remote computer startup?

is there a way that I can remote turn on my computer from any abritrary location? I sometimes need to get files from my computer while I'm away from home through winVNC but sometimes I forget to leave my computer on. Is there some way to turn my computer on without actually being in the same room as the computer? __________________ I would like to know the answer to that as well __________________ well.. this is just an idea I've been thinking about... you know how http://www.x10.com sells all those home automation products, well, they have one product whereby you can call your homephone and switch on any appliance you have hooked up to the control module. So I figure you could do the same for your PC...remote bootup.. provide you don't need a password to log in.. and do a autostart for PC Anywhere. Then you can call in from any location to get the needed files... just an idea... __________________ I'm not sure about your motherboard but I have an Asus P2B mobo and using an internal modem i can turn it on from anywhere by dialing up the phone number its connected to. after ringing the computer turns on. __________________ hey hapoo...what type of modem do you have? did you have to make any extra modifications/settings in order for that to work? __________________ A lot of ethernet cards have the ability to do this - it's called 'wake on lan', or 'remote wake up', or whatever, depending on the card manufacturer. Here's 3Com's deal: http://www.3com.com/partners/acpi/ It's there so network managers can remotely trigger client PCs to turn on for mass software updates, etc. rather than having some poor sod go around & turn on 500 PCs. __________________ what if my motherboard doesn't support a wake on lan option? is there another similar way to do this? Mavi forum