Any Harm Leaving Router On?

[Vue 0]

Guess I'm the odd man out...I'm the only one here so far that doesn't leave his router on all the time LOL. I tend to shut if off when I don't use it (every night ).

 

There's no argument here. I agree 100% with what was said above, especially with "better" life span by leaving it on all the time. Aside with the ventilation issue, your hardware inside should have no problems at all.

Hehe I think you forgot about the topic starter. (Wait, you said man. Stupid me.)

 

I still think that there are more benefits than losses of turning one's router off after use.

 

And I agree with the others about how there's usually no "off" switch.

[Saint_Michael 3]

Not to beat a dead horse into the ground about this topic...to late, yeah I agree besides using a bit more juice, adapter and router gets nice and warm, you wouldn't really have a problem unless if your in a mythbuster mood drop in some morejuice into that router and see if it does melt.Of course I don't keep my computer running 24/7 because I want mine to last , although I don't think their is any proof that I can remember that keeping your computer running that long will blow up unless you have it in a non-ventilated room and roasting at 200 degrees.

[wutske 0]

We leave our router on 24/7. I don't know if this is the cause, but in the past 3 years, we've had 5 dead routers (n°5 died 3 days ago). The ones that suffered most were 2 Philips router with built-in WiFi. They got pretty hot in the summer one died in the summer, the other one died somewhere in the fall. The other 3 ran in normal conditions.But that doesn't stop us from keeping them online 24/7, it's just annoying and a waste of time (finding out it's disabled, getting to the 1st floor, enabling it and waiting 2 minutes before it established a connection)

[dj:nich 0]

I leave my router on now because when i had one where i used to turn it off most of the time i had to re configure it and that is not very good to do everytime u go on it so i keep mine on 24/7.

[xerxes1405241546 0]

Well I'll join the minority and say I do shut the thing down, along all power to my rig (one switch for them all). I do this every night. Reason? Perhaps, like WeaponX, in part due to habit. Still, lifespan is out of question for me since, let's face it, I will probably have several new routers with newer technology before my current one dies of natural causes. Other than that, I don't feel like wasting electricity without a reason (and it's not about the money). Then again, I haven't known about dry joints thing. I'm off to read about it.

Edited May 23, 2007 by xerxes (see edit history)

[Unregistered 0111405241546 0]

We leave ours on every day because we have voIP, and it's connected to our router, so if we turn it off, our phone doesn't work. I haven't really thought about it turning it off, I guess the only down side, is your energy bill is slightly higher, and it could ware down the router faster than turning it off. The last time I shut off my router was about a year ago

[tyƒoon™ 0]

I have to admit i do turn off my router. However the only reason i do it (and i know this may sound a bit wierd) is that i feel more secure when it is off when i don't use it. I mean i can sleep peacefully as i know i am not being hacked to my wireless network by someone else that can do anything from my internet connection. I got that idea from a TV program called "The Real Hustle" thats comes on the BBC channels in the UK. In one part of the program, they shown the viewers that its easy to hack into a wireless network eventhough it may have a WEP security (which i used to use). Something about a software which you can get everywhere on the internet and all you need is a wireless laptop with that software.From that you can go to any wireless eventhough it does have WEP - they did not mention what was the software called though nor did they show how they actually did it. Since then i switched to WPA and put MAC filtering but just incase - its still turning off my router for me when i don't use it despite the lifespan decreasing.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

MYTH: Routers on for 24/7 will cause harm.

FACTS: Most companies and homes leave on their routers on until they eventually die by themselves. There is so far no reported routers that exploded or harm anyone.

 

xboxrulz

[jimmy89 0]

that seems to have put an end to the myth once and for all!p.s picture was a nice touch!-jimmy

[Chesso 0]

Yeah I doubt they generate enough heat or any other energy to do anything like that lol.Unless you do something dumb with it........But if you don't need it on, why waste the energy? and the life span of the hardware.

[jimmy89 0]

there are many good reasons for keeping it on! But i would also think that turning it on and off over and over again may not be that good for it! If it is heating up and cooling down, there are solder joints inside the device that may just give up and your router/modem will stop working! (thus the dry joint idea, explained earlier!)For some, turning the modem/router on and off again is a real pain. Someone (cant remember now) said earlier in this post that their modem doesn't have an on/off switch, which is a pain if you are just turning the modem off! Also, my modem likes to take its sweet time connecting (sometimes up to a few minutes), which isn't fun when i just need to be on there for a few seconds. So really, I prefer to keep mine on, but its really up to personal preference!-jimmy

[Chesso 0]

Hmm, well I turn mine on/off once per day, has a switch, boots and connects in a few seconds lol.And I don't really think much of it, standard modem/router (router in-built into modem) from Telstra, meh >_>.

[jimmy89 0]

yeah! you probably have the same on i do (SpeedTouch 530 or something like that), but I also have a Wireless Router (D-Link) for connecting my other computers and printer to the network! And theres another reason I keep my router on - it acts as the gateway for the printer, so if I want to print something, I need the router on!-jimmy

[Chesso 0]

Ahhh yeah I got a speedtouch but I don't always use it, I normally use the newer Motorola Speedstream 4200 (but lan games sometimes like the older one better).

[jimmy89 0]

Yeah, I just use the one I got from Telstra. It works well (except for the slow connection at startup) otherwise its pretty good! I like the Telnet access which means that I can do anything to it remotely at my computer!