Should I switch off routers and computers if I'm going on holiday?

Q  I have two questions. The first relates to my four computers that are connected to a wireless router and modem.

I’m planning to be away from home for several weeks in the near future so my question is: should I leave all this equipment switched on?

The second question is: one of my laptops is now eight years old, so I was wondering if there is a program out there that would enable it to make use of Readyboost?
Ralph Richie

A  As a courtesy we’ve changed your name, because we don’t want to broadcast the fact that your home will be empty for a prolonged period.

To answer your first question, unless you have good reason for leaving everything powered then we’d advise you switch off all your computing equipment – router and all.

While it’s unlikely that any harm will arise from leaving all your devices powered (after all, you told us that they’re currently all powered continuously anyway), switching off non-essential appliances when you are away from home for long periods is just common sense. It will also save you a few pounds in electricity costs.

When you get home, just switch everything back on again, starting with the modem and router (because it may take a few minutes to renegotiate an internet connection with your internet service provider – but this is automated).

As for your second question, we’ll assume that the eight-year-old laptop is running Windows XP. If that is the case then making use of Readyboost will not be possible.

Readyboost is a Microsoft technology that uses spare space on USB memory keys to speed up Windows a little. Readyboost was introduced with Windows Vista and does not and will never exist for Windows XP.

Some opportunistic developers have created similar commercial programs that are compatible with XP, which claim to do much the same job – such as Eboostr. However, we have not tried these and therefore cannot vouch for them.

What we can say, though, is that spending more than a few pounds trying to improve the performance of such an ageing laptop would be unwise. So you should consider any such purchase carefully.