“Have you tried turning it off and on again?” is a cliché because it works. But there is a right and a wrong way to do it, and doing it wrongly is why many people conclude that restarting “doesn’t help”.
Why order and timing matter
Your ONT establishes a session with our network, and your router then establishes a session with the ONT. If both come back at the same time, the router frequently tries to connect before the ONT has finished registering, and fails.
Powering the ONT first and giving it time to settle before the router comes up removes that race entirely.
The correct sequence
- Unplug both units from the power. Physically unplug them at the wall or from the back of the unit — a power switch isn’t always a true power cut.
- Wait 30 seconds. This allows capacitors to discharge fully and the session to clear at our end. Ten seconds isn’t enough.
- Plug the ONT back in first. On fibre installations this is the small box with the fibre cable going into it. On wireless installations it’s the power injector for the outdoor radio.
- Wait two full minutes. Watch the lights settle. PON should go solid green, LOS should stay off. Rushing this step is the most common mistake.
- Plug the router back in. Give it another one to two minutes to boot completely.
- Test on a cabled device first, then Wi-Fi.
Two minutes feels like a long time when you’re standing next to a router waiting. Set a timer on your phone rather than guessing — most people wait about forty seconds and think it’s been two minutes.
Restarting is not resetting
| Restart (reboot) | Reset (factory reset) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Powers the device off and on | Erases all settings and returns to factory defaults |
| Your Wi-Fi settings | Kept | Erased |
| Our configuration | Kept | Erased |
| When to use it | Any time something seems stuck | Almost never, and not without talking to us |
| How | Unplug the power | Hold the recessed reset pinhole for ~10 seconds |
A factory reset wipes the configuration our technician applied, and you may not be able to get back online without a support call or a site visit. If you think a reset is needed, contact us first — it very rarely is.
How often should you restart?
- Not daily. Routers are designed to run continuously, and constant reconnection is harder on them than staying up.
- Every month or two is reasonable maintenance, clearing accumulated memory issues.
- When something is misbehaving — devices dropping off, speeds inexplicably poor, or the router unresponsive.
- After a power failure, if things don’t come back correctly on their own.
- If you restart daily to keep things working, that’s a symptom of an underlying fault. Report it rather than living with it.
If restarting doesn’t help
Move on to the full no-connection checklist, which covers lights, cables, scope and account status in order. If that doesn’t resolve it either, log a fault with a photo of your equipment lights.