You Should Be Rebooting Your Router Every Few Months To Help Your Internet Speed And Connectivity
I don’t know about you, but I don’t spend much time at all thinking about my router unless it stops working for some reason.
It turns out, though, that according to experts you definitely should.
Experts like Rob Rohrman, head of IT at CompTIA, say it’s a good idea if you want to keep your connection to the internet running at top performance.
“There is no perfect or scientific answer to this question. In general, it’s a great idea to reboot the main Internet router every couple of months. A router reboot can fix certain Internet connectivity issues, from no Internet connectivity to slow wireless connections, and should be one of your first troubleshooting steps in a home or consumer environment. It’s also a good security practice to reboot the router every once in a while.”
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Rebooting regularly should keep your connection running as fast as possible. cybersecurity consultant Nick Merrill says it can slow down if your IP addresses change and your router doesn’t catch it.
“From a performance perspective, restarting your router every so often (once every one or two months) can help maintain the reliability of your home network.”
There’s another reason to do it, too – at least, according to the FBI – and it has to do with preventing a hacker from stealing your information.
They recommend everyone reboot routers in order to thwart a malware called VPNFilter. You should also keep your firmware (the stuff that keeps your security and administrative controls safe) updated as well.
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Merrill says turning the router off and on isn’t going to fix everything, but it’s definitely a small task that’s worth your time.
“In the vast landscape of strategies for improving one’s relationship with technology, restarting or resetting one’s router is really not the first thing on my mind. That said, if you’re really paranoid type, it’s worth patching the firmware on your router and doing a factory reset on it. As they say, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Adware and malware blockers on your computers and your network gateway will make it much less likely that you’ll need to reset your router.”
In other words, it might not head off every problem at the pass, but it is a small thing you can do that could make a big difference.
