Turning off routers

[AlexAtkin]

Well I have been turning it of for the last 5 or 6 years and my speed has never been affected.

 

Like already said, its nothing to do with supplier (except the one or two which don't use BTs equipment at the exchange) its down to how the BT network functions.

 

The equipment at the exchange looks at how your line has been performing over past week or two and judges if it should attempt to increase/decrease your speed based on how stable it has been. By turning it off every day you potentially upset that judgement, so it either keeps your speed the same or reduces it.

 

Theoretically its even possible that by turning it off every day you are preventing the system from seeing any instability during the night that might trigger a reduction in speed. But likewise you could also be preventing any intermittent faults from being noticed, that if fixed would actually result in your speed increasing.

 

That is why as a general rule, its just better to leave it on and let the system do its job.

 

---------- Post added 05-04-2015 at 16:10 ----------

 

I always keep mine on (as well as the fibre box). I can't be bothered to wait for the thing to power up every morning.

 

Besides, once it's off every mobile phone in the house would revert to using 4G, wasting my data allowance when they automatically poll for updates to Facebook etc every 30 seconds through the night..

 

If you have a lot of apps, this is no trivial thing.

 

Far better to have them update overnight than discover they all need updating in the morning when you are rushing off to work, when you might also be on mobile data so won't WANT to update then.

 

This is even more so with games consoles. Its great to boot up the PS4 and find my games have downloaded the latest updates while I was asleep.

 

You also have to note that many routers are set to Auto for WiFi channel and are terrible at picking a channel. By constantly powering on and off you will end up on a good channel one day, a bad channel the next. I actually have to keep switching my WiFi channel for that very reason that my neighbours keep power cycling and ending up clashing with mine. I'm talking the difference between 512Kbit on WiFi vs 30Mbit, just because they power cycled their router.

 

---------- Post added 05-04-2015 at 16:12 ----------

 

Ya and you should I think........ If you take your router OFFLINE long enough,your IP will be released and given to someone else..... (Next time you bootup your modem you will have a different IP)

 

I usually ALWAYS disconnect mine........

 

Your point?

 

Its generally better to stick with the same IP address as then you know the last person using it hasn't gotten it banned from a service you use, or recently used one of the download sites so YOU have to wait for the free slot timer to run out.

 

A few ISPs are dabbling in carrier grade NAT now anyway, in which case everyone shares the same public IP address anyway.

Edited April 5, 2015 by AlexAtkin

[supersuperj]

Speaking as someone who's been at the other end of the ISP phone for a long time, those of you who say youve never had any speed loss in 5 or 6 years of turning your router off please continue to do so.

 

Several times a week I make people happy by reprofiling their line from the 3mb/s its been at for those 5 years to 15/16mb/s at the touch of a button. They're easier fixes than anything else because the customer has never known any different.

 

Also, the biggest cause of router power failures that I have to deal with (and all those conversations around paying for an out of warranty replacement) are from those customers who regularly switch off their equipment. Same goes for speed and intermittency issues. In all the many thousands of customers I've spoken to, the number of router power supplies that have 'blown up' or something similar only just reaches in to the double figures, and every one of those routers I have had picked up (as any ISP should, they have to take health and safety issues seriously).

 

Concisely. In a perfect world, leave your router switched on unless you're off to Benidorm on your jollies. The chances that it's going to catch on fire are up there with your fridge/freezer doing the same so you don't really have anything to worry about.

 

---------- Post added 20-04-2015 at 14:25 ----------

 

Also. First post woo!

[ShefStealth]

The chances that it's going to catch on fire are up there with your fridge/freezer doing the same so you don't really have anything to worry about.

 

Unless you have a Beko fridge/freezer manufactured between January 2000 and October 2006, as a lot of these were recalled due to them starting fires, and there's still plenty of them out there in people's homes.

 

So yeah, actually I think that the UK populous at large is more likely to be affected by a fridge/freezer fire than a broadband router fire in the greater scheme of things. If you don't have a Beko fridge/freezer, your next door neighbour might. Pretty much every house has a fridge/freezer yet 9% of households don't have fixed line broadband

 

Just a couple of points to consider

[Cyclone]

Well I have been turning it of for the last 5 or 6 years and my speed has never been affected.

 

When did you last actually test the speed?

[Kidorry]

When did you last actually test the speed?

 

About a minute ago,just for you.It is 54.39Mbps download and 3.07Mbps upload and I only pay for 10Mbps with Virgin so I will keep doing what I am doing, regardless of what anyone else says.

[supersuperj]

I will bear that in mind when making sweeping generalisations ShefStealth. But the point still holds that it is incredibly unlikely that a router will catch fire, 'go pop' or anything similar if you leave it switched on all the time.

 

Kidorry, I was talking about speed issues specifically with BT based equipment rather than anything Virgin might put out there. I'm not hugely up on how aggressive the DLM computer is on the Virgin network (or if there even is one, not having had the need to ever have Virgin service). But for anyone using a service that makes use of BT's network then continued and regular disconnections will eventually start to affect speed unless the line is configured manually by someone such as me. And even then not all lines can be configured in that way, nor can all companies make in depth manual changes to the configuration of the lines.

 

The most important point I've taken from this thread is to stick to my shiny Samsung freezer I think!

[Cyclone]

About a minute ago,just for you.It is 54.39Mbps download and 3.07Mbps upload and I only pay for 10Mbps with Virgin so I will keep doing what I am doing, regardless of what anyone else says.

 

Didn't someone say much earlier on the thread that the speed problem doesn't apply to cable? The fault testing mechanism and how it works is specific to ADSL if I understood correctly.

 

There's still no good reason to turn off your virgin router though.

[AlexAtkin]

Didn't someone say much earlier on the thread that the speed problem doesn't apply to cable? The fault testing mechanism and how it works is specific to ADSL if I understood correctly.

 

There's still no good reason to turn off your virgin router though.

 

Correct, Virgin modems/routers will always connect at your rated speed unless there is an actual fault.

 

ADSL and VDSL (advertised as Fibre or Infinity) both can be confused with power cycles.

 

VDSL is actually worse as once your speed drops it will often get stuck at that lower speed forever, as it has to be manually reset at the exchange to attempt a faster speed and Openreach can be really pissy about not wanting to do that. Although they have been tweaking the DLM recently so things may have changed.

[Cyclone]

Absolutely no point to it though.

[hyper]

I try to leave mine on, but often as I switch the tablet on and try to connect, it doesn't get a connection till I switch the router off and on again. Sometimes my connection just "hangs" as I'm working and again, I have to reboot my router.

 

The original talktalk router I first got was far better than the one I have bought to replace it.

 

But I'm not a big internet user, so don't lose too much sleep over the situation