This weekend I stayed at a friend's house and was intrigued to notice that she turns her router on when she turns on her laptop, and turns it off again when she's done. It surprised me because it has never occurred to me to turn off my router, even when I go away. So I tweeted a brief enquiry to find out what other people do. I also emailed my provider, Plus Net, to ask for their advice on the matter. Here are some of the answers I received:
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steveellwood
@suethomas I turn my IT gear off every night since I got one of these http://is.gd/3ais
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myrlueck
24/7. partly for iphone use: I wake up in the middle of the night and read news/look something up.
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deirdre
it's always on, we never woulda thought different at my place. is that evil, or just a little decadent ;) ?
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I switch it off every night
And Plus Net wrote: "Switching your router off overnight shouldn't have a detrimental affect on your Broadband connection. but I would advise not to power it between sessions, as this can be seen by the exchange as an intermittent connection, and this can slow the connection speed." I wasn't entirely sure what 'between sessions' meant so asked for clarification, and they replied: "'Not to power it between sessions' basically means not turning the router on and off multiple times in one day. If you prefer not to leave the router on 24/7 and like to turn it on every day, i would suggest turning the router on in the morning (or whenever you first use it) and turn it off at night."
As for me, I do keep mine on 24/7 and it doubles as a nursery for ailing houseplants, which seem to enjoy an energising boost of wireless emissions ;) But should I turn it off?
So... can anyone contribute more information about this? Should routers be turned off to save power? If so, when? And would that affect their functioning, as Plus Net seems to indicate that it might?
And am I right in my rather tongue-in-cheek assumption that houseplants like to be close to the family router?
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