If you keep turning off your router, this may affect the broadband connection speeds you are receiving as it can be treated as a line drop-out.

If this occurs your standard connection speed will drop due to DLM (Dynamic Line Management) to what is perceived as a more 'stable' rate.

And if it's going to "pay for itself in less than a year", it's hardly a big saving given this only costs £2.59 (price of a coffee). You should just leave it on IMO.

Radiation?

These, or the analogue timers are great for laptops or similar devices that need regular charging. Have you ever noticed how your laptop battery doesn't last anywhere near as long as it used to. Leaving them plugged into the mains accelerates this issue. Its best to charge a laptop battery to around 90% (not to the max and then leave it on) and don't let the charge go less than 10% or so. This will help the lifespan/capacity of the battery. Its a pain though to keep plugging and unplugging. Applications can help remind users to do this eg:

http://www.robotonfire.com/bl/

A timer though that you can keep plugged in can be set right to intermittently top up the battery at the necessary intervals so you can leave the darn thing plugged in and not degrade the battery any more than you need to.

Probably because it costs 1p to install one and it affects the reliability a bit!

I have a feeling that there might be EU regulations requiring all new domestic equipment to have an on-off switch. I bought a set-top box which had a table lamp-style switch in its low-voltage lead, possibly as a stop-gap measure because it was anticipating such a thing happening. In the past a problem would have remained with standby consumption of the power supply, but since the laws on efficiency of such things are ever-tightening (was class V; now class VI), their standby consumption is finally not worth worrying about.

Another thing to bear in mind is that wall sockets almost universally have switches in the UK and Ireland, whereas they are uncommon elsewhere in Europe.

oh, ok fair enough. lol. I wonder why most routers don't even have an off switch then ?

I can tell because for months it was left on, and for months it was switched off at night. I know how it works, and there was no significant difference. I just picked the filter and latterly, when I had a choice, the ADSL modem which gave the highest speed.

and how can you tell ? it changes dynamically/ interactively so unless you have two identical systems side by side then you don't have a base to compare it with. the system re iteratively assesses and modifies itself according to it's results. so you may get the same performance as earlier but it would have been better and improve if you didn't keep powering the thing down.

so I understood what you said. it was just wrong as it is how the system is designed to work. now do you understand ?

What part of "It made no difference at all when I had ADSL" didn't you understand then?

"Radiation"

This post is full of such wallyishness it makes me laugh, your router uses next to no electricity and the waves produced are safe otherwise we wouldn't be allowed them in our homes? I trust this to be so true we have 2 routers AND homeplugs! And I'm as of yet to sprout another head.

Remember a few years ago the news articles about how mobile phones give you brain cancer/tumors? I think someone is relating back to this, even though proven to be nonsense.

If you're that worried about saving £2.59 a year by turning your router off you really need to rethink your philosophy on savings and bills!

it's gone up again in price. now 3.61
deal over

I stated a fact. you reply with an unsubstantiated opinion (guess). fine ... whatever.

Can I use this to automatically turn on and off the light of my fish tank? '
Thanks

Makes great tool for turning grow lights on and off automatically

Good price for what it is, but unsure of the true benefits on a router. Pretty sure mine has a 12v 2a PSU, so 24w max? If so it'd take 40 hours offline to save 1 unit of electricity (15p?). I guess if you only have the router on for 4 hours a night you'd save 15p every 2 days, so you'd save nearly £30 a year.

OOS?

Don't be so sure. It made no difference at all when I had ADSL. I expect the exchange equipment is intelligent enough to realise that you are switching off your router (yes, people do do it) rather than a catastrophic variation in line performance (down to no connectivity at all).

SingleWeakLemonDrinkingArmChairScientist: All our Internet's belong to us, don't be trying to steal our Internet's!

Cat: Some one stole his fcking brain more like! I can make anything work but not this, I'm giving Dwayne Dibley a run for his money. Some one switch on the router and tape it to his frickin head ffs please!

I know someone who turns the routers off every time he's not using it...nothing about frying his family's brains or anything, he's just very miserly on bills!

​The led takes about 30mA (0.03amps) so miniscule. As for simple LCD displays, how long do Casio digital watches last on a teeny button cell? Clues its years not months

Neighbours WiFi is quite weak in my house. :smile:

I did realise the slowing of broadband side effect though. Guess I'll have to reassign the timer to lighting duties when nobody's home.

I have some of these. A bit fiddly to set up. I still prefer the mechanical ones with the pull out things.

If you keep turning off your router, this may affect the broadband connection speeds you are receiving as it can be treated as a line drop-out.

If this occurs your standard connection speed will drop due to DLM (Dynamic Line Management) to what is perceived as a more 'stable' rate.

And if it's going to "pay for itself in less than a year", it's hardly a big saving given this only costs £2.59 (price of a coffee). You should just leave it on IMO.

Turning off your router to reduce exposure to radiation? Do you ask your neighbours to turn off their wifi and your mobile phone provider to turn off their cell towers at night too?

gone up. 3.15 now

I considered buying one of these before, but quite a number of the reviews are negative enough that I bought the tried-and-tested mechanical ones instead

Radiation?

Forgot to say it's an Amazon add-on item.

Just calculated that if the router is off for 8 hours in a 24 hour period this should easily pay for itself in less than a year

I have always switched routers off at night (standard broadband and fibre) and it hasn't affected my connection/speed at all).

I believe tin foil is on sale at asda for your tin foil hat :wink:

so you switch your router off regularly to save electricity and cut down on radiation ?

a couple of thoughts... do you know what radiation is ? it seems not.
also the 'savings' are miniscule and it will affect your broadband performance badly.

Radiation? I assume you dress appropriately when setting it up.

So the family can't use the WiFi whilst you're not at home :laughing:

Some routers do allow WiFi scheduling, so you could set it up to automatically switch the WiFi part on and off via the settings instead of with a timer like this. Obviously if you also want to save money by powering it all down, then its a good option.

read the recent reviews first, they're not sending out Materplug branded slimline one shown in the picture but a larger one so make sure this is suitable before buying.

Perhaps the rooting gel got your attention :smiley: