Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Do broadband routers need to be kept switched on?

by Jul 29, 2011 5:09PM PDT

Broadband connections in our Cambridgeshire village are very slow owing to the distance from the BT exchange, but mine is worse than many, with an average download speed of 700 kbit/s.
I have a reasonably new Netgear router and my question is, is it detrimental to performance to switch of the router when not in use for several hours, for instance overnight? As the speed seems to have worsened over the last few months do routers wear out and need to be replaced?

Discussion is locked

4 Posts
- Collapse + Expand Details
- Collapse -
Answer
If I had to guess,
by Jul 31, 2011 4:51AM PDT

I would not fault the router being on all the time. I have my router on all the time but never sense any problem with it. DSL are not very reliable and subject to electrical/magnetic interferences (light dimmer for example). If you don't think these are the problem then I doubt there is much you can do about it. But good luck.

- Collapse -
Answer
I agree with Ahtoi
by Forum moderator Jul 31, 2011 4:58AM PDT

I have a broadband modem, (Virgin Media), and connected to that a Netgear router. I don't turn either off when not in use.

I do occasionally have to reboot them both, perhaps once a month or so, when I lose internet connection completely, But I put that down to ISP networking problems rather than anything else.

Have you done a speed test?

Mark

- Collapse -
Answer
making your broadband faster
by Aug 7, 2011 10:51PM PDT

are you using wireless or lan? what type of router is it? B, G, or N? not sure how far your exchange is but generally yes that is the most important factor when using adsl. however, there are some things you can do to make your broadband faster; i have listed a good link fyi:

how to make internet faster

- Collapse -
What's funny (or not) is
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Aug 10, 2011 2:45AM PDT

That wifi 801.11B is faster than most internet connections and you see advice to update the router. When you see that, you have to question how much thought they put into the article.

802.11G is, so far faster than anyone's internet connection in most towns.
Bob

Back to Internet Service Providers forum

CNET Forums

Operating Systems
Software
Electronics & Gadgets
Hardware
Tablets & Mobile Devices
General Help
Brand Forums
Roadshow Autos
Off Topic

Other Forums

Forum Info