Should you turn your modem off everyday to give it a rest?

Question

i know absolutely nothing about computers and neither does my boyfriend but he insists on turning it off at night, this seems absurd to me. what is better for it to work well?

Answer 1

after the initial installation of the modem most companies will advise you to leave it on for ten days. The logic behind that escapes me. After the initial ten days is up turning it off will have no ill affects. It also is for some paranoid people a way to prevent hackers from obtaining control of their computer remotely and accessing files. There is a remote access option on most every computer. But seeing as how the computer is off i don't see how this would be possible.

My vote is still turn it off nightly to save a minuscule amount of electricity and it is better to be safe than sorry.

Answer 2

Turning it off at night will save you electricity and will also effectively half your security risks! (Just joking with the second one, there's no substitute for educating yourself and being careful online).

You don't need to "give it a rest", and modern electronics have very large MTBF ratings (mean time between failures) so it's unlikely that turning it of will significantly expand it's working life.

Answer 3

There's no need to turn it off except to save electricity. The amount of "wear & tear" that 24/7 usage would add is minimal.