|
As for protection from hackers, if a PC is left on, it could always be protected with a software firewall ... ie zonealarm.
The question of leaving it on or turning it off is one that is still not overly clear to me. It's not so bad when you have just one or half a dozen computers ... how about organizations that have hundreds? Leaving computers on all the time does increase the noise level, add heat to a room, use electricity, etc.
It does make a difference on how often the PC is used IMO. I have some PCs that are used often that I leave turned on all the time, some that are used every 2nd or 3rd day for only a couple of hours at a time and not again that day ... so these will be turned off. Another is used throughout the day that gets turned on in the morning and turned off at night. The ones that stay on all the time have not had to have parts replaced in the last year whereas one of the PC that is turned off at night has had a power supply 'blow up' during bootup [that could be a coincidence]. As for the tip by Hpro about the CD-ROM, I'd never heard of it before and until I hear otherwise, will remove the CDs from the drives ... it seems to make sense.
When a PC is used for 2 hours, then not again on the same day for another 3 hours, keeping it on for the whole day should be considered. If a windows PC is left on all the time, it may be worth considering rebooting at least once a day though ... for backup of the registry and to 'reset' the computer.
__________________
/\rchie
|