Never turn off router?

[snb008]

I would like to get a general survey of the members here about this topic as I have a feeling that many (if not most) people just leave the router 'on' all the time.

So, do you run your router 24/7 ? (discounting the times of doing a firmware upgrade or problem diagnosis, of course)

If you never turn it off, is it because the router is located in a 'hard-to-access' spot of your home and so turning it on/off regularly just takes too much effort?

Or, is it because you have an actual need to run the router all the time?

Just being curious.

 

[GSpock]

Mine runs 24/7.
If I would turn it off, my ISP would consider my line as instable and might reduce my download speed ...
GS

 

[microchip]

24/7 here too

it's because I constantly need internet connection for various reasons.

 

[azazel1024]

24/7 for my router, but not all of my access points.

In part because I can't schedule on/off time and too lazy to turn it off every night before bed and I wouldn't always remember to turn it back on. Not about to put it on a mechanical timer either. That and occasionally I or my wife need it in the middle of the night (yay surfing the web at 2am when you can't sleep). My router doesn't use much power though.

My outdoor access point is on a mechanical timer so it is only on from 8am till 12am every day, since the times we have needed it outside of that window have been nearly zero and there is some outdoor wifi coverage from the indoor router and access point, just not very fast or good coverage.

 

[System Error Message]

24/7, bills inclusive. Also going to boast an unbeatable uptime unless i update firmware which resets the timer. My router uses 48Watts idle and 60Watts on full load and does wirespeed software NAT. I also keep my AP on 24/7 too.

I keep them on for fun but also because i use them from time to time for various network and non network tasks other than routing.

My managed switch has an uptime of 184 days which was when i first got it. Only need to shut them down when updating but when trouble shooting i keep them running and they actually help with it.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

24/7 here as well no need to shut a router off unless updating or trouble shooting.

 

[coxhaus]

I run my router 24/7 except to upgrade firmware and test different routers. If a router needs to be rebooted because it will not run 24/7 I get rid of it. My router is in my server cabinet with a APC 1400 rack mount UPS backing the whole cabinet up which keeps everything running.

 

[TonyH]

I would like to get a general survey of the members here about this topic as I have a feeling that many (if not most) people just leave the router 'on' all the time.

So, do you run your router 24/7 ? (discounting the times of doing a firmware upgrade or problem diagnosis, of course)

If you never turn it off, is it because the router is located in a 'hard-to-access' spot of your home and so turning it on/off regularly just takes too much effort?

Or, is it because you have an actual need to run the router all the time?

Just being curious.

24/7/365, there are few active connected devices. Other devices are in stand-by or sleep mode. Surveillance cameras, weather station, NAS are active. Power cycling any devices on/off too frequently is bad, you know why. Even appliances are never turned off.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Never turn my routers or AP off as various devices need 24/7 access for programming updates etc.

Do shut down the radios for WiFi over night using firmware as a power saving security measure.

 

[TekWarren]

I just came out of a phase where I was shutting down my network essentially at night but now I'm leaving it all on again. My wife and I both have to use wifi calling from our cell phones at home if we want reliable communication so I rethought shutting down at night in case there was an emergency. I also have wireless IP cameras but when I have them working the way I want they are pretty useless at night. I may try shutting down the 2.4 radio though after reading that above...I only really need that for a couple desktops with old wifi cards so that could cut down on power useage. -I may have to plug in my kill-a-watt and see if it is significant.

 

[azazel1024]

24/7, bills inclusive. Also going to boast an unbeatable uptime unless i update firmware which resets the timer. My router uses 48Watts idle and 60Watts on full load and does wirespeed software NAT. I also keep my AP on 24/7 too.

I keep them on for fun but also because i use them from time to time for various network and non network tasks other than routing.

My managed switch has an uptime of 184 days which was when i first got it. Only need to shut them down when updating but when trouble shooting i keep them running and they actually help with it.

Wow, that is a lot of power. A lot more than my server uses for that matter (which is easily capable of doing wire speed NAT, but I do not use it as a router). What are you using for a router? I wouldn't want to be paying that electric bill (at my rates, that is about $50 a year at idle).

