How often do you turn off your router at home? Thanks to the broadband technician's reminder, I realized I might have done something wrong.

Routers are the first choice for thousands of households. In order to make them run better, they must be shut down regularly.

How often should you replace your home router? Broadband experts are here to tell you that you are probably doing it wrong.

How often do you shut down?

Generally speaking, an ordinary router only needs to be turned off once a week. The broadband master said that turning off the router is to give everyone a better network experience.

When you are surfing the Internet, you may encounter this situation: the signal is full, but the network is not good, and there is always delay when playing games.

This is because the router has been working for too long, causing the internal hardware to heat up and the network transmission efficiency to be reduced.

At this time, you just need to wait for the hardware to recover, or turn off the router and let it rest for a while, which can perfectly solve the problem of lag.

After all, even machines cannot withstand working 24 hours a day.

If it is a router with poor performance, you need to shut it down once every 3 to 4 days and let it rest for half an hour each time. It will work better after restarting.

Some friends also said that their routers are top-notch equipment and can run stably and continuously even without rest.

This type of top-level router rarely freezes, but if it is not allowed to rest for a long time, the hardware facilities in it may age faster.

By then, a router with a lifespan of 5 years may only be usable for 2 to 3 years.

In order to use the router for a longer period of time, it is recommended that you shut it down regularly to avoid unnecessary losses.

Since there are so many benefits to turning off the router, some people will definitely want to know what the principle is.

How Routers Work

Before understanding how a router works, we need to know where its network comes from.

Simply put, a router is connected by an Internet cable. The Internet is transmitted to the router through the Internet cable, and then a local area network is generated through the router's hardware facilities.

Why is it that even with so many network cables, the network can be accurately transmitted to the router?

This is because the router has a fixed IP address, which is equivalent to the information identification code transmitted by the network, and can accurately locate the user.

Just like sending a package by courier, with the address, they can “follow the clues” to find you.

During the whole process, routers are divided into local routers and remote routers. Local routers are responsible for short-distance transmission tasks, and remote routers act as the medium for long-distance transmission.

The working process of a traditional router includes looking up the IP address, matching access, resolving after obtaining permission, and prioritizing certain matters in the process.

Therefore, although the router is only a small piece, its working principle is still very complicated. If the performance of the router itself is poor, if it runs for too long, some links are likely to go wrong.

The operation process of the entire router is closely linked. Once an error occurs in a certain node, it will inevitably affect the user experience.

At this time, you need to let it rest. Only when its condition is "adjusted" can it work harder.

This is the same principle as our work and study. Only by knowing how to combine work and rest can we do things better.

However, professionals in related fields have developed new types of routers.

This type of router uses the forwarding cache working principle, which can perform batch operations on the network with the same batch of IP addresses, and cache certain content at an intermediate address, so that the next time the operation is performed, network transmission can be achieved faster and more efficiently.

This is also the high-end router mentioned earlier, which provides a better user experience.

However, whether it is a traditional or new router, it is always a good idea to restart it regularly.

Shutdown and Restart

Speaking of restarting the router, the elderly in the family are very excited. They happily turn off the router every night. On the one hand, they think that the router will emit radiation and waste electricity when it is turned on. On the other hand, they also want to give the router more rest.

Is this behavior really good for the router?

First of all, letting the router "rest more" is not conducive to the smooth operation of the router.

Because every time the router restarts, it needs to expose its IP address and connect to the terminal network.

This undoubtedly increases the workload of the router and accelerates the aging of the equipment.

If the router is not in operation for a long period of time, the internal hardware equipment cannot be effectively utilized for a long time, which may cause the hardware facilities to become solidified, and the efficiency will be much lower than before when it is operated again.

Just like a person, if he rests for a long time, he will become lazy, and the same is true for a router.

Therefore, only an appropriate amount of rest can ensure that the router runs more efficiently.

Secondly, does it consume electricity if the router is always turned on?

We all know that the working procedures of a router are quite complicated. Theoretically speaking, if it is always in operation, it should consume a lot of electricity!

But in fact, most of the router's work can be completed at the terminal, and the router itself acts as an intermediary. Its most important job is to maintain the network coverage area, and the workload is not as large as everyone believes.

Generally speaking, the voltage of a router is between 5 and 9V. If we calculate according to the highest standard voltage (the current at this time is 2A), the power consumption when the function is fully turned on for 24 hours is about 432wh, which is equivalent to 0.4 kWh.

The electricity consumption in a month is only 12 kWh. Calculated at 80 cents per kWh, the monthly electricity cost is 9.6 yuan.

This is still the highest-end home router. A slightly inferior router only costs about 8 yuan per month. If you drink two fewer bottles of colored drinks on a regular basis, you can save on electricity bills for the router.

It can be seen that the router does not consume electricity, and there is no need to turn it off just because it consumes electricity.

How effective is the radiation from a router?

The router itself is an intermediary, so its radiation is not large, but a small amount of radiation definitely exists.

How small is the radiation of a router? We can compare it with that of a mobile phone.

Carrying it next to the router for 24 hours is equivalent to the radiation dose of playing with a mobile phone for half an hour.

Moreover, the microwave radiation of a router is basically negligible and much smaller than that of a microwave oven. Therefore, as long as the router is genuine and meets relevant national production standards, it can be used with confidence.

When buying a router, don't buy "cheap goods". Such routers will only affect human health.

Of course, if there is a pregnant woman at home, try to avoid her from long-term contact with the router. The router can be installed in the next room where the pregnant woman rests. This way, there will be sufficient signal and the radiation to which the pregnant woman is exposed will be reduced.

It is worth noting that you should never disassemble the router and tinker with it yourself just because the network quality is poor.

After all, we are not professional broadband technicians. Once we take it apart and tinker with it, we may not even be able to use the Internet. In the end, we have no choice but to pay a technician to repair it.

If you encounter a bad network situation, change your password first to see if anyone is stealing the network. It is best to use an English and number password to prevent others from cracking it.

If that doesn't work, restarting the router is also very effective.

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