1 day Ago By [email protected] (David Snelling, Simon Hamalienko)
Virgin Media's new Wi-Fi wisdom suggests there's a simple problem that is holding many back from blazing broadband - and it's something you might be doing every night! Listen up, no matter if your net's with BT, Sky, TalkTalk, or another this nugget of advice is for routers across the board. It turns out that smacking the power off on your router before bed, though seemingly clever for cutting energy costs, is an absolute technological no-no. "Don't switch your Hub off overnight," Virgin Media O2's top dog of Connectivity, Gareth Lister, has urgently cautioned, reports .
Your trusty router needs to be awake to snap up crucial updates typically sent in the wee hours. Miss these, and you could throttle your speed and invite security risks. Not only that, but yanking your Wi-Fi in and out of slumber can signal false alarms to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), potentially leading them to mistakenly cap your speeds for stability's sake.
And don't think you're alone if you've been hitting 'off' routinely; Virgin's fresh stats reveal a whopping 18 percent of Brits admit to powering down their routers at bedtime. "Nearly 1 in 5 broadband users break the golden rule by switching their Hub off overnight," Virgin disclosed. "This can hamper their experience as it prevents any overnight software updates that happen overnight and can lead to broadband lags.
" Of course, this isn't the only thing that can hurt internet speeds. It's also crucial to keep your router out in the open and away from other electronic devices such as baby monitors and telephones. Wi-Fi also despises things such as microwave ovens and fish tanks.
Don't stash it in a cupboard, keep it out of direct sunlight and give it a reboot once a month to clear any issues. It's also a good idea to run a wired (via the ethernet port on the router) and wireless speed test to see if your broadband is bad our your Wi-Fi is being disrupted. And remember, leave that flashing black box on overnight.
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