A system and method for autonomic extensions to wake on LAN are presented. An access point detects wake on LAN (WOL) requests that are targeted for unassociated clients. When the access point detects a WOL request for an unassociated client, the access point stores the WOL request in a table for a predefined amount of time. A client queries the access point periodically to see if the access point is storing a WOL request which is targeted for the client. When the access point receives the query, the access point compares the client's identifier, such as its MAC address, with targeted client identifiers corresponding to pending WOL requests. When the access point detects a match, the access point sends the WOL request to the client for the client to process.