Do you leave your computer on 24/7?

Originally posted by REASON
I leave my computer on for about 15 hours of the day or so.

I think this "leave your compie on" stuff is a government conspiracy to make the public think its better but in reality it isn't. They want unhindered access to your computer system.

Thats my 2 cents!

Later,

Reason

I don't think we are there yet. I don't think they're that slick yet. Didn't the CIA get hacked into or get wormy lately????
They'd have to hire 16 year-olds to be Big Brother on our computers, IMO

I know someone who is only 14 that got access (low-level) to the FBI's system.

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
This thread was a plaeasant surpirse. I thought it was gonna be another BS thread....
Another perhaps dumb question: is leaviang the PC on 24/7 really optimum for cable connections, as the firewall is inactive when the PC is off, even though you are still connected?
Or, is this another weird thing I think I know??????

Hi DTOM!!

*All* the posts in this forum are quality!! Seriously, thanx for the nice comments!!

I'm not sure about your question? I have cable modem, with router (and hardware firewall) as well as software firewall. I leave my machines on 24/7 and have experienced no problems (I also have AVP, of course, which works as a scanner all the time(it's found trojans instantly).

I hope that helps? Please "get back to us" if there's more you would like to know!!

I have a DSL connection, so I'm always online. Now, I am going to download SETI@home, but how do I get a password for it? I tried looking it up on the Seti home page, and I couldn't really find any usefully information, and after I get my password, then I'll just have to go to the ATS team home, and click join team? Or is there another step that I need to do?

Thanks,
J.

Originally posted by Milton
I have a DSL connection, so I'm always online. Now, I am going to download SETI@home, but how do I get a password for it? I tried looking it up on the Seti home page, and I couldn't really find any usefully information, and after I get my password, then I'll just have to go to the ATS team home, and click join team? Or is there another step that I need to do?

Thanks,
J.

Hi Milton!!

Welcome - and thanx for joining the team (or, in the throws of doing so!!)

To join the team, you need your SETI@home password. When you go to the ATS SETI@home team page (accessed, say, through my sig banner below) you should see a hypertext link that says "Forgot password" (or some such). Click on that: SETI@home will send your pasword (which they assign when you jin) to the email address you used when you joined SETI@home, Copy and paste this into the "Join" ATS S@h team and you should "get in"!!

Any problems, please give us a shout!!

Originally posted by Genya

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
is leaving the PC on 24/7 really optimum for cable connections, as the firewall is inactive when the PC is off, even though you are still connected?
Or, is this another weird thing I think I know??????

Hi DTOM!!

*All* the posts in this forum are quality!!

Seriously, thanx for the nice comments!!

I'm not sure about your question? I have cable modem, with router (and hardware firewall) as well as software firewall. I leave my machines on 24/7 and have experienced no problems (I also have AVP, of course, which works as a scanner all the time(it's found trojans instantly).

I hope that helps? Please "get back to us" if there's more you would like to know!!

Me again. I have a cable modem, Win XP (with that firewall OFF) and Norton firewall and virus. I think Norton is waaay better than McAfee, which is had to get rid of.
I'm thinking maybe you guys are rigth about 24/7, even though I'm not ready for SETI yet. Obviosly, the firewall works when the computer is on.
But, when it is off, and you still get a signal, do you need to worry about firewall breachings???

Why would I need a router?
What is an AVP?

Thanks for enlightening me

Yeah, I have DSL but I have a firewall software/hardware. Anyhow, I like that because my SETI@home stats really are going up....things are going great! I'd love to help ATS with the SETI!

J.

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe...But, when it is off, and you still get a signal, do you need to worry about firewall breachings???

Why would I need a router?
What is an AVP?

Thanks for enlightening me

Hi DTOM!!

If your computer is "off" your end, then no one can access it - even *you* can't!! Seriously, leaving your cable modem plugged in, and your machine off, makes your computer "invisible"..

I use a router as I connect two machines via the one cable modem connection - and an Xbox too!! Therefore, a router (with 4 ports) is a good thing for me to own.

AVP = Anti Virus Protection: make sure you have one AVP running - and updated regularly - when your on line.

Hope that helps?

Originally posted by Genya
[Hi DTOM!!

If your computer is "off" your end, then no one can access it - even *you* can't!!

Seriously, leaving your cable modem plugged in, and your machine off, makes your computer "invisible"..

I use a router as I connect two machines via the one cable modem connection - and an Xbox too!! Therefore, a router (with 4 ports) is a good thing for me to own.

AVP = Anti Virus Protection: make sure you have one AVP running - and updated regularly - when your on line.

Hope that helps?

Thanks, you answered a question I have always wondered about, re, the computer being off or on with the cable line running to it. Those blasted comcast ads saying "You're always on!!!!!!
Yes, I use Norton AVP and update at least weekly, also use their firewall.

[Edited on 8-3-2004 by DontTreadOnMe]

[Edited on 8-3-2004 by DontTreadOnMe]

[Edited on 8-3-2004 by DontTreadOnMe]

Computers do not "wear out" faster if powered on 24/7. Electronics last longer if kept at an even temperature.

