Does turning the router off slow down the internet connection?

[PunishmentRoundupWithJoon]

Is it true that turning the router off can slow down the internet connection (download speed)? I've often turned it off overnight but now I'm wondering as at the moment, the connection is running very slow indeed. Pages taking longer to load.

Started doing it to save electric but willing to stop if it's affecting speeds!

I suspect it's at its very slowest when turned off, yes.

Try and see? DS says constantly turning it off stops it developing a stable connection.

But he would say that...

Why bother to turn it off? The amount of electricity they use is negligible and they aren't designed to be frequently turned on and off.

How much electricity would you save turning off the router? Google suggest 0.02p an hour, or £9 a year...

@Moonmelodies - you raise a valid point. 🙃

Actually I should have said that it's also because it's right against the head of my bed and am concerned about, y'know, t'internet waves coming through and zapping me....Seriously, am struggling with insomnia and headaches and this was one of the things I was trying.

I turn mine off every night and always have and it's never had any effect on the service we receive.

It's not to save money or anything, I have complex PTSD and am hyper vigilant so I switch off everything except the fridge when i go to bed.

Put it in a different room then?

Are you peri-menopausal?

@Aquamarine1029 - Yes, I am.

@anotheranotheranotheranother - Thanks, that's helpful. It's good to know that someone else hasn't experienced a reduction in speed from turning the router off. That's pretty much what I'm looking for - other people's experiences, did it affect the speed or not?

Turning the router off overnight, won't make any difference once it's turned back on.

However, it is also possible that it will miss out on any firmware updates that are often sent out overnight.

Any power savings are negligible, wi-fi transmission power is extremely low (hence the very crappy range!) compared to everything else around us.

I personally appreciate how distressing insomnia can be, if you're convinced that it's caused by electromagnetic radiation, you could consider trying one night where you turn your entire house off at the consumer unit.

The effect might only be physiological, but it might be comforting to rule it out.

This may sound madder, but I tried hypnosis, which worked for me.

We normally turn ours off at night and it runs perfectly quickly for our purposes (two people WFH, video calls, TV streaming, etc.). No idea if it would run better left on!

Yes, router regularly power cyling can cause issues:

1. It can give false readings to your provider who is likely to have monitoring tools connected to help keep a stable line. i.e. i can look like a dodgy connection making them slow down speeds to try and maintain stability
2. As above firmware upgrades tend to happen at night; these often bring security updates but can also fix issues that impact performance
3. Routers themslves are not really built for regular power off/on and it could cause some reduction in the lifespan of the router

^ This!!
This is roughly what I read when I asked Mr Google.

Unfortunately, he's completely correct.

Yes, they're not designed to be turned on and off constantly.

Ours is only switched off if we have a connection issue.

I had ours moved, the cost off leaving it on is negligible but I didn’t want it in the location it was so I had an engineer move it to the hallway.

Not the same but we have to turn ours off and on again regularly (at least once a week) to reboot because it has slowed down or stopped working. So if we didn't unplug it it wouldn't work at all!

If your on an old school copper line ( standard phone line ) for your internet turning off your router will reduce your speed.
Your lines are monitored and if it sees a disconnection then it assumes the line isnt stable and reduces the speed to see if its more stable and then if it continues to disconnect you will soon arrive at the lowest speed.

I dont think full fibre cares, pretty sure it wont throttle your speed but poewr consumption is very low and you wont cook yourself by leaving it on, so dont worry yourself about that.

Only if you forget to switch it on again. Leave it alone, minimal expense.

That most definitely explains the headaches and insomnia. Literally two of the most common symptoms.

Turning the router off overnight, won't make any difference once it's turned back on.

It can do. DLM would potentially detect this as an unstable connection, as it's up and down and adjust the line speed accordingly.

Turning off regular overnight should not trigger "unstable line" problems - but could save you around £20

If you do ( and it's not a daft idea) make sure you have a charged mobile for 999 calls if you don't have a phone plugged into a wall socket

A few years ago an engineer told me to never turn mine off as it was very unstable.