Power Settings

[Frank]

When my computer either turns off the hard drives or goes into standby mode,
will I still be able to download from the internet? When is a computer
"idle"? In addition to shutting down the monitor and hard drives, what else
does "standby" do? Also, when it shuts off the monitor, does it actually
power off, or just put it into a sleep mode? (It still generates heat) Is
it better to simply press the power button on the monitor if I'm going to be
away from the computer for while?

 

[Dan Seur]

Turning the monitors off works well on my systems. You can also do
ctl-alt-del and lock, in case you feel vulnerable, before that, and do
whatever's useful to stop helpful passersby from turning off the
machine. With monitor power completely off there's no juice used keeping
the CRT guns etc hot. W2k is fully active in these scenarios,
connections and all.

I don't know much about the standby/hibernate-type scenarios, but if all
drives are truly inactive then the OS must be in some wait state,
inactive. Whether modems will hold a connection then I don't know, but I
should think downloads are not an option.

 

[Shaun L. Anderson]

If ya think really hard about (CAREFUL don't hurt yourself)
it is much better to just shutdown and press the power button on the monitor
to save about $500-$1000 a year on electricity

P.S. If you put into standby you will NOT be connect to the NET anymore so
no download will happen until you wake the thing and reconnect to the NET

P.P.S < If you tell the OS to power off monitor it doesn't this is because
the monitor may not support this (old 1994 or earlier ones). Same for hard
Drives (1995 or earlier).