@home said to leave modem on

[conical]

I called tech support about leaving the modem on and they said that I should leave it on all the time. I shutdown my computers but the modem has been on and connected for weeks. It does not get very hot or anything I was just concerned about wearing it out prematurely. Should I worry about this?

[GRIM]

Dont worry man those things are made for the long run when I was on cable I only turned mine off once and that was by accdient I turned off the wrong breaker while doing some work in the house

[downhill]

In a nutshell, no...turning it off or leaving it on probably wont affect the life of it all that much, but opinions here vary on this subject.

Also depends on where you are. I turn mine off all the time, but everthing is new here. With the energy crunch hitting the west coast, I simply feel it's kinda lame to leave it on.

Just my 2 cents.

[No1 Rat]

I turn mine off simply because I feel it is a waste of electricity. I would leave it on if someone gave me a good reason to, but so far no one has. I see no benefit in leaving it on.

[andrewe77]

I leave mine on because I don't want to wait for it to connect to the service when I turn my computer on. As far as wasted electricity goes, it will probably cost you $5 to run it all year.

[neo86]

hahahaha. don't turn it off because if you'll have to turn it back on and it'll be like using dial up to connect back to the internet.

[downhill]

Originally posted by neo86:
hahahaha. don't turn it off because if you'll have to turn it back on and it'll be like using dial up to connect back to the internet.


Eh? I'll concede that there are probably dozens of places that take a while to synch up.

Mine sync's in about a half a second. Not enough to make much difference.

Just my 2 cents. :)

[HalfLifer]

Mine takes about 20 seconds to synch up.
|
|
|
|
||
||
||
|||
|||
|||||
||

[blebs]

I don't know if this holds any water or not, but I think the reason is that they want to see a running cumulative of specs on the modem to determine your usage. I know it used to be that way, but with the new DOCSIS systems, I'm not sure that resetting the modem erases anything at the head end.

Just my 2 cents worth. :D

[damaged]

Originally posted by blebs99:
I don't know if this holds any water or not, but I think the reason is that they want to see a running cumulative of specs on the modem to determine your usage. I know it used to be that way, but with the new DOCSIS systems, I'm not sure that resetting the modem erases anything at the head end.

This is a good point...if everyone were to shut their modem off, it would throw up a red flag in any NOC that there is a major outage. Most NOCs have a predetermined percentage of modems that must be offline prior to declaring an outage. Shutting off a DOCSIS modem (on the @home network) does not reset any counters or stats at the head end. It simply shows as offline and goes toward the total of offline modems. If the number gets too big, the flag goes out and so do the technicians.

[ 05-12-2001: Message edited by: damaged ]

[Dakota]

Originally posted by andrewe77:
I leave mine on because I don't want to wait for it to connect to the service when I turn my computer on. As far as wasted electricity goes, it will probably cost you $5 to run it all year.

If even that much. Mine's on 24/7/365.

[YeOldeStonecat]

When they design them, they kind of take into consideration that it may get hot, hence not using parts which would fail under heat.

[martin777]

Also if you turn it off long enough, you might be issued a different IP address.
That could be a pain for routers,games,etc.

:eek:

[InHere]

Heat cycling is the worst thing for any board in any device, along with the shock of startup. Capacitance kicks happen every time you jolt an electrical appliance to life by turning it on.. Leave it on...all of it.

[Jaywin]

Heh heh.......I'm not an expert on this...but I've been told that turning off and on electronic devices like the cable modem or monitors or computers alike can actually diminish the life expectancy more than leaving the machine on!

Why? Because when you turn on an electrical circuit thermal dilatation occurs. Turning off the warmed circuit will make the circuitry shrink back to room temperature size again thus creating microfractures....

I learned this from an electrical engineer and have never turned off my monitor since...lol... :rolleyes:

[wee96]

I've seen several modems out in the field actually damaged from being shut off and on so much. This of course shouldnt normally happen, but cable modems are designed to be on 24/7 365. The amount of electricity they consume is about $1 a year, so I'd say leave the sucker on :)

[Jaywin]

Thanks InHere!...Was wondering if my theory held water.

[Mighty Favog]

DOCSIS modems give the cable companies the ability to continually test line condition. The modem will report power levels, SNR, and other factors that affect performance. By leaving the modems on, you end up with a better maintained cable plant. Another factor is that a booting modem chews up bandwidth. Best to just leave them on, they use about the same amount of power as a night light.

[conical]

Mighty Favog wrote: By leaving the modems on, you end up with a better maintained cable plant.

:) This has got to be the reason @home techs told me to leave the modem on. They didn't explain why but this makes a lot of sense. I have very reliable service, so on it will stay! :)

[ 05-14-2001: Message edited by: conical ]