How to Power Cycle your Modem and Router

This article describes how you can power cycle (or restart) your Internet modem and the router to fix any Internet connectivity issues. This will come  very handy where there’s a power outage and your computer /router /modem shuts down.

Some people may even refer to the “power cycle” process as rebooting or resetting the modem and router which is incorrect as that actually means changing the network hardware to the factory default settings.

Restart the Router & Internet Modem

1. Shut down the computer.

2. Switch off the modem followed by the router and also unplug their power cables.

3. Wait for 30 seconds.

4. Plug the power cords back into the modem and the router but don’t switch them on yet.

5. First turn on your modem and wait for it to initialize(let the lights become stable).

6. Then switch on the router and let the blinking lights stabilize.

7. Now turn on your computer or your gaming console connected to the network. You should now be able to access the Internet.

Please note that for power cycling, it’s important that you switch on the devices only in the specified order.

Also see: How to Reset Router to Factory Settings

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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