 

[L&LD]

24/7/365 here too.

No other usage makes sense. Computers, NAS, etc. set to do their maintenance between 12AM to 6AM daily. They need internet access to update virus definitions, Windows updates, etc. to do it properly.

Having a router that is turned off is not a network that I could make use of. It reminds me of having to dial into the ISP for internet access and being mindful of every second I was 'online', not only for the cost, but also for the potential calls that may have been lost too, back then.

With less than 10W needed for a mere 8 hours each night, the savings vs. the work the rest of the devices do while I sleep is not worth it for me.

 

[System Error Message]

Wow, that is a lot of power. A lot more than my server uses for that matter (which is easily capable of doing wire speed NAT, but I do not use it as a router). What are you using for a router? I wouldn't want to be paying that electric bill (at my rates, that is about $50 a year at idle).

The mikrotik CCR1036. 28Gb/s of software NAT (wire rate) and has SFP+. Does DNS, NTP, VPN server,TFTP, layer 2 and 3 firewall and QoS so it also filters on LAN and runs a bunch of scripts and also powers a raspberry pi 2 via USB. It obviously has a lot more features but i havent had the chance to configure more in a proper network because of my ISP restrictions (student ISP). I also do use the proxy feature on it to get over a few restrictions.

It does have 36 general purpose CPU cores so it obviously does use a bit of power.

 

[stevech]

mikrotik - not for the faint of heart as they say.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

I would like to get a general survey of the members here about this topic as I have a feeling that many (if not most) people just leave the router 'on' all the time.

So, do you run your router 24/7 ? (discounting the times of doing a firmware upgrade or problem diagnosis, of course)

If you never turn it off, is it because the router is located in a 'hard-to-access' spot of your home and so turning it on/off regularly just takes too much effort?

Or, is it because you have an actual need to run the router all the time?

Just being curious.

It's an appliance. Do you unplug your TV when it's not in use, or your microwave oven, or your other electrical items? Power requirements are minimal, but there is a cost.

For security, SPI will protect you. Routers ignore inbound messages if they're not in response to outbound messages unless ports are left open ... in which case it's implied you may need 24/7 router access at times.

I suppose if you, for example, use the internet only during the day and you use the network for little else, you could put it on a timer that cuts power when you never expect to use it.

 

[sfx2000]

So, do you run your router 24/7 ? (discounting the times of doing a firmware upgrade or problem diagnosis, of course)

If you never turn it off, is it because the router is located in a 'hard-to-access' spot of your home and so turning it on/off regularly just takes too much effort?

Or, is it because you have an actual need to run the router all the time?

24/7 - no need to turn off my routers/AP's for general purposes... if I'm out on travel/holiday, I might turn down my secondary AP, but keep the primary up along with the router as I do have a VM running on my NAS for various purposes (yes, the NAS stays up 24/7 as well).

 

[sfx2000]

24/7, bills inclusive. Also going to boast an unbeatable uptime unless i update firmware which resets the timer. My router uses 48Watts idle and 60Watts on full load and does wirespeed software NAT. I also keep my AP on 24/7 too.

The 60W under full-load I can understand, but the 48W idle is odd - power supply efficiency perhaps?

Putting things into perspective - a MacMini Server 2012 with a Quad Core i7 at 2.6GHz - idle state is 10W...

Heck, my QNAP TS-453Pro under full-load with 4 drives pulls less than 50 watts... idle is around 20W...

 

[System Error Message]

36 cores that never clock down. its like that for performance but also because the fans running on full. during winter idle power is 40w, Mikrotik never got the power saving features of the Tilegx working

 

[snb008]

As the router is not needed to provide service during the night, I turn it off by the power button at the back of the router (instead of unplugging the power adapter from the wall electrical outlet) and turn it on during the day.


Not surprisingly, I belong to the minority here.

 

[sfx2000]

As the router is not needed to provide service during the night, I turn it off by the power button at the back of the router (instead of unplugging the power adapter from the wall electrical outlet) and turn it on during the day.


Not surprisingly, I belong to the minority here.

That is ok, all good...