Router and Modem Question

I shut my computer down at night. I know this is a highly debated practice,but that is what I do. My question is with those of us that do this, what about the router and modem. Do you shut them off also?

 

No I would leave both of them on.

 

I shut down my computer at night also, but leave the modem and router on 24/7. It doesn't seem to do any harm leaving them on. My last router lasted about 5 or 6 years. Modem is about 4 years old now...

 

I shut down everything at night. To save energy. The 5+ years old router is installed, maintained and replaced if necessary by the ISP.

 

Thank you for the input.

 

There are two reasons to consider shutting them off too: overheating on some models, and if the devices are not behind surge protectors, electrical surges too. Personally, I don't see either one of those as a problem and I leave these on at night, but folks in areas where electricity isn't stable might want to shut off any unneeded devices.

 

I'm folding. So it's it's for a good cause. Keeps the room nice and snug too with all the heat created.

 

Nobody said they leave their PCs on all night, just some leave their router and modem on all night. 2 different things.....

 

Indeed.

For me, the pc gets turned off, but router and modem stay on. I dont see the need to turn them off at night.

Could not imagine doing that here at work either.

 

I don't even like folding clothes. I turn mine off for a couple of reasons. One is to minimize the internal dust buildup, Windows seems to like being rebooted,and it is quieter with them shut down.

 

I turn off my PC at night, unless it's downloading or doing some other task. If so, I usually make a shutdown timer.

I never touch the router or modem unless necessary.

 

I turn the PC OFF at night, of course

No I don't turn the Router off since it uses very little power, and overheating is not an issue. (Never heard about that before actually, that a modem or router could overheat )

 

Cable companies use the modems they supply to you for traffic balancing their network, at least they used to about 5 or 6 years ago. I would turn off the modem in order to stop this abuse.

 

Atleast here in Finland we have few modems which can "overheat". Meaning that the heat doesn't break anything, but the modem becomes unstable and starts disconnecting. Dedicated routers usually don't have this problem, but I have seen this with the ADSL-modem + Router configurations. If I remember right, atleast Zyxel's low-end models tend to do this. One could of course argue whether the heat is the biggest issue - some of the low-end models seem to have all kinds of limitations which start to kick in when used longer.

 

Nah! At night, if you are in bed, your modem is pretty much at idle the whole time (or better be or you have other problems). The cable companies do NOT "use" your idle modem to balance their network - and even so, from their side, there is little difference between an idle modem and one turned off.

I leave my network up and running full time because I use dynamic address assignments (DHCP), as do most users and many ISPs. If you turn off a network device for an extended period of time (as little as 10 minutes for some networks) the assigned IP address is returned to the pool. This means in the morning, your network may be "reset" and your computers, the router, the modem all need new assignments. This can cause problems with many attached devices (like networked printers, NAS, etc.).

As for leaving computers on 24/7 there are many valid reasons for doing that. Two in particular are security and backups. Many users schedule security scans and backups in the middle of the night, when their computers and networks are otherwise idle.

 

The energy usage of an individual device in standby or idle mode can be very low, 4 or 5 W, or even less. But the problem is the aggregate or collective result of having hundreds of millions of devices connected 24x7 and doing nothing for many hours each day.

 

While true, most people don't care about the global impact, only their monthly power bill. And to that, there are many such devices that consume power when idle in the average home, including anything with a clock and/or charger. I saw on TV just the other day that many DVR devices provided by cable TV companies consume more during 24 hours at idle than a refrigerator, traditionally considered to be the biggest power eater in house.

Here it is: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20071139-260/study-dvr-set-top-box-use-most-energy-at-home/

 

Say that to those that have their Computers on 24/7

Though don't get me wrong here because I agree with you 100%
But there is a HUGE difference of having your Router on 24/7 than having your Computer on 24/7! Agreed? Since the PC is using so much more power than the tiny router does.

And the usual comment I see from those that has their PC/s on 24/7 is that they don't turn it off due to the higher risk of getting hardware failure during bootup.
The risk may be higher but it's still not a reason big enough to have your PC/s on 24/7

FYI. I also use DHCP.

