In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by AEP:

Dynamic addressing will disappear, I would imagine, with IPv6, and a good thing too. It's difficult to think of valid reasons for dynamic addressing.

Money-saving by the ISP I imagine - fewer need to be allocated to them, and I assume they are not free.

But I'm still doubtful if an ISP could do much to 'share' addresses amongst its users these days. If most people have standalone modem/routers then presumably most people are connected and using an IP address all the time.

I think the vast majority still switch off at night, if not whenever not using the computer. Particularly in term-time. I've no evidence though.

I suspect the opposite is true, they leave the modem/router on overnight. The course of action requiring the least effort is often the most pursued.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I think the vast majority still switch off at night, if not whenever not using the computer. Particularly in term-time. I've no evidence though.

I have to disagree, I can see 6 wireless connections from my house and none of these are ever turned off during late night eg 3am.

Often people's cordless phone and router connect in the same place (often into the same extension socket plug).

How many people actually think of turning these things off standby.

The same applies to sky boxes tvs microwaves etc

Edit: I've often had over 2000hours uptime without even thinking about it

Edited by ukhardy07 (Wed 17-Aug-11 15:30:57)

Our TVs are switched off overnight, the PVR is left one (we don't have Sky or cable). All the PC kit, including router, is switched off overnight (and when we're out for a while). The microwave and oven are left on, if only to avoid having to reset the blinking clocks every time. Most people I know who I help with their computer problems switch off their PC kit when they've finished with it. Many of them using a BT line for broadband have USB modems. I know of only one person who leaves their router on all the time, but that's for his internet radio.

I don't believe it's possible to say that 'most' people do this or 'most' people do that. In general we can only go by those we know or have dealings with and, in many cases, they may well have similar habits and views to ourselves.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

Our TVs are switched off overnight, the PVR is left one (we don't have Sky or cable). All the PC kit, including router, is switched off overnight (and when we're out for a while). The microwave and oven are left on, if only to avoid having to reset the blinking clocks every time. Most people I know who I help with their computer problems switch off their PC kit when they've finished with it. Many of them using a BT line for broadband have USB modems. I know of only one person who leaves their router on all the time, but that's for his internet radio.

I don't believe it's possible to say that 'most' people do this or 'most' people do that. In general we can only go by those we know or have dealings with and, in many cases, they may well have similar habits and views to ourselves.

This is true

The majority of my friends and neighbors have their routers either on the tv stand in the living room or in the hallway.

They also have families with often 2 or more children who use the Internet at strange hours should we say

Their computers and laptops are then wireless

The desktop is turned off but the routers left ticking by

the more techy friends of mine prefer having a wired connection as its usually faster. So their routers are on their desktop desk & I assume are turned off with the pc

I do not know anybody with a modem personally.

It's like in my household if I turned the router off somebody would turn it back on within 30 minutes.

& nobody in my house turns anything off so I've given up trying

So yes every situation is different

If I lived alone I might be able to save a little on that electric bill!

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

If I lived alone I might be able to save a little on that electric bill!

I certainly don't live alone but my wife has absolutely no interest in using the computer so I'm the only user - except when our sons come up from London and Kent, maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

And I pay the electricity bill

There are so many available addresses with IPv6 that there is no need to ration them; the cost is nothing. Just allocating a static address will be much cheaper than messing about with DHCP servers.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I think the vast majority still switch off at night, if not whenever not using the computer. Particularly in term-time. I've no evidence though.

I'm not sure about that but even so does that help the ISPs? It's basically the same problem as for bandwidth I think. It's not what people do off-peak that matters. Given that one of the big advantages of ADSL is that it's an always on connection with no per-second billing I'd assume that during the day almost everyone's router is left on. Surely there can't be many people that only power the router on when they actually want to use the net?

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I suspect the opposite is true, they leave the modem/router on overnight. The course of action requiring the least effort is often the most pursued.

True although I used to have a timer on mine back when I wasn't running my own mail server. I still do on my A/V equipment down stairs. The only box that isn't powered off is my Humax Freesat box but that's a happy coincidence. It used to have a bug that meant it wouldn't obey timers after a power cut. They've fixed it now but as it happens it uses less than a watt in standby anyway so I could live with leaving it

The Sky box now is another matter. That thing consumes 14w in standby (as witness the fact it often has to spin its fan when idle to cool down). That most definitely is on a timer and during the week is off from 3am to 3pm.

But returning to my original comment:Given the nature of the OP's enquiry doesn't that imply that 'address sharing' is not common? The fact someone has to actually ask if anyone knows of an ISP where the address changes suggests to me that most ISPs are running a pseudo static addressing. My own ISP - BeThere - definitely seems to. Back when I had a dynamic IP address I'd switch my router off before going on holiday. I'd come back over a week later and get exactly the same IP address.