Summer is here and with it comes the main time of the year to go on vacation for a few days, leaving behind our home and a good part of our beloved gadgets and devices.
Most of us have contracted an Internet connection at home that works thanks to the classic router provided by the operators that in some cases we complement with an additional router with more features or even with added network equipment such as a PLC, WiFi extenders-amplifiers , a NAS, etc.
These are usually computers that we have running 24 hours a day to maintain our constant connectivity, but what happens when we leave home for a few days, is it worth leaving them on or is it better to turn everything off to save a few euros?
With the arrival of the new electricity bill since last June 1 and the time sections, assessing the cost of having these equipment always online has become a little more difficult, although in this article we are going to do some generic calculations that can serve as a guide to consider whether to leave them on or off.
Reasons to leave the router on
The answer to the question of whether it is better to leave the router on or off on vacation is not unique, since it will depend on each specific case, the use we make of our local and remote connectivity, the applications we usually use and of course of the time that we are going to be away from home.
One of the most common reasons for leaving the router always connected is that of users who have a multimedia server or a NAS mounted at home with audio, photo and video content available to be accessed from outside the home. In these situations we cannot logically turn it off or we will be unable to access it.
Nor can we turn it off if we use any equipment in our home to upload content from the mobile remotely. For example photos or videos of the holidays to our personal library. However, if it is a short time we can temporarily resort to the cloud or use memory cards and external drives when possible or simply clean the phone memory before leaving to have the maximum free space, in general more than enough to hundreds of photos and minutes of video.
If we have a security system based on IP cameras installed in the home, locks, peepholes and smart video intercoms and we want to be able to access from anywhere in the world or allow access to family and friends who come to water the plants, we will need to leave the router always on and probably network extenders, PLCs and other amplifiers as needed.
We will also have to leave it connected in the case of belonging to a private BitTorrent tracker that forces us to have certain hours of shared use of the downloaded files each month, although in some places we may be allowed to park the account for a time.
