Due to the task that they handle, routers are often left to operate throughout the day and night. Some people may find it cumbersome to switch them off at night and on in the morning as a daily routine. The convenience of automatically connecting to your Wi-Fi without having to do anything else when you come back home is desirable.
However, you must understand that routers are powered by a CPU and memory, just as computers are. The more they operate, their memory gets clogged, reducing their performance. A simple restart may be all that you need to get around the issue.
Constantly restarting your router is not something that most people are ready to do. Whenever it is off, it means that your security system and other devices that rely on the connection for the performance go down. As such, you ought to expertly schedule your restart times.
How often should you restart your Wi-Fi router? Read on to find out.
How frequently should I reboot my router?
The frequency at which you should reboot your router does have a scientific answer. Rather, doing so is based on a generally accepted guideline.
Make it a practice to reboot your home router at least twice a month or whenever you notice it is sluggish in operation.
Some of the pointers that you can watch out to know whether it is about time to reboot the device include slow wireless connections and constant disconnections.
There are two different approaches considered when it comes to restarting the router – hard reboot and soft reboot. Hard reboot involves physically disconnecting power from the router for a couple of minutes before reconnecting. Doing so introduces fluctuations in power supply to the device and may have an impact on its lifespan.
The manufacturer’s guidance in restarting a router is the soft reboot option. With this approach, you first log in to the router using its IP address via the browser. Navigate to the relevant page and hit the restart button.
Importance of rebooting the router
Faster connection: Periodically rebooting the router gives it the advantage of gaining faster Internet connections. As the router operates, it reaches a point where it slows down due to memory log. The 1 GB ram that comes with an average router can slow download requests. A quick reboot flushes away baggage for faster connections.
Security mechanism: Restarting the router can be viewed as a way to keep hackers. For malicious hackers to execute their attack, they begin by installing malware. The malware scans your devices to steal private information, make internet inaccessible, block network traffic, among other effects. When the router reboots, it could disrupt the working of the malicious software.
Rebooting vs. Resetting
Rebooting a router should not be confused with restarting. When you reboot it, the router turns off and on, the restores previous connections. You may not need to perform any new configurations. That is something you can do from time to time.
With resetting, all the information is wiped off and reinstalled. You have to reconfigure the router, which involves renaming it and assigning a preferred password. All the devices that were connected to it before have to reenter the password if both the SSID and password are changed.
Always use resetting as a last resort to any issues faced. Most routers have the reset buttons at the back. Press this using a paperclip or small item. However, exercise caution, especially if you do not have the technical knowledge required for reconfiguration.