Effects of powering off the modem and hub.

When the engineer installed BT Infinity, he advised me not to power off for any length of time. Discussing other issues, I forgot to ask him to elaborate on this.

After the free speed upgrade to 80/20, my IP Profile settled at 47.54/20. After a subsequent short power failure this became 46.21/20 and has remained at that.

I had, before Infinity, been used to powering all my kit off at night, but have now put the modem and hub on a separate socket and leave them on. However I am not happy about leaving stuff on when on holiday, so can one of you techies please explain the downside of powering off hub and modem for say 2 weeks?

No downside at all.

Also if you power cycle during daylight there's a fair chance you will get your previous speed back. I'm guessing the power cut was late in the day.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 04-Jun-12 19:00:41)

Thanks for the re-assurance but still leaves me puzzling why the engineer drew attention to it.

I didn't power on at all - the hub and modem have been powered on continuously since the Infinity installation. A power blip knocked everything off and then came back within seconds and brought everything up again. It would have been in the evening though because I remember the light going off as well.

Forget last paragraph, this was in reply to your original post. Saw your edit too late.

No problems with turning off really, other than when you do it multiple times in an hour/day making the system look unstable.

In reply to a post by stilloptimistik:

Thanks for the re-assurance but still leaves me puzzling why the engineer drew attention to it.

It if mattered at all, it was only for the first two days after first ever connection. Though bear in mind what MrSaffron said, as that is also true.

I usually turn mine off when I go away. Certainly when it is a week or more, maybe not when it's only a weekend. If I ever go to an 80/nn service I will behave in exactly the same way. The system doesn't care about even a daily switch-off.

If you want to take a compromise course, leave the modem turned on normally, as that is what connects to the DSLAM in the cabinet and is the only thing that could get upset, and turn the router off at night. Turning the router off is not an issue under any circumstances, though best to close the PPP session first. Then turn the modem off as well when going away.

Thanks to you both for the info.

Perhaps I should have realised it was BS as he wasn't one of the better engineers. He gleefully adopted my DIY wiring of 2006 and could get a connection on his own kit but not on my PC or laptop and left suggesting I contact support. Once he'd left, the penny soon dropped that he hadn't loaded any software. Once I used the BT Home Hub Setup CD I was away. All his talking was obviously to disguise the fact that he'd had 5 minutes training on Infinity.

Not turning the router off makes the system see stability

Generally though with fibre turning it off is not an issue however 99% of routers aren't turned off. I see all of my neighbours networks 24/7

I'm actually away from home ATM & left the router on. Don't think I've ever actually consciously turned it off

It all depends really if you're the kind of person that leaves things on standby. I personally live in a household with lots of people so it's impossible to police what's left on.

That said when nobodies here for long periods of time absolutely everything is left turned on. If you are not comfortable living like that turn it off!

In reply to a post by stilloptimistik:

Once he'd left, the penny soon dropped that he hadn't loaded any software. Once I used the BT Home Hub Setup CD I was away. All his talking was obviously to disguise the fact that he'd had 5 minutes training on Infinity.

No need for the software at all.

In reply to a post by stilloptimistik:

Thanks to you both for the info.

Perhaps I should have realised it was BS as he wasn't one of the better engineers. He gleefully adopted my DIY wiring of 2006 and could get a connection on his own kit but not on my PC or laptop and left suggesting I contact support. Once he'd left, the penny soon dropped that he hadn't loaded any software. Once I used the BT Home Hub Setup CD I was away. All his talking was obviously to disguise the fact that he'd had 5 minutes training on Infinity.

In fact, this is all bad news.

He shouldn't have used your own wiring, he should have installed a new master socket and the modem should have been connected directly to that. Your existing wiring should then have been connected to the phone side only of the new master.

He should also have got one device of yours working and showing full speed.

It sounds like your IP profile is suffering and you should report this faulty install to your ISP and get it fixed.

Reading this in Spain with a wife who turns everything off whenever we go away, I feel reassured. (She did try the PIR light outside the back porch until I explained why it wasn't a good idea!) I did actually turn the modem and router off a few weeks ago on the advice of this forum somewhere when I was getting slow speeds - something about clearing the cache?? It was much faster after a day's rest.

