To leave on, or not to leave on?

[Pugdawg1]

What is best.. I am off and on the computers during the day. I tend to let them sleep during the day if I am not using them, and shut them down at night. Is this good or bad? What is the best for the computer? I have a G4 and G5.

One other question.. one of the computers is in my bedroom, and it has the dsl modem and router there. At night when the computer is completely off, occasionally I see the Activity Light come on, on the modem. Just a flicker once in awhile. Why does it do that? The computer in the other room is also shut down. So I am curious about that.

Thanks

 

[pncc]

What is best.. I am off and on the computers during the day. I tend to let them sleep during the day if I am not using them, and shut them down at night. Is this good or bad? What is the best for the computer? I have a G4 and G5.

One other question.. one of the computers is in my bedroom, and it has the dsl modem and router there. At night when the computer is completely off, occasionally I see the Activity Light come on, on the modem. Just a flicker once in awhile. Why does it do that? The computer in the other room is also shut down. So I am curious about that.

Thanks

Q1)
I don't think there is a hard rule here to follow, but a couple of factors come to mind for my clients.
-Do the computers have good quality surge suppressors on them for both power and network? If not, I would turn them off when not in use.
->Get a quality surge suppressor with network protection and plug the DSL line into it right from the wall BEFORE it reaches the DSL modem.

-Generally, if the computer is going to be used in the next few hours, leave it on. If it won't be used for a while, shut it down. If you regularly use many Applications, leave the computer on from day to day so you don't have to go through the hassle of getting back into your work space.

Q2)
Most routers have an access log so you can check that to see what is happening. My guess is your ISP is scanning to see what is going on on its network. It could be a hacker looking for tempting targets also.
-You did change the default login password for the router didn't you? Please tell me it isn't set to 'Admin' or '1234.'

 

[Pugdawg1]

Q1)
I don't think there is a hard rule here to follow, but a couple of factors come to mind for my clients.
-Do the computers have good quality surge suppressors on them for both power and network? If not, I would turn them off when not in use.
->Get a quality surge suppressor with network protection and plug the DSL line into it right from the wall BEFORE it reaches the DSL modem.

-Generally, if the computer is going to be used in the next few hours, leave it on. If it won't be used for a while, shut it down. If you regularly use many Applications, leave the computer on from day to day so you don't have to go through the hassle of getting back into your work space.

Q2)
Most routers have an access log so you can check that to see what is happening. My guess is your ISP is scanning to see what is going on on its network. It could be a hacker looking for tempting targets also.
-You did change the default login password for the router didn't you? Please tell me it isn't set to 'Admin' or '1234.'

Thanks for responding. No.. I changed the default login password. The blinking lights seem to happen reasonably regularly so maybe it is just the ISP.
I do basically what you said, so I guess I'm doing the right thing. I just want to get the most 'life' from my computers and don't want to do something that would be detrimental to them.

 

[Blackheart]

My computer only gets shut down during the restart succeeding a software update. Otherwise, it's running 24/7, folding away.

 

[aus_dave]

Why not let it sleep at night as well? Apart from the glowing power button the power draw would be fairly low.

IMHO you are wasting electricity and money if your computer is left on 24/7 (not sleeping) without a good reason. Of course if you don't pay the power bill then that's not your problem I guess .