Schedule logon on a workstation

I know this may be a strange need, but here goes.
I need to be able to automate a logon at a specific time.
I have a script that closes all applications and logsoff on all workstations at a specific time.
I do this so that I get a clean backup on my server. It's a long story but it works.
Now I would like to be able to have one of these machines automatically(scheduled) log back on at a specific time after a time that I know the backup is complete. I need this workstation to complete other task later.
I either need a program that will do this or is there a command line that I could enter as a post job script command on the servers backup program that would do a networked force logon on the specific workstation.
I hope I explained this ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

A network card on the client that supports WOL (wake on LAN) and is set to autologon should do the deed for you. Just schedule a job on the server to trigger the WOL on that PC.

 

Just a little more help

That sounds like that would work. I found where to enable WOL on the card.
Where do I configure autologon and I assume that I need to create a bat file to ping the machine?

 

For non-domain (so stand-alone or workgroup PCs)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/tips/knox2.mspx

This will work regardless but it is a little more involved to set up - registry editing.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315231

And for sending a proper WOL signal
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article04-101
http://www.gammadyne.com/cmdline.htm (free command line exe so good for batch file use)

 

assuming u can 'reach' the machine remotely, u can get tweakui and use it to setup autologon. then just reboot the machine remotely.

not sure on u'r OS here but w/ xp, if u setup remote desktop, it's easy.

 

Thanks Newt

Newt
I got it to work using MagPac. I think it is an AMD release.
It had a schedule feature to send the magic packets to wake the machine.
Great suggestion and thanks again.

 

Glad it's working for you and thanks for the update.