Do you switch your router/internet off at night?

Strider590

tronator wrote: »

Wow, if you guys pay this much for electricity, then you have bigger problems than switching off a router anyway. We pay ~11p/KWh...

I don't know what I pay, last time I looked it was 10p up to a certain point and then 22p beyond that. So seeing as it's near impossible to be below the threshold, I just assume the higher rate.

It's quite hard to find information about the actually prices per unit, almost like they don't want you to know and prefer to baffle you with BS instead.

Bigphil1474

I'm with PlusNet, and that's what they say - leave it on all the time, although one of their advisors did say it's worth turning it off once a week for 15 minutes (don't know why tbh, and I rarely do, and I don't really care). When I first went to PlusNet we couldn't get a usable line speed in the first month, we rang them and the first thing they asked was if we turned the router off at night (which the OH did every night). They said leave it on constantly and after a week you should get a usable speed - we did, and we did.

Strider590

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

their advisors did say it's worth turning it off once a week for 15 minutes (don't know why tbh, and I rarely do, and I don't really care).

I have to admit, I do actually switch my modem (not my router) off for 2 minutes every 2 days, just to obtain a new IP address, it leaves me less vulnerable to DDOS attacks and make it harder for anyone to hack my network from WAN.

Additionally it helps to make my downloading activities hard to quantify (especially when combined with VPN), in the same way that if somebody came across a large sum of money and had a reason to hide it (greedy ex-wife for example), they'd split it into small amounts and hide it in multiple bank accounts so as not to get noticed.
Not that it's anything dodgy, but it's sure as hell nobody else's business, big brother can do one.

But for the average Joe, just leave the router/modem/whatever turned on.

wealdroam

tavernman wrote: »

wealdroam wrote: »

That's a good idea... I'll put my alarm clock on a timer as I don't need it until morning.

Ah but my alarm clock is based on network time so it will reset to the correct time as soon(ish) it is on so I can't lie in:mad:

Ah, but the subtle point I was trying to make was that the cost of running a a timer was probably the same as running an alarm clock.

I failed. Sorry.

Nilrem

I very very rarely turn our modem or router off, and when I do it's normally to either try and fix an issue or because I've updated the firmware and the instructions call for it.
But then there are 3 people in the house who use the internet, and often at odd times as our sleep patterns/active hours don't sync up so it's rare for the internet not to be in use for more than 30-60 minutes at a time.

What probably uses more power than the router is things like older cordless phone adaptors, as until relatively recently a lot of them were still wirewound transformers rather than switched mode, and a lot of cordless phones in use don't have smart charge circuits so they'll continue to send a current into the battery all the time they're on their charging stands (which fries the batteries, and wastes a lot of power via the heating of the batteries).

RumRat

If people switch it off, for whatever reason, nothing is going to change their minds. It'll be an age thing.;)
We bought my father in law a nice new PVR not so long back. On visiting one day he said he was tired because he had stayed up as there was a programme on he wanted to see. We asked if there was a problem with his PVR that prevented the recording........He replied 'No, it all recorded perfectly, thank you. I had to wait for it to finish recording though so that I could switch it off.':eek::D Apparently he's switched everything off every night for years and worried about leaving the PVR on......
We've managed to convince him about that and his router now, but, it took some doing to break the cycle.

50Twuncle

I used to turn my router off every night (and during the day too, when nobody was in - to satisfy the other half) - but this slowed the fibre router down from 78Mbps to less than 15Mbps - due to Dynamic Line Management thinking that there was a line fault and automatically throttling the speed back - TalkTalk agreed to pay BT to come out to reset my connection and since then, I have been able to connect reliably at 78Mbps upload and 19Mbps download every time
LESSON LEARNED - LEAVE YOUR FIBRE ROUTER ON 24/7
The wife now accepts that the house will not burn down as soon as she goes to sleep !!
I don't know how relevant this is to an ADSL connection though.

RumRat

I think you have your upload and download confused.....;)

Doshwaster

The only time I turn my router off is if I'm going to be away for more than a few days and then everything apart from the fridge freezer is turned off. Regular power cycling of electrical equipment is likely to cause more harm and hassle than the money it saves

Goldiegirl

When we had a desk top computer, we'd switch the modem off every night. It seemed to make sense, as that was our only computer at the time.

We then bought a laptop, and at the same time, we had a man set up a a new modem on a wireless basis. He told us to keep the modem on at all times, and it makes sense for convenience if nothing else, as now we have lots of devices that connect to the Internet.

We have left it on when we went on a two weeks holiday, although we turned it off when we were away for three weeks.

Next year, we'll be away for 5 weeks, and it'll be turned off then, but otherwise it's on 24/7