I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem
some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated .
 . and died.  So while I have positioned mine upright and with plenty
of air around it, I am wondering if its not silly to leave it constantly
plugged in - with all its lights on and other parts receiving current
too.   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.  

I was wondering what most of you do.

Thanks.

Eddy.

Eddy wrote:

> I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem
> some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated .
> . . and died.  So while I have positioned mine upright and with plenty
> of air around it, I am wondering if its not silly to leave it constantly
> plugged in - with all its lights on and other parts receiving current
> too.   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.
> 
> I was wondering what most of you do.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Eddy.

I had a Linksys that was on 24/7. It died. Its replacement gets turned off
every night. It's still OK.

There is no way to prove a connection between those two situations, but it's
so trivial to arrange sockets and extension leads so that you only need to
flick one switch to kill everything that it seems silly not to!

Chris

-- 
Remove prejudice to reply.

In article <84Xhk.1522$PL3.250@newsfe12.ams2>, Eddy says...
> I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem
> some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated .
>  . and died.  So while I have positioned mine upright and with plenty
> of air around it, I am wondering if its not silly to leave it constantly
> plugged in - with all its lights on and other parts receiving current
> too.   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.  
> 
> I was wondering what most of you do.
> 
Netgear DG834GT has currently been on 24/7 for just short of 3 years 
save powercuts.


-- 
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't 
looking good either. - Scott Adams

In article <84Xhk.1522$PL3.250@newsfe12.ams2>, Eddy 
 writes
>I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem
>some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated .
> . and died.  So while I have positioned mine upright and with plenty
>of air around it, I am wondering if its not silly to leave it constantly
>plugged in - with all its lights on and other parts receiving current
>too.   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.
>
>I was wondering what most of you do.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Eddy.
>

I look after about a dozen sites with Netgear DG834s. There are all on 
24x7x365.

I have installed them into dozens more where I do not have a continued 
liaison with the site, but again I am unaware of any that get turned 
off.

Yes, I have had failures but not in the first 3 years. I swapped out 
some of the original 834 earlier in the year that had been in continuous 
operation for about 7 years.

My two ADSL routers do not get switched off, nor do any of my Netgear 
switches.


BR
Don C

"Conor"  wrote in message 
news:6er266F8eo4uU2@mid.individual.net...
> In article <84Xhk.1522$PL3.250@newsfe12.ams2>, Eddy says...
>> I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem
>> some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated .
>>  . and died.  So while I have positioned mine upright and with plenty
>> of air around it, I am wondering if its not silly to leave it constantly
>> plugged in - with all its lights on and other parts receiving current
>> too.   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.
>>
>> I was wondering what most of you do.
>>
> Netgear DG834GT has currently been on 24/7 for just short of 3 years
> save powercuts.

Likewise for my DG834GT.

I have had occasional problems with the modem part of the router: the DSL 
light flickers continuously without corresponding Ethernet or wireless light 
(so it's apparently not PC-internet traffic) and the noise margin drops by 
about 1 dB, when normally it is stable to within +/- 0.1 dB. This seems to 
go in phases and is cured by unplugging the DSL lead for a few seconds 
before plugging it back in. Rebooting also helps.

I've had that symptom  for a few hours maybe five or six times over the past 
four years, with flawless service in between.

I notice that the white case of the router has a very pale brown patch on 
it, as if somethng inside has overheated in the past, so I now stand it on a 
disused hard disk cage from an old PC, to allow air to circulate underneath.

Eddy  wrote:
> I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem
> some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated .
> . and died.

Mine (a SAR110 aka Globespan Virata) stays on 24x7. My mother's one
(a Netgear of some flavour) keels over after about 2 days of continuous
uptime and has to be power-cycled. We've solved that problem by putting
it on a mains timer that switches it off from around midnight to 6am
each night. Saves a little power, too.

Chris

Eddy wrote:
   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.

I've just installed a Sky broadband service for someone. The manual for 
the Sagem router states the advantage of the power switch - in that the 
item can be switched off when not in use to reduce the carbon footprint.

If the person I've just installed the modem did that and lost the 
connection or had something else go wrong,. I'd dump a whole lot of 
carbon into the atmosphere just going over to their place to fix it.

So on it stays ...

-- 
Adrian C

Thanks for all responses up till now.  Good to hear that NetGears are
surviving 3 years while being on 24/7.

However, the idea of installing a timer between the router's adaptor and
the socket sounds like a good one, to give it at least 8 hours' rest a
day.

