Virgin Media Warns UK Broadband Users Not to Switch Routers Off at Night
Broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) has revealed that 18% of respondents to one of their consumer surveys still “break the golden rule” by switching their Hub (router) off overnight. This might save a tiny bit of electricity, but it may also “prevent overnight software updates” (e.g. router firmware or other devices) from being applied – that could have unintended consequences.
Generally speaking, network operators and other software distributors often time important software updates to be released and applied during off-peak periods, such as late at night. Not only does this help the network to run more efficiently, but it also ensures that you don’t suffer a performance loss or disconnection while actually using the connection yourself. In addition, if something goes wrong, the network operator will often still have time to fix it before you notice.
However, in the grander scheme of things, turning most routers off at night isn’t the end of the world, even though it might mess up some of the tasks or updates that your connected devices may be performing (a common issue within the modern ‘smart’ home). But just remember that frequently switching-off routers on older copper based broadband lines (i.e. ADSL, FTTC / VDSL2 or G.fast) could still cause the Dynamic Line Management (DLM) system to assume your connection is unstable and drop the speed to compensate.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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I never turn off my Draktek VDSL router! The electricity usage is almost too small to measure, as it’s a plain router (no Wi-Fi, that happens elsewhere). Some routers do have the option to turn off the Wi-Fi radios during selected hours, so perhaps that can save a tiny bit of power without a switch-off?
I thought the VM hub’s check for firmware on bootup anyway, even if you turned it off at night, booting it back up in the morning for example would push new firmware anyway?
For me when I was on VM, the hub 5 didnt work that way so e.g. if you had a failed update (which sometimes happens), rebooting doesnt force it to retry, instead they seem to use a push system, and every single one of my pushed updates was maintenance hours.
And then if you need to use it urgently you may find you can’t because it’s updating. That’s the issue.
Yes, any decent operator will update the firmware on router inform after it powers up as well as a TR-069/TR-369 overnight push.
The whole DLM thing is a bit of a myth also, given the thresholds of typical DLM policies – a single reboot caused by turning the router off overnight should have zero impact on DLM. It could theoretically have impact, if other unintended reboots occur during the day, but the likelehood is so minimal it’s not worth worrying about. Plus the fact DLM doesn’t apply to Full-Fibre/FTTP.
I guess routers typically consume 5-10 watts so 1 KWH for every 100 hours of operation so 88KWH PA. Given that electricity is roughly 22p we’re talking about £20 a year so you might save £7 a year turning it off overnight. Not worth the effort really, not to mention that you will require it to be on if you have VOIP landline relying on it.
No point turning the router off when the power supply is still consuming!
How much is that? Probably not even 0.5W on a modern supply?
Switched mode PSUs drop to pretty much zero consumption when there’s no load.
My VDSL modem is drawing 5-6W. But when I had to be a Virgin customer, their router was drawing more than 20W. If this is still the case with their current hardware, turning it off for 7 hours every night (even with a timer switch) would save around £15 a year in electricity.
If someone doesn’t need the internet while they are sleeping, turning it off might be reasonable.
You should also add the power consumption of your wifi access Points and ethernet switch for a fairer comparison.
Would be nice if we could set what hour we want the router to check for updates.
Every few weeks I’ll be in a ranked game and get disconnected because BT wants to update my “smart hub” at 2am…
This sounds very clickbaity for Virgin to put out but yes, it is pointless turning off a router or an ONT.
BUT, if Virgin would give the Hub5x users the ability to change the DNS and add modem mode it would be great. 🙂
Quite comical really, Virgin urging people to leave their routers on to allow updates when the hub5x hasn’t had an update to add those missing features you’d expect every router to have, in forever…
A more important reason for not turning the router off is that now with the analog phone line having been deprecated, the digital replacement now comes into the router. If you need that for emergency contact you don’t want to be waiting for the router to boot up. (Not an inconsiderable amount of time I might add…)
Virgin’s use about 16w (that’s just the internet router). That’s about 47kwh a year for 8 hours a night. About £1 a month.
Horribly inefficient, but that’s DOCSIS for you.
Now, don’t get me started on thie TV box …
Turning the router of at night time should never be done as the system
Thinks there is fault and will try to rectify the issue and can change the profile which can lead slow Wi-Fi
It will have absolutely no effect on WiFi speeds. Your broadband connection may sync at a lower bandwidth though.
Line quality advantage in turning-off at night ? Closing down at night and re-starting the following morning may pro-actively disclose incipient faults in the line/exchange by re-performing all the start-up testing necessary to secure a connection ?
Security advantage in turning-off at night ? If in the UK, your router will be off when all the ner’do wells across the pond start awaking from their slumber and doing the thing that they do. You get a fresh IP allocated every time you re-connect.
I switch-off the power up-stream of the supply adapter for the modem and separate router, so that power is severed for a number of computing-related components, doubling-up on the power saving.
“You get a fresh IP allocated every time you re-connect.”
Not necessarily.
Turning your hub off at night is an excellent idea. A daily reboot helps keep it’s operating system fresh and saves electricity.
There is also the advantage that you won’t recieve any nuisance VOIP calls waking you up when you are sleeping. A turned off hub gives great peace of mind that you won’t be disturbed.
Don’t worry about missing software updates, because software updates are extremely rare. The last time BT updated the software on my hub was 5 years ago!
Turning your hub off at night is also good security practice because it means your devices can’t get hacked in the middle of the night when you are asleep and when hackers on the other side of the world are most active.
Don’t worry about DLM reducing line speed because a single reboot once a day is not sufficient to trigger it. DLM only kicks in if there are multiple disconnects in a short space of time, which indicates a problem with the line. I once had a faulty hub that would disconnect every 10 minutes and the DLM is designed for things like that, not turning the hub off once a day, which is no problem at all.
> The last time BT updated the software
> on my hub was 5 years ago!
It’s that because you turn it off at nights?
Or maybe you have a very old hub that’s not able to handle all the latest features?