Features and Requirements for Intel® Smart Connect Technology

Overview
Intel® Smart Connect Technology is designed to update programs by periodically waking your computer from sleep/standby mode for a short time. This function works with applications that automatically get their data from the Internet, such as Outlook* and Windows* Live Mail.

Benefits
Intel® Smart Connect Technology automatically updates applications, such as e-mail and social networks, when your computer is asleep. With Intel Smart Connect Technology, you do not have to wait for your applications to update when you wake up your computer.

Features
The amount of time the feature waits to wake your computer can be set using the “Change Settings” option on the main user interface. You have an option to select between three time intervals: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 60 minutes. The longer the interval, the less the battery consumption.

Intel® Smart Connect Technology automatically adjusts the update frequency if your computer battery level is dropping, or if the system temperature rises. Even though you select a 15-minute update frequency, your computer can sleep longer between updates to save battery (if present), or keep the system cool.

By clicking the “Customize Schedule” button on the main user interface, you can set a time schedule for Intel Smart Connect Technology to keep the system in the sleep state in Extended Power Savings mode. During these extended night hours, Intel® Smart Connect Technology will not wake your system up from sleep. This is meant to save battery power. The system will now wake up only at dawn (end of extended hours). Thus there are no updates during extended hours.

If your computer is equipped with an Intel Wi-Fi card and Intel® PROSet/Wireless WiFi Connection Utility, Intel Smart Connect Technology searches for Wi-Fi networks you have previously accessed. Your computer does not update until it recognizes a known Wi-Fi network. If you put your computer to sleep when it was not connected to the Internet, it will wake up the next time, only when it detects a known network that you have accessed earlier and to which you have previously connected to automatically.

Your computer can also be woken up remotely using another feature of Intel® Smart Connect Technology, which is known as “Remote Wake.” This feature can be enabled through the main user interface. This feature allows you to remotely wake your system up using the appropriate application from your remote device, even across subnets. This feature is only supported on Intel® Ethernet Adapters and wireless network adapters and needs the appropriate Intel® Management Engine built into the platform. Contact your system manufacturer for verification of your system requirements for support for Remote Wake.

Requirements
Intel® Smart Connect Technology requires features that must be built into the BIOS of your computer system. For this reason, the technology must be included in the computer system at the time of manufacture.

If your computer system included Intel Smart Connect Technology, but the feature is not available, make sure that the capability is enabled in your system BIOS. Contact your system manufacturer for instructions on how to access the BIOS.

Compatibility
Here is a list of Intel® Desktop Boards and Intel® NUC Kits and Boards that support Intel® Smart Connect Technology: