Advisable or not to shut down routers?

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In thread http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//167524-Chrome-problem lumpy95 mentions that he shuts down his router every night. I thought that shutting down routers results in a throttled service because the servers at the ISP think the router is having problems. However, I think it was repeated shut-downs that did this. So is it OK to shut routers down or is it better to keep them on all the time?

I’m not sure if this is the correct section for this, so feel free to move it.

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It’s okay to shut the router down overnight but there’s no need to.

It’s repeated reboots over a short period of time that can cause the ISP’s Dynamic Line Management to think that you have an unstable connection and it will increase the SNR Margin in an attempt to stabilise it.

This will result in a decreased sync and throughput speed.

Leaving the router on and not rebooting it for about a week will result in the DLM reinstating your profile so your download speeds return to normal.

An alternative to that is to contact your ISP and request the profile be changed back to what it was.

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Thanks for the clarification Sudo. I always leave mine on, except when electricians are doing things to the electrics. Even though they say it’s a different circuit, they can’t guarantee the power won’t go off!

Thanks also fort the correct terminology – I hope I can remember it:o

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I used to switch my router off overnight when I first started with broadband until I was told that most people leave it switched on, although I’ll sometimes switch it off overnight for it to refresh itself – otherwise the only other times would be when we have an electrical storm.

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There could be a consideration for ADSL routers if, for some reason, you are trying to keep the same external IP address over a long period of time. Powering off one evening and on one morning may cause it to be assigned a different address.

Those with Sam Knows monitoring ‘routers’ have to leave them on all the time, anyway, and I leave my VM cable modem/router on permanently in the hope that the broadband connection will remain!

BATcher

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In my case it really makes no difference as to shutting down the router every night. I get a wireless signal ( from an AP about 1 1/2 miles away ) to a radio then to my router, . My ISP knows that I shut down every night and would probably call and check on me to see if I was still alive if I didn’t LOL.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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My router not only MUST stay on, but it’s on a UPS for continuous operation, even during a line-power failure.

With no router, I have no phone (Magic Jack= VOIP). I also supply WiFi to a neighbor 500′ down the road and he may be on-line at any time of the day or night. So my router MUST be working 24×7.
The only time it is NOT working is if my Cable (ISP) goes down for some reason.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

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My wife is very neurotic. Even though the router is wired (no wireless capability), she turns it off every night as she thinks that the waves emanating from it actually prevent her from getting to sleep.

No joke!

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Wow, I mean wow! Of course, my wife professes to have no idea how radio waves, computers, TVs work from an analog standpoint let alone digital. Stuff automagically going through the air and making sound/pictures…whoda thunk it.

My wife is very neurotic. Even though the router is wired (no wireless capability), she turns it off every night as she thinks that the waves emanating from it actually prevent her from getting to sleep.

No joke!

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I hope she turns her mobile phone off too – and yours.

cheers, Paul

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Her mobile phone is ALWAYS off and sits in the car where she can use it for “emergencies” . She would have no idea how to use my smartphone (is smartphone an oxymoron?). I live with my calendar synched between the phone, the gmail calendar and my Outlook calendar on the PC.

The phrase is something like “you toucha ma phone, I smasha your face”…LOL

K

I hope she turns her mobile phone off too – and yours.

cheers, Paul

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my wife stopped using the computer for two weeks because she thought that she broke it because i changed the shut down .wav file.
it said “you commited a fatal error, there’s nothing we can do for you, you’re dismissed”.
i had to keep a straight face because she controls half of the check book and all of the of the thing that i married her for.

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my wife stopped using the computer for two weeks because she thought that she broke it because i changed the shut down .wav file.
it said “you commited a fatal error, there’s nothing we can do for you, you’re dismissed”.
i had to keep a straight face because she controls half of the check book and all of the of the thing that i married her for.

Good One LMAO :clapping:

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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…it because i changed the shut down .wav file.
it said “you commited a fatal error, there’s nothing we can do for you, you’re dismissed”…

if she ever reads this thread in this forum, you may be sleepin’ with the fishes — in your living room fish tank

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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That’s why it is MY logon….LOL She admits to being technologically challenged to some degree.

K

if she ever reads this thread in this forum, you may be sleepin’ with the fishes — in your living room fish tank

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I turn my router off every night when I shutdown and back on in the morning when I fire up.

Despite all the guff about confusing the ISP/Exchange monitoring, I always have the fastest speed in this area – very close to ISP predicted max for my line. I know this is so as I regularly have to test other local user’s speed in the course of my work. What’s more, from talking to the guys at our local exchange, the implication is that the auto monitoring equipment can actually reduce the line speed of light users. I’ve found no proof of that assertion on-line but I’ve certainly improved some customer’s line speed by regularly re-booting their router.