 

I thought IPv4 addresses are running out, and mainly static nowadays.

Some people have servers, gateways, even custom routers running 24/7.

 

I was talking about PC's ONLY. Though I had a feeling that someone would mention servers etc..

But as I said, I was talking about PC's only like the one you and I are using now for example.

 

I shut off the PC when not in use. It sucks about 250 watts idle so no way it is going to be on when not used. Cable modem (oxymoron by the way) is left on because it would take way too long to get it to connect to the cable company again. Router is left on but mine can be programmed to turn off the wireless transmitter on a schedule, so I have mine turn off at night.

 

They are running out. But IPv6 supports DHCP too.

Ummm, not by any standard definition of oxymoron. The words "cable" and "modem" are not contradictory - a requirement for oxymora.

"Deafening silence", "rolling stop", or "original copy" are classic examples of oxymoron.

A "cable modem" is simply a modulator-demodulator designed for use with cable networking.

 

I have the following setup:
1) My router's power supply is plugged into a separate surge outlet (6 outlets, and a rocker switch) which is plugged into a wall outlet.
2) My computer (incl. monitor, printer, etc.) is plugged into an Isobar Toouch Master Plus surge with 1500 joules of surge protection which is plugged into a separate surge outlet (6 outlets and a rocker switch) which is plugged into a separate wall outlet.

After I power down my computer at night, I flip the rocker switch off on the surge outlet, and do the same for the router's surge outlet.

A benefit of turning off the router is that since I connect via DHCP, every time the router is booted up it gets a new connection lease - i.e. a new IP address from my ISP.

Btw, this kind of setup saved my computer system from becoming toast when my electric service arced and fried every unprotected electronic device in my house a few years ago.

-- Tom

 

I am against surge and spike protectors, and therefore power strips. IMO, they are little more than fancy and expensive extension cords. This is because they do NOTHING for low voltage events (dips, sags, and brownouts - long duration sags), and for high voltage events, they merely chop off the tops ("clamp") of the sinewaves, leaving a not-so-pretty power signal for your hardware's power supplies to clean up.

Instead, I recommend ALL computers be on a "good" UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation). A "good" UPS with AVR will "regulate" the power, cleaning up the surges and spikes, and use the batteries to boost power for low voltage events.

A 1000 VA UPS will protect a big computer, all your network gear and in my case TWO 22" monitors.

I don't see that as a benefit. I see that as a delay in getting on line when I need to. With all my network gear still "alive", I keep my IP assignments. With multiple computers and networked devices (NAS devices and networked printers) not having to reconfigure IPs every time is nice.

Note until, I have said nothing about backup power during a power outage. That's just the icing on the cake. It is the voltage regulation a "good" UPS provides that is the bread and butter here.

I do keep emphasizing "good" UPS. This is because like computer PSUs, there are cheap ones to avoid that do not provide good regulation and are too slow to cutover to battery to provide uninterruptible power.

 

Those reasons for powering off are valid. Invalid is some idea that power off protects from destructive transients. Also bogus is the popular myth that an adjacent UPS also protects from those transients. A destructive transient blows through both UPS and open switch.

Destructive power cycling is also based in speculation on based in design experience or how electronics work. For example, if power cycling is destructive, then leaving a computer running is even more destructive. Semiconductors power cycle from completely off to completely on millions of times a second. Each switching is so violent that a tiny infrared light pulse is generated during the switching. The violence occurs where semicondutors fail - at the PN junction. This causes sudden heating a cooling as the most common failure point. This is the heating that popular myth says is so destructive.

Do not worry about damage from power cycling. It only exists in speculation and urban myths. If transients are a threat, that solution must exist elsewhere and for tens or 100 times less money. Circuits already inside every computer do better what some recommend a UPS for. When the day is done, power off or hibernated it (even Sleep leaves it on). This controversy only happens when one does not have decades of design experience. Did not have to trace every failure to the individual semiconductor. Did not have to explain why every failure happened. Leaving it on does not protect electronics. Power cycling does not cause damage. Open switches and adjacent UPSes do not provide hardware protection.