Router off or on when away?

[Gunner84]

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]

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.

 

[coxhaus]

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]

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]

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

 

[Gunner84]

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

 

[sfx2000]

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]

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

 

[L&LD]

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

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]

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.

LOL!

 

[azazel1024]

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.

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.