How often should you reboot your router?

[Derek Cross]

Good morning Smuggers

What do people think of this article – should we reboot regularly?

https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/how-often-should-you-reboot-your-router/?link_source=ta_first_comment&taid=67cf8b2b1eccc70001ad865e&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_source=facebook

Derek

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

Only when there’s an issue ie connection stability or speed. There’s no need if it’s all working fine. Perhaps problems build up with extended use, cleared by rebooting, but they’re usually very stable if you get a decent one

_

Regards Sam Mullen +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.com www.macambulance.com MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development

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[Derek Cross]

Thank you Sam.

On 13 Mar 2025, at 07:34, Derek Cross <de...@cross1.co.uk> wrote:

[MacService]

I’m a firm believer in our colonial brethren’s expression, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But sometimes the router needs a clear-out and refresh, then a quick 30 second interrupt can help.

However, depending on the service you get, FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) or FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) the comms session between your router and your DSLAM can become degraded due to error build up and other factors ultimately resulting in reduced performance, the former being more susceptible than the latter.

Switching the router off for 30 seconds is useful for clearing the crud from your router but will not help a squirrelly comms session between you and the DSLAM; the router will simply reconnect to the old session.

The session need’s time to ‘decay’ which takes 20 to 30 minutes.

I have a timer set on the power feed to the router’s AC Adapter that shuts it off for an hour once a month between 3 and 4 in the morning. That way everything’s clean and shiny! At least, that’s what I believe.

Chris • MacService Group • Antibes 

[Derek Cross]

Thanks Chris.

Cheers,

Derek

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[Toby Leighton]

I think that article really missed out on a unique angle, especially coming from a "family handyman" perspective.  One of the best things for home routers stability is making sure they have plenty of airflow, and where they have those screw mount templates, they LOVE being mounted on a piece of wood or cork, or directly to a skirting board vertically.

My not entirely anecdotal evidence of this, was a conference center that a company I used to work for fitted new Wifi access points around the whole place,  they already had multiple internet connections, with 6 Idential stock routers (belkin or dlink or some such, I can't quite recall the brand).  Originally they were stacked on top of each other until the whole project was finished, and the ones at the bottom of the stack would regularly overheat and lock up, and were all round worse than the one at the top.  One of their handymen an ex-electrician, wall mounted them, the same kind of way your electricity meter is with about 10cm of space between them, from then they never locked up, never slowed down, never needed rebooting, and easily went for hundreds of days uptime just working.

Ventilation and good airflow will immensely help your router's stability and a lot of other electronics too.  Much more so than any of the tips in that article.  I've tried to follow that principle ever since, my current router is the ISP supplied fritx box, and previously was the virginmedia supplied hub.  I never reboot them, and never have problems (aside from virginmedias occasional outages).

I also subscribe to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, and think rebooting your router just because, is a placebo.

Toby

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