I don't suppose it aggravates or slowly damages a router to switch its
power off every night, does it?  At the moment I have my motherboard,
monitor, and phone plugs (the ones that must all be on at the same time)
arranged in surge protector so that each monring I just turn on the
tower & the monitor.  I guess having to flick the surge-protector's
switch too wouldn't be too much of a burden.  What I fear is the router
not finding all those precious settings each morning and giving me hell!

Eddy.

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:41:34 +0100
Eddy  wrote:

> Thanks for all responses up till now.  Good to hear that NetGears are
> surviving 3 years while being on 24/7.
> 
> However, the idea of installing a timer between the router's adaptor
> and the socket sounds like a good one, to give it at least 8 hours'
> rest a day.
> 
> I don't suppose it aggravates or slowly damages a router to switch its
> power off every night, does it?

I think electronic equipment is more likely to exhibit failure at
start-up than any other time, either because of current surge or
because a contact or component has developed a fault that doesn't
show up when it's warm.

In message <jj2ik.26488$ec5.16124@newsfe30.ams2>, Eddy 
 writes
>Thanks for all responses up till now.  Good to hear that NetGears are
>surviving 3 years while being on 24/7.
>
>However, the idea of installing a timer between the router's adaptor and
>the socket sounds like a good one, to give it at least 8 hours' rest a
>day.

I'm considering a change to the systems here. I'm currently running a PC 
and router 24x7, the PC is used as a file-server. What I am thinking of 
doing is to use the BIOS settings to wake the server up early in the 
morning and program it to shut down automatically at night. If I plugged 
the server and other stuff into a smart power-strip I could get the 
router and printer etc to switch off at the same time.

There is always the possibility that the server won't reconnect when 
it's powered up, but that's never happened yet.


-- 
Bernard Peek
London, UK. DBA, Manager, Trainer & Author.

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:38:36 +0100
Bernard Peek  wrote:

> In message <jj2ik.26488$ec5.16124@newsfe30.ams2>, Eddy 
>  writes
> >Thanks for all responses up till now.  Good to hear that NetGears are
> >surviving 3 years while being on 24/7.
> >
> >However, the idea of installing a timer between the router's adaptor
> >and the socket sounds like a good one, to give it at least 8 hours'
> >rest a day.
> 
> I'm considering a change to the systems here. I'm currently running a
> PC and router 24x7, the PC is used as a file-server. What I am
> thinking of doing is to use the BIOS settings to wake the server up
> early in the morning and program it to shut down automatically at
> night.

Why not use wake on LAN, and hibernate after a period of inactivity?

"Eddy"  wrote in message 
news:84Xhk.1522$PL3.250@newsfe12.ams2...
>I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem
> some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated .
> . and died.  So while I have positioned mine upright and with plenty
> of air around it, I am wondering if its not silly to leave it constantly
> plugged in - with all its lights on and other parts receiving current
> too.   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.
>
> I was wondering what most of you do.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Eddy.
>

I have never known any routers to fail from overheating.  Mine are on 
24hours and
have been for 4 years now.  DLINK, Netgear and Thomson.  All perfectly fine.
If you don't need your router on 24hours then it's up to you.
Some reviews are crap - it depends who wrote them.  Standard excuses are 
used
when people get bored of equipment or can't work it properly.

In message <20080724185152.7b3bfcb0@bluemoon>, Rob Morley 
 writes
>On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:38:36 +0100
>Bernard Peek  wrote:
>
>> In message <jj2ik.26488$ec5.16124@newsfe30.ams2>, Eddy
>>  writes
>> >Thanks for all responses up till now.  Good to hear that NetGears are
>> >surviving 3 years while being on 24/7.
>> >
>> >However, the idea of installing a timer between the router's adaptor
>> >and the socket sounds like a good one, to give it at least 8 hours'
>> >rest a day.
>>
>> I'm considering a change to the systems here. I'm currently running a
>> PC and router 24x7, the PC is used as a file-server. What I am
>> thinking of doing is to use the BIOS settings to wake the server up
>> early in the morning and program it to shut down automatically at
>> night.
>
>Why not use wake on LAN, and hibernate after a period of inactivity?

Because the workstations are all going to be off so there's nothing left 
up to send a wakeup packet. I want the server to power up some time 
before I expect to be using any of the workstations.



-- 
Bernard Peek
London, UK. DBA, Manager, Trainer & Author.

