What happens when you hit the reset button on your router?
Isn’t it familiar – you are staying at home and suddenly the WiFi connection is pretty unstable or very slow. You try to fix it by restarting devices, checking cables and connections, and getting annoyed when all your efforts don’t pay off. Finally, you decide to reboot the router as you believe that changing the network settings once again is the only solution. However, what changes do occur when you do that? Here's a breakdown:
This setting allows you to reset it and clear all settings.
This is a process of resetting the router to the state it was when it was newly manufactured, meaning that all the changes made to the router are undone. This means all custom settings you configured get wiped out.
- Name of the access point to the wireless network or internet service Set Identifier (SSID) and password
- They should be using their admin account login details.
- Port forwarding rules
- DHCP server settings
- WiFi security protocols
- This may also be referred to as limitations of access or a ban on some materials for children.
- Traffic shaping rules are mechanisms designed to control bandwidth utilization, and they are broadly categorized according to the QoS protocols as follows :
- Static IP addresses
- VPN configurations
Resetting, on the other hand, will delete all these settings and bring the router to its factory settings, meaning that it has to be set up again from scratch. This sort of reasoning is that removing settings is going to clear up any the possibilities of wrong configurations that could be an issue.
It Usually Doesn’t Delete Router Firmware
The actual firmware code of the router is usually untouched during a reset as well as the contents of the router configuration. Firmware is essentially the software that enables a router and reboots do not usually alter this aspect as it is configured to be very stable.
But some routers do possess this option and when triggered it resets the firmware and activates the default software used for the device. This gives the router the highest level of freshness but is more cumbersome since one is typically required to reconnect with the router and either install new or updated firmware after choosing this ‘nuclear’ option of resetting.
Your Devices Lose Connection
Resetting the router means that all the WiFi settings will be erased hence all the devices that are connected with your network will be disconnected immediately after pressing the reset button. Phones, tablets, computers – all of them will be removed from the network because technically the wireless network in question won’t exist anymore the moment the reset takes place.
New WiFi Credentials Are Needed
Once the reset process is complete, your router will broadcast a new wireless network name (SSID) and a new, random password for a Wi-Fi connection. All the wireless devices connected to this network will need to be restarted and will require the use of these new credentials. It also implies that the reset can serve as a security mechanism: if someone got your previous WiFi password, a reset eliminates them and replaces it with new login data they can’t know.
Oops, Your ISP may have changed your public IP address
While home routers do assign local IP addresses to devices, most also manage the public IP address your Internet service provider (ISP) has assigned your connection. At times, resetting the router may make your ISP drop the public IP that they first assigned you and allocate you another one upon the reopening of the device.
This is not a pathological certainty to occur. Even though disconnect/reconnect a few ISPs will give the same public IP to your router unless the device in question has not been seen for many days. But it is also likely that resetting your router modifies your home network’s ‘masquerade’ until you can convince your ISP to give you a static IP that will not be altered.
The reader will need to re-arrange extra features to make sense of it in the same way that the author has done.
After core networking functions are restored after the implementation of the reset, you might wish to go around the other customizations again. This includes things like:
- Setting port forwarding for the second time for gaming, services, etc.
- Setting up dynamic DNS if engaged
- This means that the remote admin access that has been disabled can be enabled if it becomes necessary.
- Disabling the configured VPN server options if you had them enabled earlier
- Designing new authoritative parenting or limited accessibility measures
As for any extra features that the router offers, it’s back to the drawing board, again. But sometimes that gives a chance to think whether all of them are still needed or not and in this case, it would be rather beneficial.
The update to new firmware is something that many users do not take the chance to do.
Talking about drawing boards, after resets a fresh start looks very appropriate to update the router firmware, among other things. New and enhanced firmware could also eliminate certain problems in the device, enhance the device’s efficiency, and incorporate additional functionality that the manufacturer developed after establishing your router. Due to the time that is required to spend when resetting then take a chance of updating firmware before reconfiguring settings.
There are several reasons why it offers a fresh start for troubleshooting, these include:
In this process, hitting the reset button can be seen as the most important as it is the troubleshooting step. You may opt to factory reset your router when you have done all that you could but difficulties persist as outlined above. Resetting erases any given device issues or configurations and provides you with the raw hardware to set up the device from the start.
Instead of going around in circles with a series of odd behaviors that have evolved, it is easier to point out when they are solved since every piece of the new configuration starts from the basics, out of the box. Don’t forget that you have your existing settings in a different location before proceeding with the reset in case you need the working configuration again.
As for time, home routers can become a bit unpredictable at times, I assure you that it is true. One of the easy solutions that can be adopted in networking is hitting the refresh button by setting the instrument to its original manufacturing settings. It’s just important to note that you will need to spend some time resetting your router and re-establishing device connections after that fabled button has been pressed.
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