Comments on: The Home Wi-Fi Reboot: Don't Neglect It

By: David

David — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:13:20 +0000

@Brian-have you ever heard of static electricity buildup? That often is a cause for rebooting cable modems and routers. Has nothing to do with the firmware or the settings.

Also @Brian-you’re dumb.

By: MB

MB — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:57:17 +0000

Woah, it’s getting feisty in here! Truth be told, I still need to power cycle my AirPort Express on a regular basis. No, it shouldn’t really need that, and it might be because it’s not configured correctly, but it regularly stops working and rebooting it is relatively painless and works. Weird, but that’s how it is.

By: Ding

Ding — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:03:14 +0000

Brian wrote: “If you think you need to perform a regular reboot on your router, computer, cable modem or whatever you obviously have no clue how computers work.”

What a retarded thing to write. It’s completely irrelevant what people know. It actually sounds more like you have no clue how computer OR how people work.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:28:36 +0000

Written like a true Windows user. If you think you need to perform a regular reboot on your router, computer, cable modem or whatever you obviously have no clue how computers work.

Please don’t post FUD like this on the Internet, you aren’t helping people.

By: 5 Simple Ways to Boost Your Efficiency

5 Simple Ways to Boost Your Efficiency — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:02:55 +0000

[...] Your Wi-Fi. In this recent post, I described how important it is to do a regular, cycled reboot on your home Wi-Fi setup. I also [...]

By: Tomato and dd-wrt Supercharge Your Home Wi-Fi Performance, and Boost Reliability | google android os blog

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:04:11 +0000

[...] few weeks ago, on the WebWorkerDaily blog, I did a post called "The Home Wi-Fi Reboot: Don’t Neglect It." It discussed a problem I was having with my home Wi-Fi network, where I was occasionally [...]

By: Интериорен Тапет

Интериорен Тапет — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:16:59 +0000

After installation of SP3 my computer lost connection, I am back again SP2.

By: Neuf

Neuf — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:18:04 +0000

If you run a router that can take a Tomato firmware, it’s more than worth the time. I had to reboot my Linksys routers every few months for years (no matter the firmware versions, etc.), but that’s completely stopped with Tomato (not to mention QoS that actually works, traffic reporting, and all the other features that make this worth the effort anyway). Try it, or get a router that can run it and then try it – it’s that good!

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:00:44 +0000

I never had problems until I put XP Service Pack 3 on two of my laptops, both of which connect via WPA. Rumor is there’s a minor change in data packets that can effect the ARP tables in some routers. I just downgraded to unsecured wireless which seemed to help – and make the neighbors happy.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:10:29 +0000

I use Tomato on my second hand WRT54G and never reboot my router, which works fine 100% of the time. I used to use DD-WRT which also worked fine and very occasionally needed a reboot (maybe every few months).

Properly designed software should not need a reboot – imagine the chaos if Cisco routers all through the Internet required a periodic reboot! Home networks should be no different, particularly if you are carrying VoIP calls and video streaming over them.

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What to Read on the GigaOM Network — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:06:30 +0000

[...] iTunes 8.1 (TheAppleBlog) Blockbuster’s on-demand service to be available on TiVo (NewTeeVee) The home Wi-Fi reboot: Don’t neglect it (WebWorkerDaily) Do you use your phone naked? (jkOnTheRun) IBM unveils “smart rail” [...]

By: Brian D. Johnson

Brian D. Johnson — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:39:21 +0000

I agree with you completely about the importance of rebooting the router and will second Dani’s comment. I too use dd-wrt firmware and have it set-up for a daily reboot. –Makes a huge difference.

By: Dani

Dani — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:51:04 +0000

I have dd-wrt firmware on my Linksys WRT54G router. It is set to reboot itself every day at 4 am. I haven’t had any problems with it for 5 months.

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:16:39 +0000

I’ve never had a router that hasn’t required a reboot every now and again, though some seem to be worse than others. My (completely uninformed!) opinion is that they’re just cheaply made and so you shouldn’t expect great quality.

By: MB

MB — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:49:18 +0000

“How many times have you solved a computing problem by rebooting, or shutting down an application and going back in?”

Zero since I stopped using Windows, but I do find that either the base station needs power cycling (every 6 months or so), or more often the ADSL modem which is quite temperamental.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:10:35 +0000

Usually the reason for rebooting “down the chain” as it were is to ensure DHCP isn’t out of sync. It’s easier in many cases than using whatever manual procedure there is on each device. I can’t think of any good radio-related reason why you would need to reboot, though I will admit to doing it (superstitiously, I guess) when adding and removing antennas.
Changing the channel – and direction, etc. – on the other hand can be very helpful. A little bit of investigation would probably also help you determine optimal placement and settings, at least until your neighbors change their set up.