Rob Morley  wrote:

> Eddy  wrote:
> 

> > I don't suppose it aggravates or slowly damages a router to switch its
> > power off every night, does it?
> 
> I think electronic equipment is more likely to exhibit failure at
> start-up than any other time, either because of current surge

Indeed. How many times have you been sitting in a room when suddenly the
light bulb burns out? Not very often, eh (if ever)? Compare that with
the number of times you've wallked into a dark room, flipped the
light-switch 'on' and ... POP ... there goes the bulb.

 > or
> because a contact or component has developed a fault that doesn't
> show up when it's warm.

Electronic equipment is happier, long-term, being left on 24/7 and
operating at a constant temperature, rather than undergoing frequently
repeated heating-up, cooling-off cycles. (Lots of high-end gear doesn't
even have an on-off switch.)

Nervous Nellies sometimes say, 'O! But what about the planet?' In fact,
in the case of personal devices such as pc, router, etc. the electricity
consumption is comparable to a light bulb and not something worth
fretting over, either on ecological or economic grounds.

cheers,

Henry

> Indeed. How many times have you been sitting in a room when suddenly the
> light bulb burns out? Not very often, eh (if ever)? Compare that with
> the number of times you've wallked into a dark room, flipped the
> light-switch 'on' and ... POP ... there goes the bulb.
> 
>  > or
> > because a contact or component has developed a fault that doesn't
> > show up when it's warm.
> 
> Electronic equipment is happier, long-term, being left on 24/7 and
> operating at a constant temperature, rather than undergoing frequently
> repeated heating-up, cooling-off cycles. (Lots of high-end gear doesn't
> even have an on-off switch.)

Sounds very convincing, this.  

Thanks.

Eddy.

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:54:31 +0300
henry999@eircom.net (Henry) wrote:

> Nervous Nellies sometimes say, 'O! But what about the planet?' In
> fact, in the case of personal devices such as pc, router, etc. the
> electricity consumption is comparable to a light bulb and not
> something worth fretting over, either on ecological or economic
> grounds.
> 
If you frequently power cycle your equipment and as a result it fails
early that has an ecological impact too.  :-)
OTOH lots of small power drains add up to a larger one.  I have
separate router, switch and WAP at the moment and I probably ought to
get a combined unit to reduce energy use, but I find it hard to justify
while the present setup is working fine.

In article <aUfik.8746$Gb2.5384@newsfe29.ams2>, Eddy says...
> > Indeed. How many times have you been sitting in a room when suddenly the
> > light bulb burns out? Not very often, eh (if ever)? Compare that with
> > the number of times you've wallked into a dark room, flipped the
> > light-switch 'on' and ... POP ... there goes the bulb.
> > 
> >  > or
> > > because a contact or component has developed a fault that doesn't
> > > show up when it's warm.
> > 
> > Electronic equipment is happier, long-term, being left on 24/7 and
> > operating at a constant temperature, rather than undergoing frequently
> > repeated heating-up, cooling-off cycles. (Lots of high-end gear doesn't
> > even have an on-off switch.)
> 
> Sounds very convincing, this.  
> 
It is. Had a switch in Telehouse which worked fine for years. One day 
it was powered off and never came back up. Turns out the caps in the 
PSU had dried up.


-- 
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't 
looking good either. - Scott Adams

In message <20080724183053.54733589@bluemoon>, Rob Morley 
 writes
>I think electronic equipment is more likely to exhibit failure at
>start-up than any other time, either because of current surge or
>because a contact or component has developed a fault that doesn't
>show up when it's warm.
>
Plus switch mode PSU's can run for years with faulty components but fail 
to restart when you power cycle them.

-- 
Clint Sharp

Eddy wrote:
> I understand from reading lots of reviews and reports that the problem 
> some people have found with many routers is that they have overheated . .
>  and died.  So while I have positioned mine upright and with plenty of 
> air around it, I am wondering if its not silly to leave it constantly 
> plugged in - with all its lights on and other parts receiving current 
> too.   It's so much easier to leave it on all the time though.

I've had a Netgear RP614v2 router that has been running almost non-stop for
five years now. Connected to my cable modem (which is actually older!), the
whole setup is so solid that I'm hoping I get many more years out of it!

http://www.netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGateways/WiredRouters/RP614.aspx

Not done anything special with it. It just sits in the corner, sometimes
flat, sometimes upright in the cradle it was supplied with. I guess you
still can get value for money today :-)

Even better, it's now £10 cheaper than it was when I first bought it (on
ebuyer).

Reece

My 3Com started getting flakey and needed re-starting every few days. I 
suspected temperature so took the lid off. No problems for the last year.