"In fact, this is all bad news."

I should explain that my wiring wasn't telephone cable. In 2006 I read about it in an ADSL forum and bought a kit consisting of:

Replacement faceplate for the master socket - a Modified BT NTE5 Master ADSL Adapter with a 6-way IDC block replacing the 3-way one..
RJ11 Linebox
Cat 5e cable

As I wanted to connect the modem remotely, I ignored the new ADSL outlet and took the cable through the back of the master socket box, through the party wall between hall and internal garage, up that wall, across the ceiling and through the floor of the bedroom above (my office) to the RJ11 Linebox. Before Infinity, due to the length of my distance from the exchange, the best I was getting was 4Mbps (the BT estimate being 3Mbps).

I was well satisfied with my previous ISP but needed Infinity for more speed. The engineer simply removed my faceplate and installed a new one but didn't touch anything else. I have no real quarrels with that as I am well chuffed with my new speeds and don't need to max my line.

I was miffed about being left with neither my PC nor laptop accessing the line but after following the instructions provided I was soon up and running.

I'm also now miffed about the warning about switching off for long periods which now seems irrelevant.

Overall not worth an official complaint.

There seem to be various factors to look at if you want maximum speed, eg my newer laptop gets much better speedtest results than my PC, both of which are plugged into the hub.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful responses.

The Sky fibre router I got came with a sticker saying something to the effect of do not turn off.

Interesting really that they're encouraging such wastefullness.

BT state buried deep in their helpfiles, turning your system off shows up as a fault at the exchange, they automatically drop your speed to the lowest setting 250kb/sec.

This is what my cousing was getting due to his energy efficient wife turning off their Modem & HomeHub at nights. They had a visit from an engineer after a complaint of low speed, he advised leaving it on. after about 10 days their speed rose to 36 mbits/sec.

Also there is the little matter of ALL HomeHubs having a BT WiFi hotspot, so whilst it is on if a neighbours connection goes down they can connect via your Hotspot, this works both ways of course.

From BT Infinity User Guide & Troubleshooting
Save energy
Please avoid wasting energy while using your
computer, games console or other equipment.
You can set up your computers to go into standby
or low-energy mode automatically. Your Hub has
BT Power Save � see www.bt.com/help/homehub
Please disconnect your Hub from its power supply
when not in use for an extended period (e.g. a
holiday), but remember that when you do so
all connected computers (and any other devices
that use your Hub to connect to your broadband
line) will lose internet access. Remember to
restore power to your Hub before turning on
your computer(s).

nb it might say newbie, Been building PCs since 386SX25 late 80's
My network is VM 30 (soon to be 60) VMDG 480 Gigabit router 2 x cat5e cables to work room, one for gigabit to 8 port switch, second N WiFi router in dual channel mode 300 mbit/sec & other devices, the other for 10/100 to 16 port switch (runs at 200mbit according to the spec sheet) Printer etc.

Edited by bigluap (Wed 06-Jun-12 03:14:39)

My sky router came with a little sticker saying 'this device is designed to be always on.'

I never had this on ADSL broadband sky routers, just their fibre version

http://i50.tinypic.com/2bazxf.jpg

In reply to a post by bigluap:

BT state buried deep in their helpfiles, turning your system off shows up as a fault at the exchange, they automatically drop your speed to the lowest setting 250kb/sec.

Can you post a link to that? or did you make it up!

Switched back on after 6 days and got 37Mbps immediately. Strange IP address though!

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

Switched back on after 6 days and got 37Mbps immediately. Strange IP address though!

How strange? What are the first two or three blocks?

In reply to a post by GeoffB:

Switched back on after 6 days and got 37Mbps immediately. Strange IP address though!

Doubt it was "strange" in any odd way. From what I can see you'll either get an 86.xxx range or a 109.xxx range address.

For a very brief period of time after moving to the 17a profiles we got allocated some 31.xxx addresses but haven't seen those ranges since.

It's gone back to 109.xxx today so all is well. Am I right in saying that there is a cache (in modem or router) that gets full and affects speeds?

More like the hub. It gets full of all sorts of tables of data for DHCP leases and the like. Good to reset both devices every so often.