My internet does not slowly get worse. It crawls along fine for weeks and then one evening the video call turns into a slideshow and my wife gives me the look. The look means go fix the router. For years I would unplug it, count to ten, plug it back in, and cross my fingers. Sometimes it worked. Usually it worked for a day. Then I learned I was doing it wrong.

Why a fast reboot matters

Routers are small computers running networking software, and that software leaks memory and gets confused over time. A restart clears it. But the trick is to let it fully power down first. Ten seconds is not enough. The capacitors inside hold enough charge to keep the router half awake.

The right way to restart

1. Unplug the router and the modem, if you have a separate one.
2. Wait a full sixty seconds. I set a timer on my phone so I stop guessing.
3. Plug the modem back in first and wait two minutes for it to sync with your provider.
4. Plug the router back in and wait until the lights settle.

Make it a habit, not a crisis response

Now I reboot my router once a month whether it needs it or not, usually on a Sunday morning when nobody is streaming. Thirty seconds of downtime beats a frozen video call on a Tuesday. I put a reminder in my phone, which is the only way I remember anything.

When restarting stops helping

If you are rebooting weekly and the internet is still crawling, the router may just be old or overloaded. Check how many devices are connected. My family had seventeen devices on an ancient router, and no amount of restarts was fixing that. A newer router with better range fixed more than any reboot ever did.