switching off at night

aloise

I always switch all my computer stuff off at the mains at night. Six months ago i changed to plusnet and recently have had very slow speed and the internet cutting off. It has been resolved now ( very efficiently, and could understand the person speaking. One reason why i will stay with them ) but i have been advised not to switch everything off at night as it can effect performance. We are always being told to stop having appliances on standby, so i am now very confused.:o Any enlightenment would be good.

jaydeeuk1

No harm in turning your PC off, and turning off modem once a day shouldn't affect anything. If its something like 5-10 times an hour, then DLM could kick in and affect speeds. Sounds like plusnet had to set something manually to stablise your connection.

kwikbreaks

Frequent power downs can be interpreted by the line management routines as instability but they can cope with an overnight switch off without throwing a hissy fit.

If you prefer to power everything down overnight then do so.

boxst

You can certainly switch off your computer, monitor etc... Generally you should leave your router on. As mentioned above, some ISPs check for connect / reconnect and assume that if it happens often that there is a issue with the line.

I haven't heard of this very much after the initial two week bedding in period though.

Steve

GeoffX

I've been with Plusnet for eighteen months and turn off almost every night - almost, because that unmetered usage is just irresistible - without any problems. If you have a poor line quality, or are far from your exchange, it's possible that BT's hardware will think your router is struggling to maintain a connection and will reduce its speed. If they've told you to leave it on then you're best doing so, at least for a while.

If you log in to your router - if you do this, don't let your browser remember your name and password -you should be able to find statistics on the quality of connection. Its IP address will be something like http://192.168.1.254/. If you've a Thomson router supplied by Plusnet then you should:
- Click "Broadband Connection"
- Click "View more" under "DSL Connection"
- Click "Details" at the top-right of the page.

pollypenny

Interesting answers.

My router got very,very hot so i thought it had burned out when I couldn't get a connection. The guy from Talktalk said it should be switched off periodically.

JJ_Egan

but i have been advised not to switch everything off at night as it can effect performance.

Where do they get these CS morons from PC world .

It is as been said repeated switching on and off that may adjust the DLM .Switching off at night is probably the norm for most people . Bar the initial setup ten days or so where the line adjusts for best speed .

jje

ChiefGrasscutter

Actually it may be beneficial to switch the router off at night.
This is because atmospheric "noise" increases at night time.
This in turn will affect the SNR margin on the line - and if it drops low enough it will cause the router to re-sync at a lower sync speed during the night which in turn will lower the IP setting from the BT Dslam at the exchange which - guess what - will lower your speeds as you line's "profile" has now been reduced
You will find that after the sync rate has dropped overnight - it is remarkably difficult to get it to rise again the next morning - a manual router re-boot is the only way generally.

I get this effect (rural line)
So to ensure this does not happen I switch off my router each night.
What is the difference I'm seeing.
Well if I leave it on the sync speed seems to get down to around 7500 - caused entirely by excessive noise on the line at night.
Switch on/off morning/night at it remains at or near sync of 8096 each day.

Th problem is entirely with the DLM (dynamic line management) of BT's system: as it simply will not dynamically adjust for line improvement. It only seems to work when the line gets "worse". I understand that lines which are LLU'd and are not using BT's equipment do not suffer from this system.

After your line has had a voice fault you sometimes have to get the ISP to get BT Openreach to "re-set the line" as the DSLAM will have reacted to to the fault (particularly for an intermittent one) by reducing the speeds to something like dial up and nothing short of a "re-train" will make it go back up.

stevemcol

I switch off my router when I'm not online and still have approx the same speed I've always had (4.5Mb / 0.9Mb), about 2 miles from the exchange (I'd be interested to know if anyone thinks I should get quicker).
I have my backup HDD and router on the same wireless energy saving socket so it makes sense and is easy to switch off.
The trouble (and possibly the advantage) with forums is you'll always get a range of opinions. I think chiefgrasscutter is probably closest to the reality.

aloise

thanks to you all for your comments. Will keep it switched on for a while till it settles down again, but no doubt will start switching off. It's like Blackpool illuminations in here

macman

How much power does the Thomson Plusnet router use on standby? About 10W probably?