No, there is no harm in leaving your router on. And if you leave any computers on, the computers will actually "talk" to each other too during the night.

Other than using up like a total of maybe 5watts every 5 hours (which is pretty energy efficient I must say), there is no harm done to anything by leaving it on. My router is a full fledged Linux box which runs on an old PC and that stays on 24/7/365. That uses more power than a Linksys or D-Link home router.

My cousins also like to turn things off as well. But a router uses just a little more power than if you shut off your computer and turn off the monitor (trust me, that little orange LED on the monitor will NOT syrocket your next electric bill at all!!) just because it has to move data.

I'd suggest leaving it on because it's one less thing you have to turn on if you're one of those people who insist on turning OFF EVERYTHING (printer, computer, monitor, modem, router). The only power suckers are printers BUT when they're printing and the actual computer system. Other than that, everything else barly uses any power.

[N]F

technically there is no problem at all, heat generated by router circuits are minimal and can be cooled my the surrounding room temperature alone.
but one concern can be lightning, ok i know it sounds stupid, but if there is a heavy storm brewing and your house or building doesnt have a very good lighting transmission system then you might want to switch off your router during the storm.
by lightning transmission i mean the antenna on the terrace that allows the struck lightning to pass through the house, leaving the house unharmed. so i suggest you turn off the router during a storm. otherwise no hassels ...peace out-----

It depends on how private you want to be. If you leave it on 24/7, making it a secure network is as easy as creating a password for it. Even with a password, a dedicated hacker will eventually figure out your password(with a good password it would take like 5 months to figure out though, so dont be to worryed about this unless your pc controlls Microsoft itself). When you turn off your router you close wireless acess to your network, and your computer in the process(duh), so turning off the router is the best way to keep your computer safe.

Hope this helps,
-Murtahg

The main prob is that there may be security problems.......if no protection in the router someone may get in your network......this is fairly easy to do...even wen you think that its safe....

check this out, lots of security apps:


http://sectools.org/

Plug it in a surge protector and then you have no exuse to turn it off!

[N]F

its perfectly fine, there made to be on 24/7

All my routers have been fine since I got it (except for one Linksys which went down after 4 years). Other than that, none of my Netgear and SMC routers have any problems at all.

xboxrulz