Router off or on when away?

G

Gunner84

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 23, 2015

• #1

Hi

Bit of a stupid question really but I guess I'm paranoid!, is it best to turn off your wireless router when away for say a holiday?
Or would that do more harm than good if I turned it off for such a length of time.

Thanks

 

L&LD

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 23, 2015

• #2

At most:

I would leave the modem and router connected and on (both on a UPS).

I might disable the radio's though. And also turn off any wired computers (or unplug the LAN cable) too.

 

C

coxhaus

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 23, 2015

• #3

You know many years ago I had a near lightening strike. It burned out all the 100 meg ports in a 24 port switch that were plugged into machines. All the other ports were fine. This is back before routers at home. We all used dialup modems back then.

 

azazel1024

Very Senior Member

• Mar 23, 2015

• #4

I unplug mine to save power, not out of paranoia (yeah it doesn't use much, but since it isn't being used at all, why waste a few cents of power if I am gone for a few days).

 

thiggins

Mr. Easy

Staff member

• Mar 23, 2015

• #5

You are not going to harm the router by shutting it off.

 

G

Gunner84

Occasional Visitor

• Mar 23, 2015

• #6

Thanks guys I think I might just power it off or maybe just disable the WiFi radios

 

sfx2000

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 23, 2015

• #7

Each case is different - when I'm away for more than a couple of days, I turn off the wifi radios, but I leave the modem and router on - I have a slingbox and a VPN/SSH end-point which is useful from time to time...

 

sm00thpapa

Very Senior Member

• Mar 28, 2015

• #8

If I'm gone for more than a week I completely unplug my entire home except for fridge and AC.

 

L&LD

Part of the Furniture

• Mar 29, 2015

• #9

sm00thpapa said:

If I'm gone for more than a week I completely unplug my entire home except for fridge and AC.

Click to expand...

You sound like my very senior neighbor (almost 90). He can't sleep until he unplugs everything in his house (except for fridge like you) and then double or triple checks everything.

Then, he asks me why the TV takes so long to warm up the next day.

 

sm00thpapa

Very Senior Member

• Mar 29, 2015

• #10

L&LD said:

You sound like my very senior neighbor (almost 90). He can't sleep until he unplugs everything in his house (except for fridge like you) and then double or triple checks everything.

Then, he asks me why the TV takes so long to warm up the next day.

Click to expand...

LOL!

 

azazel1024

Very Senior Member

• Mar 30, 2015

• #11

L&LD said:

You sound like my very senior neighbor (almost 90). He can't sleep until he unplugs everything in his house (except for fridge like you) and then double or triple checks everything.

Then, he asks me why the TV takes so long to warm up the next day.

Click to expand...

If I am going away for more than a day or two I usually unplug everything as well, in part for the power savings and in part in case I am away during a big storm (cause I wouldn't be there to be able to unplug everything). I generally do have to keep the router on come to think as my wife requires the DVR to be up and running. That means I have to leave my core switch, router and DVR powered. My other switch, server and access points all get unplugged (and my desktop gets unplugged also). Server and desktop get disconnected from the switch too...just in case on a surge.