Does restarting your router actually help?

Yes, often. Restarting your router fixes a lot of everyday problems because it clears temporary faults that build up while it runs: memory leaks, stuck connections, a crashed process or a poor Wi-Fi channel choice. It won't fix a slow plan, weak coverage in a far room or an outage at your provider. If a reboot fixes the problem only for a day or two, it's a sign something else needs fixing.

Why rebooting fixes so much

A home router is a small computer that runs for weeks or months without a break. Over that time, a few things can go wrong in software:

• Memory fills up. Bugs in router firmware can slowly use up memory until the router gets sluggish or starts dropping connections. A restart frees it all.
• Connection tables fill up. The router keeps a list of every active connection for every device. Apps, game consoles and smart-home gadgets open many of them. If the list gets full or corrupted, new connections fail even though Wi-Fi looks connected.
• A process crashes. The part that hands out addresses (DHCP) or answers name lookups (DNS) can stop responding while the rest keeps running. You see "connected, no internet". A restart brings every service back up.
• The Wi-Fi channel goes stale. Many routers pick a channel when they start. If a neighbor's network moved onto the same channel later, you're sharing it. A restart makes the router scan and choose again.
• The modem resyncs. Restarting the modem makes it reconnect to your provider from scratch, which can clear a bad session or a degraded link.

That's why "turn it off and on again" works so often. It doesn't repair anything permanently. It puts the software back to a clean starting point.

What a reboot won't fix

Restarting can't add speed you don't pay for. If you have a 100 Mbps plan, no reboot will get you 300 Mbps. It also won't fix:

• Weak Wi-Fi in a far room. Distance and walls are physics, not software. How to boost Wi-Fi signal covers placement, bands and mesh.
• Evening slowdowns from a busy network. If speed drops at the same time every day, it's congestion, and a reboot at 8 pm will look the same as before.
• An outage. If your provider's network is down, the modem lights will show it, and restarting just adds a few minutes to the wait.
• Failing hardware. A router that overheats or has a dying power supply may work for a while after each restart and then fail again.

The way to know whether a restart helped is to measure. Run a speed test before you restart and again a few minutes after. If the numbers barely change and the problem is still there, look elsewhere. How to debug slow internet walks through the order to check things in.

How to restart a router properly

If your modem and router are separate boxes, the order matters:

1. Unplug both from power. Don't use the small recessed reset button, which erases your settings.
2. Wait about 30 seconds. It's a common rule of thumb that gives everything time to power down fully. There's no harm in waiting longer.
3. Plug the modem back in first and wait until its lights settle, often a couple of minutes. The online or internet light should be solid.
4. Then plug in the router and give it another minute or two to start Wi-Fi.
5. Reconnect a device and test.

Starting the modem first means the router finds a working connection as soon as it boots. If you have a single combined box from your provider (a gateway), just unplug that one box, wait and plug it back in. Not sure which you have? Modem vs router explains the difference.

Most provider apps and router admin pages also have a restart button. That's fine to use, and it's handy when the router is hard to reach. A full power cycle by unplugging is the most thorough, because it also resets hardware that a software restart may not.

How often should you restart your router?

For performance, you don't need a fixed schedule. Restart when something's wrong.

For security, there's a case for doing it regularly. The NSA's home network security guide recommends scheduling weekly reboots of routers, phones and computers. Some malware that infects home routers doesn't survive a restart. In 2018 the FBI asked owners of home and small-office routers to reboot them to disrupt the VPNFilter malware. Many routers have a scheduled-reboot option in their settings, so you can set it for the middle of the night and forget it.

A reboot only helps security if the firmware is up to date, so turn on automatic updates if your router supports them.

When restarting stops being enough

Restarting now and then is normal. Needing to restart every day or two to keep the internet working isn't. Common reasons:

• Old or buggy firmware. Check for an update first.
• Overheating. Routers in closed cabinets, on top of other electronics or in direct sun run hot. Give it open air.
• An ageing router that can't keep up with the number of devices in your home.
• A faulty modem or line, especially if the modem's lights drop out, not just the Wi-Fi.

If Wi-Fi drops repeatedly, see why Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting. If you suspect the router itself, signs your router is slowing your internet covers how to confirm it before you buy a new one.