Connect after DSL Off
Lavarock7:
Pros and cons.
Many decades ago I worked in a large computer room with everything from PC sized servers to giant mainframes. The room was the size of a football field with many hundreds of systems.
We used to have very random system failures and hangs. Then we implemented a large-scale UPS system. This system used electricity to charge batteries. Then those batteries ran an inverter to create power for the building. In this system we were always using clean power. If the electric company all of a sudden shut down, we were still running until our batteries were depleted. (This is not unlike how a vehicles power system works - you are using battery power all the time and the alternator charges the battery). Your UPS probably works the same way, always supplying power even if you pull the plug. Some cheap UPSs use a relay and don't supply power until the main service disappears, then they switch to the batty and inverter. This type of system causes spikes in the output and thankfully are not that common.
What we found was that many or most of our unexplained reboots and failures stopped. It was a dramatic change.
Electronic devices and software can develop issues where they need to be rebooted. Certainly Windows operating systems fell into that category.
With electronics, there is often a power button which allows a proper shutdown. Oftentimes it does not just cut the power, but rather starts a graceful procedure to store current configurations, stop processes and power down. Of course, not all equip met does that.
My feeling is that by forcing power shutdowns just because you can, is not the best idea. Electronic chips don't like stress and continued stress can cause more chance of failures.
If your equipment was meant to be recycled and cold booted, the manufacturer would have put software or hardware times inside.
Just because you CAN reboot nightly does not mean you should.
SteveInWA:
+1 to DrGeoff and Lavarock.
There is no good reason to power off your equipment every night. All small electronic devices with plug-in AC/DC power supplies, manufactured within the past decade, have power supplies that meet stringent power efficiency standards (the small IV, V or VI in a circle on the power adapter signify compliance, with the increasing Roman numerals indicating compliance to a higher/newer standard). They use an insignificant amount of power, especially when the devices are idle. You can do the math yourself, if you have a "KillAWatt" power meter, and you know the cost of your electric power (typically around 10 to 12 cents per KWH).
Aside from no meaningful cost savings from powering off, as Lavarock mentioned, the repeated power-cycling can eventually result in component failure.
Clacey:
I appreciate the inputs. We all have our experiences. I am an electronics technician since 1961 when I joined the USAF and took two years of schooling in Cryptographic equipment. In addition I have taken other electronics schooling as well as working in the field for 40 years when I took retirement at 59 due to health. We had the newest and best of binary crypto equipment. That said, I have never seen a reason to leave solid state equipment running when not in use. When it was tubes, yes, it was hard on them and constant on/off cycles was a bad idea. Having owned my own computers since 1994 I have always shut down all my systems at night. It has caused me no failure with any of my computers or peripherals. My timer is after the UPS and in no way affects it. I would suggest reading government reports on the billions of KWH wasted just running computers when they are not needed.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/leaving-pcs-on-overnight-wastes-bil-2009-03-30/
I am a security nut and run numerous programs to protect my computers. And while I do what I can to protect them, having them off when not in use makes it much less likely I will become part of a botnet.
Thanks, I find all the opinions interesting, but will continue to use a timer to save energy as well as having less time exposed to the hackers and slimeballs out there that want nothing more than to find unattended idle computers.
ProfTech:
To Clacey: Just a couple of points. I've been in the business since before 1971 and I shutdown my Windows computer for some of the same reasons. Years ago when I worked in a corporate office I powered down my PC when I left at 5 PM so the IT department could not load so-called "patches" and updates on my machine at night. As a result my PC ran very well for years while many of my co-workers were forever having theirs crashing, Blue Screen and so on. Fast forward to 2008 and I became self employed working out of my home. I opted to go with VOIP for long distance because ATT wanted $200 to install a second line and $60 a month for service. Immediately it was apparent that in order to keep my phone service working at night it was necessary to keep the modem/router on at all times. I still shutdown my PC. Sometimes during the day I disable the ethernet port on my PC but leave it on if I'm going to be away for a few hours. Takes 2 mouse clicks. This time to keep the viruses, crooks and scammers out. No better security than to turn it off.
Now the info: If you have an early model Obi 110 and an attached POTS line there can be a very good reason for you to power down the Obi at the same time you power down the router. The early 110's had a relay that would connect the POTS line directly to your phone(s) if powered down, and keep your phone service [at least the POTS line] available to you. If you have a newer 110 or the 200 series and you power either the Obi or the router [or both] off your phones go dead.
If you power the router off and leave the Obi on, when you power the router up in the morning the Obi automatically reboots. It is designed to do that. If it reboots before the router is ready, there could be a timing issue that might cause the Obi to lock up.
Clacey:
I will give it a few days. But yesterday I plugged the Obi into the timed power strip. I have it set to turn on before I get up. This morning the Obi was connected and the phones were ready to go. As far as the phones being off at night. That is part of my scheme. Robocalls etc are not able to bother us at night. We have cell phones that all our friends and family can reach us on 24/7.
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