Computers at night

[JimZ]

With all the discussions on backups and remote access taking place, I was wondering if most offices leave their main computer ON over night? We've been shutting down all computers at the end of the day, which prevents me from accessing the OD when I'm away from the office, but I don't have to worry about loss of power and/or surges creating any problems when we aren't there. Am I being overly cautious with this?

Jim

[brentwood]

You have to at least have UPS on the server machine in your office. You can have the one that will put the computer into hibernate mode when the power is lost over an extended period of time on server. It is a little bit more expensive, but is still less than $100. But it is well worth it. I have cheaper ones on client computers. Most of the time, the power loss is only for a very brief peirod of time for seconds. The computers will still function during the power loss. Hard drive and the whole computer are well protected.

[wjstarck]

Put your server on a UPS as pointed out by brentwood, and install LogMein or GoToMyPC on the server. Get the Pro version (LogMeIn is cheaper) because the Pro version allows you to transfer files back and forth between the Server and Home PC. I have found this very useful over the years, so it's well worth the extra expense.

Leaving your computers on overnight will actually help them last longer, because the components are not subjected to the repeated small electrical surges when the hardware is restarted. We turn all but 2 of ours off (1 server + 1 workstation, both of which are on UPSes), because I can always get on the network that way if there is an issue with the server and I need to reach it over the LAN. We used to keep all of them running, but electrical power is just too dang expensive these days.

Don't forget to also UPS your Gateway or Firewall, and network switch, because if power goes down and any of these glitch, you'll find yourself driving over to the office when you least want to

HTH,

[JimZ]

Thanks for the suggestions to both of you.

Jim

[jordansparks]

Put UPS on ALL electronic equipment. Think of it as the modern power strip. At our company, we require UPS on computers, phones, printers (surge only), switches, absolutely everything. Think of a UPS as part of the cost of purchasing a computer.

My only complaint with UPS's is when my power at home goes off in the middle of the night and I have to go around to all 7 UPS's and turn them off so they will quit beeping. The old fashioned strategy of just letting everything lose power was a little easier at 1 am. But a generator will solve that problem.

[wjstarck]

Jordan-

They also sell whole house UPS/surge protection devices, although I don't know if that's a less expensive option than a generator. The price on generators ratcheted up significantly during the Gulf war(s) + Afghanistan, and I haven't checked if they'd come down to a more reasonable price range since then...