Your WiFi is slow, your Wifi doesn’t work or you’re having trouble connecting devices to the Internet. Any of these common and bothersome problems often have a really simple solution: reboot our router.

Important to add that although you probably know that rebooting will help to solve the problems of Internetwhat you may not know is that resetting your WiFi router will also help deter or interrupt any malicious attacks targeting your networkso it doesn’t hurt to do it from time to time and if you add a smart plug you can even do it from the comfort of your sofa.

As reported by SlashGear, in 2018, hackers used malware called VPNFilter to exploit routers around the world and collect private information. Knowing this, the FBI recommended that everyone reset their routers to temporarily avoid the malware.

Now, something that people often talk about is how long a WiFi router needs to be unplugged from power to reboot properly. There is a general rule of thumb of 10 seconds, which is really good advice.

And it is that, if you have ever disconnected a device that includes a light from electricity, you may have noticed that this light remains on for a few seconds after disconnection.

10 seconds minimum waiting time to restart our WiFi router

Explain to you that a Wi-Fi router it has capacitors, which are essentially a battery that can power the router for a few extra seconds. 10 seconds is the time it takes for most capacitors to discharge enough for the electronics they are powering to stop working.

That’s why when you turn off your PC, for example, things like an LED on your motherboard take a few seconds to disappear. Knowing this, 10 seconds is set to be the shortest time you can be sure everything is off.

Therefore, these are capacitors. There is no hidden magic trick where you have to wait exactly 10 seconds and this is life or death.

Some also advise that while a full 10 seconds will suffice in many cases, it also wouldn’t hurt to leave the WiFi router unplugged. for at least 30 seconds, just to be thorough. Waiting a full 30 seconds will ensure this reboots 100% to full