Hard vs soft reboot of router

This Side Up · 12 Apr 2017 at 21:14

Hi all,

I am running VM broadband using their Superhub in modem mode and using a TP LINK router as my, er, router. Was experiencing slow to load web pages etc and did a software reboot. Didn't seem to improve much. Ran (well, not really, waddled) to where the modem/router is and pulled the power out of both. Once both powered back up, things were back to normal.

Now if I were experiencing lower than normal connectivity, and I decided to reboot the router, should I choose doing it via the software (GUI) or the mains? Is there a functional difference?

Obviously in this case I don't know whether it was my router that was playing up and hard rebooting that fixed it as I also did the modem at the same time.

Rroff · 12 Apr 2017 at 21:17

The restart option in a router's GUI is usually a complete reboot the only way that yanking the mains power might make a difference is if there was some kind of hardware issue that was reset by total power loss long enough to drain capacitors, etc.

This Side Up · 12 Apr 2017 at 21:25

I see.

So I am guessing the problem was probably due to the Superhub having a funny 5 minutes as I power cycled that at the same time...

Is it recommended to do this periodically or only when there is a problem?

Bane · 12 Apr 2017 at 23:32

I once came home and internet wasn't working so I used disconnect and then reboot GUI options. It failed to make any difference and only physically turning router off/on got it connection working again.

bremen1874 · 12 Apr 2017 at 23:37

This Side Up said:
Is it recommended to do this periodically or only when there is a problem?

Generally only when there's a problem. If it's not broken...

If it is troublesome and a weekly/monthly reboot/power-cycle helps then go for it.

bledd · 13 Apr 2017 at 12:36

With a decent router, you should never need to restart it.