If you have ever had to call a technical support line then you have probably heard this question before.
The really crazy thing is – it often works.
In “the industry” we refer to this magic trick as “forcing a power cycle”. It works for two main reasons:
Reason one:
Your router is a piece of technical equipment which is running software, almost like a small computer and like all technical equipment, it sometimes gets stuck or freezes up. While we do provide our customers with high-quality equipment, this is just one of those inescapable facts of life. So when you turn your router off, wait 30 seconds, and turn it back on again, you are allowing it to reboot itself and get all those systems up and running again.
Reason two:
The other reason that power cycling works is that you are disconnecting yourself from the network, and when you reconnect you will automatically connect to the fastest (and most efficient) available tower (on LTE) or refresh your connection on the line (for Fibre and ADSL). This is something that should happen automatically but sometimes needs that little extra push to make sure it does.
If turning it off and back on again doesn’t fix your connection problems then you can find a number of other useful troubleshooting articles in our customer support panel.
If you do log a ticket in your customer zone, or call our friendly tech support team, let them know that you have already forced a power cycle on your side and are still experiencing problems. Before you call, make sure to take note of which lights are displaying on your router as this can often give the agent a good idea of where the issue lies.
Remember, it’s not only your router that benefits from running through a power cycle. Sometimes your PC or phone needs a reboot, too. If your tech is all running fine, and your internet is fine, but you’re still feeling like things aren’t quite right, it might be YOU that needs a power cycle! We recommend a solid eight hours of “down” time before you reboot 😉
