Multiple Router Reboots - is that not advisable?

When I got BT Infinity 2 installed, the OpenReach engineer mentioned that rebooting the Home Hub many times in a short period (possibly as long as a couple of weeks) could slow down my internet speed, as the router would see it as a recurring fault and automatically throttle back the speed progressively until no further dropouts (power cycles) occured. It seemed logical to me at the time (a few years ago, now) but recently one or two people have questioned this and even promoted regularly rebooting to "refresh" the router. I disagree with this as I have never had any problems that haven't been automatically sorted out by the hub and, consequently, I have never needed to reboot it myself. Is there a definitive answer from any of you guys?

Answer varies...

e.g. if an storm or other noise source causes a low sync then you will need to prod the router to reconnect once the SNR margin has improved to get the speed back.

Also routers are computers that can sometimes crash or run short on memory and a restart can help

Rebooting every couple of days should not cause the DLM to react, unless they are underlying errors, e.g. it is resyncing on its own accord due to noise etc or software updates.

So no definitive answer.

It depends on what you refer to as a "router".

If you have a hub which combines a modem, router and WAP then you need to be careful. However, if you have a separate modem, router, WAP, switch &c then rebooting te router every few minutes should have no effect although rebooting the modem would.

Well, as my BT Home Hub is all-in-one, then are you saying it would be affected? If so, in what way - like the engineer told me i.e. reduction in speed?

Many BT Home Hubs will reboot automatically every 13 or 14 days as a matter of course probably to check if there is a software update. You can check to see if this happens by checking your speed on the ThinkBroadband speed checker and looking to see if your profile lists a new connection every couple of weeks

Apart from that, reboots should not normally occur. Some makes of router will run for many months without rebooting

Yes, it could be. So don't do it frequently.

There are also ways to power down to tell DLM that it is not a line issue.

Turn off power to the hub. It will then send a "Dying Gasp" message to say the loss of connection is due to power failure, not a line disconnect or noise.

I tend to wait a minute then disconnect the line cable.

Wait 5 to 10 minutes, re-power the modem or hub, wait for 2-5 minutes to allow it to reboot fully and stabilise.

Reconnect the line cable and back to where I was.

Thank you for your replies.

Also depends if your line has DLM. My line doesnt so its all controlled manually by my ISP. So no amount of reboots is going to effect it

Not on FTTC it isn�t, Bobble.