Leaving Pc On For Long Period.

[Khandro]

I'm returning to UK for a fortnight later this week. I have installed 'Teamviewer' which will allow me to access my home PC on a laptop while I'm away, but this will mean of course, leaving the PC on for this period. Is this a bad idea, do others do this, would it cause any problems please? I normally close it down when it's not in use.

[The Builder]

I'm no expert, K, but I do know that it's quite common for office PCs to be left on permanently.

Spikes and power interruptions in the mains supply may cause your machine to switch off while you're away. This is more likely in country areas, but can happen anywhere.

If it's vital to be in contact, then you might consider buying a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=UPS

[Khandro]

Thanks TB, The power supply is very reliable here in Germany (courtesy of V.Putin :-) When I think about what you say, there must be lots of agencies where the computers are never switched off due to shift working.

[Old_Geezer]

Mine is left on the vast majority of the time. Anything left on has to be a small risk but if you trust your fridge /freezer why not your PC ?

[ivor4781]

all comps at work are on 24/7 hundreds of them like all big institutions.no worries

[bert_h]

I talked to a computer maintenance engineer once - I forget who he worked for - and he said that where he worked, the computers that were left switched on 24/7 had far fewer reliability problems than the ones that were switched off every night. It's something to do with the stresses caused by thermal cycling.

So don't worry about leaving the PC switched on at all. You're in good company.

[Dodger666]

Will anyone be at home to keep an eye on it? If it were me I would be concerned what may happen if a fault occurred that resulted in fire. Highly unlikely I know but these things happen.

[Tuvok]

I thought with team viewer that you get a different session number and password every time?

[Khandro]

Tuvok; I've only installed on my PC and laptop today, but it seemed to work OK. I'll try it again. Are you sure?

[Khandro]

tuvok, it seems to work ok by entering the password, in fact i´m sending this from the laptop - i hope

[Old_Geezer]

I've downloaded Team Viewer a while ago but not used it in anger yet (a little put off by the fact that data seems to be via them rather than direct ?) but in any case I've noticed there are 2 modes of operation. One where the session changes and you need someone at the other PC to give you the presently valid one in order to connect, I've tried that between my mobile & PC. And another mode where you can opt to set up a password for access when you are away and the PC is unattended.

[Khandro]

OG; I guess I have set up the 2nd option which seems to work OK except when I use an upper-case letter the screen reverts to Google home page, hmmm! something to sort out there, maybe its something to do with using a german keyboard on the laptop.
methyl; That's an interesting point about switching off the monitor screen, I didn't realise that it made no difference and yes I do use a surge-supressed lead, thanks.

[Khandro]

methyl; Great tip about switching off the monitor, just tried it.

[beso]

The BIOS can usually be setup to boot when the power returns if there is an interruption.