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Restart your internet router

When the internet stops working at home, restarting the modem and router in the right order fixes it more often than anything else.

5–10 minutesEasy6 steps

Tools you need

  • Nothing, or a flashlight to read the lights
Restart your internet router
Photo: Weihao Chiu @ Chinese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Steps

  1. Find the modem (the box where the internet cable or phone line comes in) and the router (the box that makes the Wi-Fi). Some homes have one box that does both.

  2. Unplug the power cord from the modem and from the router.

  3. Wait one full minute.

  4. Plug the modem back in first and wait until its lights settle, usually two to five minutes.

  5. Plug the router back in and wait another two minutes.

  6. Try a website on your phone or computer. If one device still has no internet, turn that device off and on too.

Other jobs

Unclog a drain

20–40 minutes · Easy

Stop a running toilet

15–30 minutes · Easy

Jump a car

10–20 minutes · Careful

Reset a breaker

5–10 minutes · Careful

Steps written by Sureno. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each one.

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