playnite, turning off or putting it to sleep. If the PC is in sleep mode, tailscale won’t be running either. Regarding Sleep vs hibernate: yes, they’re similar but not identical—hibernate saves more, while sleep just pauses the CPU. For your desktop setup, that should work fine.
Back then, in my urgency: I was setting up my BIOS to start the PC when the AC power was connected. Purchased a trusted smart power adapter. Activated the power outlet via its app. The computer would turn on instantly as soon as the socket was powered. xD
A computer that hibernates preserves RAM data to your storage before shutting down, so it can restart from where it left off when powered on. On startup, it restores from the drive into RAM, maintaining progress. Sleep mode keeps RAM active in a low-power state, enabling quick resumption since data stays intact. Both hibernation and sleep support Wake-on-LAN functionality. A simple device running continuously with minimal power consumption can transmit Wake-on-LAN signals. Options include an old Raspberry Pi or an affordable ESP32 Wi-Fi module. These require less technical setup than complex setups, though they need internet access for the control interface. You can program the device to check a webpage or file periodically and send a wake packet when a flag is set. When you remotely power on the PC, you update the flag (e.g., "wake") and the device responds accordingly. This method is straightforward, cost-effective, and avoids advanced networking like VPNs or port forwarding, provided the Wake-on-LAN device has online access.