If you ever (or constantly) run into Wi-Fi issues at home, you’ll probably know the classic “turn it off and back on again” fix. This is always the first thing to try when you have connectivity issues with a router you have access to–but why does this simple trick seem to fix so many different issues?
Why Is a Reboot Always the First Solution to Router Problems?
In the age of modern tech, the humblerouter is a relatively simple device, but this is still a computer we’re talking about. That cheap, plastic casing holds a CPU, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), and a bunch of other components.
This hardware runs pre-installed software (or firmware) that manages connectivity, security mechanisms and admin features.
Like any computer, a router can run into a wide range of problems, and the vast majority of these are short-term technical issues. If you leave a router running, components might overheat, bugs could cause a temporary memory leak, or a simple logic conflict could bring everything to a halt.
For the vast array of short-term connectivity issues, a simple reboot allows the hardware and software to start again and run through the necessary sequences with a clean slate.
What Does a Reboot Do?
A true reboot manually unplugs your router at the power source, waits for 10 to 60 seconds, and reconnects the power to initiate a clean startup. This powers down all the router’s hardware and allows electronic charge to dissipate before restarting the software.
If your router feels warm to the touch, a full reboot can also allow components to cool down. You can leave the device unplugged for longer than 60 seconds, giving it more time to cool down. As a general guide, it’s a good idea to regularly reboot your router–and leave the device unplugged for a while–to avoid overheating and preserve the life of components.
Aside from a true reboot, you might also come across instructions for a restart. Instead of physically unplugging the device, a true restart uses the router’s software to shut down the device and restart–much like the restart function on a computer or smartphone.
While a restart allows the software and most components to start again from scratch, it doesn’t allow charge to fully dissipate, which means capacitor-based components (like RAM) can hold on to their states.
This is why a hard reboot can solve more connection issues than a restart. For the same reason, using the router’s power button to instantly reboot the device (without unplugging and waiting) can allow certain issues to remain.
Why Does a Reboot Fix So Many Issues?
The principles behind a reboot fixing so many router connectivity issues apply to all computers. The only difference is that routers are relatively basic computers compared to something like a laptop. This means a higher percentage of the most common issues you’re likely to experience with a router can be solved with a simple reboot.
The longer you leave any computer running, the more repetitions it has to perform to maintain processes. In the case of a router, repeatedly connecting your favorite devices is one of the most common repetitions. Each connection runs through multiple cycles of device recognition, IP address assigning, data packet exchanges, and security protocols–among many others.
Your router can run into a variety of issues during any of these cycles: hardware, software, data exchange, etc. And, the more cycles your router performs, the more likely issues are to occur and, potentially, stack up. For example, your router’s RAM could get overloaded and run into problems with storing IP packet buffers, cache entries, and other important information.
Computational state errors can cause a wide variety of problems, too. For example, a simple conflict could send the wrong data to ISPs orresult in security errors. The frustrating thing about state errors is, computationally, they look fine–so the router carries on as normal until they produce a problem.
The connectivity problems you experience as a result are symptoms of a state issue but not the problem itself, which makes diagnosis challenging. Luckily, a full reboot should reset all of these states and allow the router to start again with a clean run.
Do You Really Need to Wait 30 Seconds?
Most router reboot instructions will tell you to wait anywhere between 10 and 60 seconds before plugging the device in again. This is good advice, too. Every computational device uses components called capacitors that store electrical charge. Among their many roles in computing, this ability to store electrical charge makes capacitors crucial for RAM performance.
One potential downside is that capacitors continue to hold charge after the electricity supply is cut. This means, even after you pull the plug on your router, capacitors retain their charged states for several seconds. The problem with this is that capacitors are used in RAM to store electrical charges as binary values–the building blocks of information used by RAM cells.
If you don’t allow capacitors to fully disperse their charge, you could retain problematic information upon rebooting your router.
In reality, you should only need to wait a few seconds for capacitors in a standard router to lose sufficient charge. The 30-second recommendation is partly playing it safe, but it also gives the components in your router additional time to cool down.
So, if you really want to give your reboot the best chance of fixing the widest range of potential connectivity problems, you might want to wait the full 30 seconds–or even longer (especially if the router is warm to touch).
How to Reboot a Router
Luckily, rebooting a router is easy and there’s no reason you can’t do this regularly to keep everything running smoothly.
1. Unplug Your Router At the Mains
First, you want to cut the supply of electricity to your router. you’re able to do this by either pulling the plug at the mains or pulling the power cord out of the router itself.
As explained in the previous section, you need to cut all power from the router for a period of time to allow the charge to fully dissipate from the device’s capacitors. Simply pressing the reset button without unplugging the router will not do this.
2. Leave the Router Unplugged for a Couple of Minutes
With your router unplugged from the mains, leave the device idle for a couple of minutes. Technically, you should only need to leave the router unplugged for 10 to 30 seconds for capacitors to lose any charge, but it’s quicker to wait a couple of minutes and reboot once than try again because you’re not sure if you waited long enough.
Waiting a couple of minutes also gives the router a little more time to cool down. If the device is warm to the touch, you might want to wait even longer before booting it up again.
3. Plug Your Router Back In
Once you’ve waited a couple of minutes (or more) with your router unplugged, it’s time to reboot the device. Plug your router back into the mains supply and give it time to run through its usual reboot cycle. Hopefully, one reboot cycle will take care of any connectivity issues you’re having.
4. Test Your Internet Connection
Once the reboot cycle is complete, your device will probably connect automatically if all went well. If the reboot solved your connectivity problems, you should be able to use the internet as normal by this point. If you’re still having problems, there are a few more things you may try before seeking technical support.
5. Still Having Problems? Do a Quick Health Check
If the reboot didn’t solve your issues, it’s worth doing a quick health check to ensure any simple problems aren’t cutting your connection:
If none of the above fixes your connectivity problems, you might want to tryresetting your router. Keep in mind that this will restore the device’s settings to their original state–eg: password changes, network names, firmware updates, etc.
Regularly Reboots Keep Your Router Healthy
Rebooting your router isn’t only the first thing to try when you run into connectivity problems. Regularly powering down and rebooting your router is one of the best ways to preserve its life and avoid some of the most common causes of connectivity problems–before they happen. This is particularly effective if you can leave the router unplugged for extended periods of time–for example, powering it down while you go to work or sleep for the night.
