4 regular Wi-Fi habits I’m never skipping again

With these sorts of tip articles, the focus is usually on one-time actions you can take that will result in permanent fixes or improvements. And those can certainly be valuable. Chances are, once you’ve solved particular problems with setting up a home theater or picking your first PEV, you probably don’t need to think about repeating the same steps over again.

Sometimes, though, you need to develop habits to keep hardware and software on the rails. That’s especially important with your Wi-Fi network. Since it’s operating 24/7 and constantly evolving, few individual actions are going to have a permanent impact. Your Wi-Fi is something that requires maintenance, rather than just a magic wand.

Rebooting the router on a (semi-)regular basis

Clearing out the junk, and the connections

All routers are tiny computers — it’s just that they have scaled-back responsibilities and specs. That means that they still have many of the same components, and operate on similar principles, for instance incorporating RAM and system caches. This also leaves them vulnerable to similar problems, such as memory leaks or outdated cache files. While these tend not to have much impact in the short term, they can eventually impact performance, or in rare cases lead to malfunctions.

A reboot forces your router to start from a clean slate. Don’t look for a reset button, though — instead, you should unplug your router for at least 30 seconds, then plug it in again. This should ensure that temporary memory is completely wiped.

How often should you do this? There’s no one-size-fits-all schedule, but once a month is liable to be fine, and even that may be unnecessary, given that routers are naturally programmed to clean up a lot of junk data themselves. Perhaps the only consistent reason to reboot frequently is to force a router to update its DNS (domain name server) and connection caches. An outdated DNS cache can lead to some real headaches, from being unable to reach websites to failed media streaming.

Another potential benefit of reboots is forcing your router to scan available channels. If there’s been a change in local signal interference or congestion, your router may pick better channels to operate over, resulting in smoother connections.

Permanently disconnecting unused devices

Time to be ruthless

Credit: Amazon

You might be thinking that you’re on top of scrubbing unused devices off your network, but you’d be surprised at what hangs around. It might be a child’s preschool tablet, sitting around unused now that they have a MacBook. Maybe it’s a smart speaker for your home gym that’s gone silent now after you put a TV on the wall. You might even have smart lights you no longer like, or a game console that you keep meaning to load up, but never do.

This wouldn’t matter so much except that routers can only handle so many simultaneous connections. In fact this was a pretty serious issue back in the Wi-Fi 5 days — I had enough devices that some of my smart home accessories were occasionally being kicked off the network to make room. Any router with Wi-Fi 6 or later should fare better, yet there’s no sense clogging up available frequencies with devices you might use again.

Remember also that some devices do more than occupy a signal footprint. They may upload analytics data, or fetch app or firmware updates on their own, consuming enough data to meaningfully impact other connections. You’re also creating an unnecessary security risk — while it’s very unlikely that someone is going to breach your network via something like a smart speaker, the fewer devices you have online, the fewer potential attack vectors there are.

Pausing temporarily unwanted connections

Your secret weapon against digital addiction?

Until recently, one of the lesser-used features on the routers I’ve owned was the ability to pause device connections. Better router apps are able to identify and control linked devices, and you can use that to selectively halt traffic when you don’t want it. Let’s say you’re on a 100Mbps internet plan but trying to stream a 4K movie in Dolby Atmos — now might be a good time to block your laptop and iPad from going online. It’s a sledgehammer solution, and one you have to wield carefully in a home with other people, but it’s nice to have as a fallback.

The feature is most useful if you’re a parent. Young kids aren’t always great about restraint, so it’s sometimes necessary to take heavy-handed measures to get them to focus on important tasks, or avoid the same digital addictions us adults often get trapped in. You’ll no doubt get pushback or tantrums the first time you cut off a favorite device, but you can mitigate this by setting clear rules and fair schedules. If your child likes to hang out with Minecraft friends at 7 on Tuesdays, carve out an exception if they can get their homework done on time.

Ideally your router will let you group devices together into user profiles. The obvious benefit here is greater parental control, for example being able to block all of a child’s devices at once, if necessary. You may also be able to set up whitelists and blacklists, ensuring that when a child is online, they’re only accessing what they’re supposed to. Don’t be too draconian — you may just encourage them to find ways around your arbitrary barriers.

Checking for updates on a frequent basis

Keep your finger off the trigger, though

Unless an app reminds you, or does it automatically, it’s all too easy to forget that routers need occasional firmware updates. They’re passive products after all, and will generally keep humming along even if you’re a few versions behind. It doesn’t help that some companies are more aggressive than others. While one device might get new firmware every few weeks, another one might have to wait months. Also, the older a router gets, the less frequent updates are going to be.

If you fail to keep up with updates, though, you’re leaving yourself unnecessarily exposed to security threats. Hackers are constantly probing for vulnerabilities in popular products. On a long enough timeline, one of them may apply to your router, allowing someone to bypass encryption and firewalls to break into your network.

I’d suggest checking for updates at least once per month, or once per week if it’s convenient. This can have advantages beyond security — some updates will fix bugs, improve performance, or expand device compatibility. If you’re really lucky, you’ll get new features, but that’s often reserved for higher-end routers with faster processors.