I understand that there is a difference between sleep mode and actually cutting the electricity. However, most if not every router I’ve ever handled has had a physical electricity cut switch… or so I’m led to believe? Please bring me clarity!
In: Engineering
One other reason not mentioned is to maximise the amount of time the router is off. Large ISPs back in the day would assign an IP address from a specific pool. This pool would change occasionally and the IP wouldn’t update automatically if the user stayed connected. Disconnecting for 5-10 minutes would allow the router to obtain a more current IP address that would offer less congestion. These days they don’t really give out these IP addresses so it’s less of an issue. However it’s still part of the diagnostic process with CS reps.
A hard power switch works just fine.
Some routers don’t have them and it’s easier to just tell everyone to unplug it and replug it than to try to walk them through figuring out if their router has a sleep button, a reset button, a hard power switch, etc…. unplugging works for all of them.
My router has a very convenient control panel at 192.168.1.1, yours does too. There you can find a reboot button. It’s all you need.
It gives us 40 seconds to google the problem while you’re busy on the other end of the phone feeling like you’re doing something productive.
Sometimes designers make fake reset and power buttons (the amd ryzen bios has that feature I know this because we have this chip on some boards we make and have this problem) this the only way to truly reset the board is to yank power
My router has a reboot button and near the power connection is a physical cutoff switch. I have thrown the switch only for a power cycle and i have removed the power cord only for a power cycle. I have turned off the power switch before reinserting and i have left it on during reinsertion. They have all functioned the same and not affected the device but best practice tells me throw the switch wait and throw it back on for a power cycle. No need to pull the power cord.
Seeing a lot of answers I’m just throwing this in there I thought it had to do with capacitors and cutting the electricity cuts the power to capacitors allowing them to discharge over 30 seconds wiping your memory completely, keeping it plugged in doesn’t discharge the capacitors.
At least that’s what I’ve believed for 30 years 😅
It’s to make sure the capacitors drain completely. If they have even a hint of power left they could still power the memory enough to not let go of corrupt settings.
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