I’ve been having problems with my son. What he’ll do is watch videos on YouTube but when he’s done he never closes the media browser so basically this forces my Internet to stay on all night long.
Is that bad?
Not particularly. Once the video has played, there’s no data being sent to your computer from that site.
You computer is on the Internet, so it had the issue of people trying to break in the firewall. But that’s separate from keeping the browser windows open.
OK thanks.
But if the site isn’t sending anymore information; how or why does my internet not shut itself down like it usually does?
Your internet browser is still open in the scenario with your son, and if you have dsl or cable high speed internet, it never truly “shuts down” even when you close your browser window.
Sites like Youtube have ads and other dynamically generated content so there might still be some internet activity even when the main video has finished downloading (ads refreshing, recommended videos etc.).
If your ISP charges you a fixed amount every month for unlimited downloads then there’s no problem leaving the browser open overnight. But since you mention that the internet normally shuts down automatically I guess you have some other, non-standard service. Please tell us what is your provider and what type of equipment you use to connect to the internet.