What does `Wake on Pattern Match` option mean in network card preferences?

“Wake On LAN” makes the system wake on the “magic packet.”

The “Wake on pattern match” option instead checks for packets that matches the operating-system-specified patterns; for example, an ARP request for the computer’s address, or a TCP connection attempt.

The default patterns on a Windows 7 system are:

  • Magic Packet.
  • NetBIOS Name Query.
  • TCPv4 SYN.
  • TCPv6 SYN
  • IPv6 Neighbor Solicitation.

There’s no ARP in the list since the device is expected to support “ARP Offload”; that is, reply to ARP requests with OS-set address by itself.