It is VERY important to use an uninterruptible power supply to protect against brownouts, blackouts, and power spikes, which are hard on electronics.

If you have ever worked in an ISP datacenter, the rackmount servers run 24/7.

It is important to enable power management for your monitor (e.g. auto power off after 10 minutes of inactivity).

As far as your workstation's hard drive goes, make sure you do not enable power management to spindown your hard drive after only 10 minutes of inactivity. Perhaps after a few hours of inactivity might be acceptable for a workstation. Hard drives are rated to survive X amount of power cycles, so therefore, the less you power cycle your hard drive, the better.

If your power supply or cpu fan starts buzzing from excess wear, remove the fan, peal the sticker off the back and/or dust cover and lube the fan bearings with a couple drops of duralube oil and then reseal with a piece of tape.

Originally posted by Shoktek
with windows you get used to restarting weekly at least, and thats a system with loads of on board memory...my linux computer has half the memory as the laptop I am using, and 1/4 the memory of our other PC both running XP, we restart the XPs all the time, while the Linux computer is commonly up for months at a time without ever restarting.

Have you tried FreeRam XP Pro? It's really great for freeing up the memory that Windows forgot to let go of. I never turn my machine off unless a bad storm is coming or I am leaving town for more than a couple days.

Yup, Al Gore will probably have a heart attack but my desktop has been on 24/7 since 2002.

Of course it's Windows and I have an occasional PC crash but nothing a quick "rebooticus maximus" won't fix.

On a side note, I actually want to start doing more music and art work again and I went to Best Buy today but they don't carry any MAC's.

I actually need a new laptop too but I'll be damned if I get an Hasta La Vista box for personal use. You kidding me, it's like an over protective mother watching over your every move.

My girlfriend purchased a few PC's for her business and Dell wanted an extra 90 bucks to downgrade to XP.
Something wrong with this picture.

Contrary to what most people have been told leaving a computer on all the time does not hurt the electronics of the computer but will shorten the life of the bearings in the hard drives and fans
These bearing have a long (in most cases)but finite life span.
some hard drive bearing are better then others but the lubrication in all of them will give out over time.
The only three things that have ever died on my computer have been the hard drive bearings (about 4 hard drives in 10 years)one CPU fan that fried the CPU and one computer killed by lightning that also killed the surge protector.
This lightning bolt hit the electrical drop from the pole to the house.

When they come up with a large affordable solid state hard drive i will leave my computer on 24/7/365.
Until then i will shut them down to save the bearing on the hard drives.

sorry this may be the paranoid nut in me, but if the government wanted to crunch massive amounts of data wouldn't they use a program like seti to do it? i mean they get you guys crunching numbers for them and that saved them from doing it themselves. has anybody actually checked the code they get from seti. i dont know anything about programming so i would know if thats possible or not because as far as i understand it. the user gets a chunk of raw data from the radio telescope which the program that your download checks for what ever it is looking for. now can we confirm without a shadow of a doubt that these are indeed deep space radio signals?

or could this be a massive cover for some other form of massive number crunching under the guise of looking for alien life.

now keep in mind im not making any statements so before you flame remember im just asking a questions.

its just a question.

*Slowly backs away from the post*

Originally posted by Quest
I don't run SETI@home but I do leave my PC on 24/7.

For starters turning it on and off is taxing on the hardware and also your monitor is the main source of power use, but if you are really into energy conservation a standby or power saving setting can help.

If you use window you may need to restart now and then since it tends to build up errors with time but thats no big deal.

A linux system can run indeffinitly, and i have no idea about Mac operation systems being left on.

Turning off a computer is basicly meant for when it need moved or repaired/upgraded. I know a lot of people treat it like a TV and only turn it on when they use it, and while this save a little on power consuption it really shortens the life of your hardware.

UNIX/Mac os X is either better, or the same depending on linux with regards to this specific question..

Originally posted by Alxandro
Yup, Al Gore will probably have a heart attack but my desktop has been on 24/7 since 2002.

Of course it's Windows and I have an occasional PC crash but nothing a quick "rebooticus maximus" won't fix.

On a side note, I actually want to start doing more music and art work again and I went to Best Buy today but they don't carry any MAC's.

I actually need a new laptop too but I'll be damned if I get an Hasta La Vista box for personal use. You kidding me, it's like an over protective mother watching over your every move.

My girlfriend purchased a few PC's for her business and Dell wanted an extra 90 bucks to downgrade to XP.
Something wrong with this picture.

just go to apple.com/store sheesh!! or if u live near one a apple store!!

I leave my powerbook g4 on all the time. If I am not using it, it is in sleep mode. I havent had problems with it. It restarts when I have updates and that's about it.

I run SETI@Home on both machines, and Quake Catcher Network on the laptop. Being on the New Madrid Fault makes me aware of the rock-n-roll potential. (Years in Japan and SoCal helped with that.)

computer is always on at work

reply to post by EliteXizer


My computer is turned off most of the time at night. I'd definitely be interested in donating spare computing time for the right cause, however, and then I would leave it on all night in that case.

Edit: I should add when I'm working 8-hour shifts I leave it off and therefore its actually off for 16 hours of the day.

[edit on 22-1-2010 by civilchallenger]