No doubt most of you will also be aware that one of the most common causes of electrical house fires is equipment left running unnecessarily when not in use?

And I hate to give you all another brick-bat to fling at me but… to those who pooh-pooh the wife’s concept of electro-magnetic radiation causing sleep and other mental health problems, I’d suggest they check out some of the current cognitive neuroscience research going on around that subject. Remember such innocent things as the old bedside digital clock radio – big finger pointed at harmonics of the display driver frequency influencing the brainwaves of some sleeper’s to cause weird dreams!

I worked as an electrical engineer associated with the power industry for much of my career, so I’m no ‘brown bread and sandals’ new age activist, but believe me the subject of electro-magnetic health issues is a hot potato to the generation and distribution industries – and one they do everything to suppress. I’ve done lots of research on the subject over the years and frankly the refutation smacks off ‘the lady doth protest too much’ – they’ve got lots at stake there. My father-in-law was chief engineer with one of the Electricity Boards and some of the inside information he occasionally let slip gives big pause for thought…

Heads down – incoming!

P.S. Anyone fancy a dance around Stonehenge?

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I turn my router off every night when I shutdown and back on in the morning when I fire up.

Despite all the guff about confusing the ISP/Exchange monitoring, I always have the fastest speed in this area – very close to ISP predicted max for my line.

Chris, I think we established it was the router being turned off and on a few times in quick succession is the problem, not switching off at night (that was me getting slightly confused). Having had the experience when an electrician managed to kill all power at my house a few times in a row, that did cause a diminution of speed, but it soon recovered (unlike the XP PC I had at the time, but that’s another story!)

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Incoming…..

So, it’s OK to have the router on all day and evening long when you use the PC but NOT overnight when you are sleeping? I have to believe that with the sheer volume of routers in existence and constant use…that if this was any sort of problem…then it would be VERY APPARENT by now.

From someone that never turns his router off but uses the net on and off probably 16-18 hours a day. My router sits in a home office (a separate room) and not near any sleeping areas.

K

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BTW, what on earth were you programming in binary? I was in the IT business since 1966 and a software developer since 1999 until retirement at the end of 2013 and never had to program anything in “binary”.

K

Heads down – incoming!

P.S. Anyone fancy a dance around Stonehenge?

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On on on here no need to, reboot as and only if required. Should be fine

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I turn my router off whenever it is not in use, even during the day but always overnight. For two reasons, (a) to save power, and (b) for security. I have security wound up, and I doubt if anyone could break in, but I take the view that if it is turned off, no one can get in. I have not suffered any degradation in performance, just have to wait a minute or so while it reboots.

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I turn my router off whenever it is not in use, even during the day but always overnight. For two reasons, (a) to save power, and (b) for security. I have security wound up, and I doubt if anyone could break in, but I take the view that if it is turned off, no one can get in. I have not suffered any degradation in performance, just have to wait a minute or so while it reboots.

– security, if configured correctly you should be fine, most are of little interest to the hackers / outside world. You could get zapped if you the inside user is clicking bad stuff on the WWW of cause, bar that should be OK. You could install a separate firewall box to give more protection and that is not a BIG issue or cost to do as you only really need something simple / small for home, and that will stop MOST should they try

Yes the reboot time you have mentioned

Cost is very low really to run when not in use, bit like if you have a switch or hardware firewall in place, they are pence to run really and its a lot of fluffing to power on off unless all in one place etc etc

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Intresting Chris

I do know LOW radio waves HAM boys use can be bad BAD bad for you and also REALLY strong electro magnets can upset up human’s and a lot of other things

….. thats about the end of my knowledge thou

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When router is mentioned here I am thinking that Router/Cable Modem or DSLRouter and not plane old router. A plane old router connected to a cable modem being turned off should IMHO have no effect on connection speed, I do it all the time. If I were to turn off my cable modem every night I very well might have problems. And certainly the time it takes for a cable odem to renegociate a connection is longer that it takes most (not my old XP box ) to boot.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Wifey and I turn everything off at night, when we are finished for that day. Whoever turns et al, en toto, on in the morning, leaves such on until last person at end of day. So far, our DSL appears to function just the same from day to day to day…

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Roland, see post #21

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Roland, see post #21

gotcha, I was simply voting with a couple of others that turning off router is generally not harmful. Rapid-fire power OFFs/ONs can hurt; we have UPS on computer and entertainment center to head off problems caused by “blinking” power problems mentioned in #21

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I’m marking this thread as solved as my initial question has been answered. Thanks to those who answered it.

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