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Pros/cons to turning off cable modem

Pros/cons to turning off cable modem

A little off the wall perhaps, but ...

Asked by: Guest | Views: 204
Total answers/comments: 4
Guest [Entry]

"The power used by a cable modem is, as you say, trivial.
They are designed to remain on all the time.
As long as you haven't enabled any remote-administration features on your modem, there is basically no security reason to turn of your modem.

There are other reasons to keep the modem on, but these would only apply if you keep your computer on too (I assume you power it off at night too, given you're concerned with the power usage of your modem!)

If you have not port-forwarded any ports to your computer, or set it as the ""DMZ"" (which is a bad idea), there is no security benefit from powering the modem off - aside from the fact you can't use the internet when this is so...
Current ""intrusion vectors"" for crapware (viruses, spyware, adware) are almost entirely based on you doing silly things, like opening executables, or clicking web-links. The number of viruses spread by the means you are concerned about (remotely exploiting vulnerable services) have dropped hugely now NAT-routers are commonplace.

Software updates tend to happen at times when the computer is idle, overnight is a good time for these to download (although these should happen regardless, unless they are really badly programmed!)

All that said, there's no technical reasons against powering your modem off at night - the only drawbacks are convenience, really."
Guest [Entry]

There is no benefit to leaving it on other than not having to turn it on later (which to some people is a major hassle), unless you have scheduled things to run at night.
Guest [Entry]

"Pro

You don't have to wait for it to boot up.

Contra

Waste of energy

I'd probably leave it on, I can't really be bothered with turning it on every day, but that's just me."
Guest [Entry]

I would leave the device on. If the ISP sees the modem go down and up constantly they might suspect a problem. Also the power draw of an average modem is very small.