Should wifi Routers be power cycled from time to time?

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Should wifi Routers be power cycled from time to time?

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djtOtago

1149 posts

Uber Geek

#591437 6-Mar-2012 21:40

Grant01: Well can't be on it's way out, I got it brand new and have swapped brands and models and they all seen to do it.

Are you sure it has been the router(s) that have been at fault.
Different brands and models with the same problem? Might be time to look at the devices connecting instead, or interference from other devices transmitting at or around the 2.4Ghz frequency. ie cordless phones.

Ragnor

8218 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#591438 6-Mar-2012 21:43

rhy7s:
I have had to add a power timer to reboot my Draytek Vigor 120 PPPoA to PPPoE bridge every day for stability ( a soft reboot doesn't work). Sometimes I have to manually pull the plug during the day as well. When the connection drops ADSL sync stays up and the web GUI remains accessible. My old Engenius EOC-2610's needed to be power cycled often as well. My newer Ubiquiti and Engenius units seem fine with only the occasional power cut to keep them 'fresh'.

That's weird haven't heard of any similar problems with that modem.

I actually have a Linksys WRT54GL here running TomatoUSB 1.28 and it's been up for 112 days so far, only reason it's not longer is wanted to update the firmware awhile back.

theEd

341 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#591448 6-Mar-2012 22:16

rhy7s: I have had to add a power timer to reboot my Draytek Vigor 120 PPPoA to PPPoE bridge every day for stability ( a soft reboot doesn't work).

That shouldn't happen while in passthrough mode. Is it getting hot? How old is it?

alexx

867 posts

Ultimate Geek

#591449 6-Mar-2012 22:16

In an ideal world there would be no memory leaks or similar problems with network equipment, but DSL routers are built to a price. One D-LINK I used in the past would need regular restarts, while other devices seem to be able to go forever and I'm sure that a genuine Cisco (such as the Cisco SRP device freitasm mentions) would be better than most.

Those old Nokia M11 and M1122 ADSL1 routers were quite good back in the day and my current TP-LINK W8950ND was cheap, but seems quite stable... perhaps the best bang for the buck so far. I still give it the occasional restart, but the last time was for a problem that turned out to be Orcon (which Orcon fixed quite soon afterwards I should add).

There are also servers around with uptimes of several years. Reboot once a month is probably a reasonable for home equipment... if it needs more often that, then time to look for something more stable.

#include <standard.disclaimer>

DarkShadow

1647 posts

Uber Geek

#592077 8-Mar-2012 01:22

If your router is good, then no.

I had my WRT54GL (with Tomato) on for months on end and it works fine.

rhy7s

623 posts

Ultimate Geek

#593792 11-Mar-2012 22:54

theEd:
rhy7s: I have had to add a power timer to reboot my Draytek Vigor 120 PPPoA to PPPoE bridge every day for stability ( a soft reboot doesn't work).

That shouldn't happen while in passthrough mode. Is it getting hot? How old is it?

Doesn't seem to be related to heat, was just down now and it's a rainy, not overly warm night. I just pulled the power supply and it wasn't more than lukewarm to the touch. The modem had sync and regained it after a soft reboot but as per usual I had to physically kill power to get PPP back up. It's about 2.5 years old. My basic ADSL stats are; Up - 832000, Down - 7616000, SNR - 16, Loop - 23.

theEd

341 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#593950 12-Mar-2012 10:26

rhy7s: Doesn't seem to be related to heat, was just down now and it's a rainy, not overly warm night. I just pulled the power supply and it wasn't more than lukewarm to the touch. The modem had sync and regained it after a soft reboot but as per usual I had to physically kill power to get PPP back up. It's about 2.5 years old. My basic ADSL stats are; Up - 832000, Down - 7616000, SNR - 16, Loop - 23.

Does it have a 1A or 500mA power brick?

Also, is the firmware fairly up to date? There was a pretty dodgy firmware a year or two ago.

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richms

28168 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#594074 12-Mar-2012 12:44

The M1122 was pretty bad with its nat table filling up. That problem seems to have been sorted in most new routers since torrenting has made router vendors have to get their act together with that problem.

My netgear dg834g's seem pretty solid as, the web IF gets laggy when being hammered but the thruputs fine for massive amounts of connections when torrenting.

Richard rich.ms

rhy7s

623 posts

Ultimate Geek

#595072 14-Mar-2012 14:02

theEd:

Does it have a 1A or 500mA power brick?

Also, is the firmware fairly up to date? There was a pretty dodgy firmware a year or two ago.

Mine came with a 0.8A power supply, it's running the latest firmware and has been for some time.

pacificsurfer51

60 posts

Master Geek

#601391 28-Mar-2012 16:32

Had an old d-link router of cable modem with a netgear wireless router as an A/Point running continuous for years without any hitches (rock solid). But now use Tp-link1043wr using 3rd party WW Drt firmware when adjusted well, is an awesome router for $100. Ive made numerous amounts of backups as I'd be pissed otherwise.

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