Do you use reboot schedular

[toaruScar]

When the uptime of my routers exceeds 14 days, they start to drift into the twilight zones. Sometimes the DNS server is not working, sometimes the SSH server is not responding, sometimes the webGUI does not load. I initially laughed at the existence of a reboot schedular function becasue I had Apple's AEBS before and it's so stable I almost forgot it's there. Now I know why it's there.

 

[L&LD]

The router/network is not set up as stable as it can be if it needs rebooting. Try again.

Fully Reset / Best Practice Setup / More

 

[toaruScar]

The router/network is not set up as stable as it can be if it needs rebooting. Try again.

Fully Reset / Best Practice Setup / More

I don’t want to go that route because I’m not physically close to the routers, and if it’s reset, I will lose access to it.

 

[L&LD]

Then it's not the router's or firmware's fault, fully, at this point.

 

[toaruScar]

The router/network is not set up as stable as it can be if it needs rebooting. Try again.

Fully Reset / Best Practice Setup / More

By the way what is the longest uptime you have on your routers?

 

[L&LD]

The uptime is usually the time between releases (final, alpha, or beta). My less-frequently visited customers routers have I have seen over 400 days. And the issues they called me for wasn't fixed by a router reboot, but of course I updated their routers at that point too.

 

[toaruScar]

Then it's not the router's or firmware's fault, fully, at this point.

I like to point out that this these routers are consumer-grade products so some level of foolproofness is expected out of it. The existence of a combination of settings that will slowly run a router to the ground means that it is not thoroughly tested. Well I know some problems that only manifest after relatively long period is hard to reproduce and debug. But when I compared my experience with the Asus’ routers with Apple’s, it became apparent that there is a lot to be improved stability-wise for Asus firmware.

 

[L&LD]

Yes, and there is (fool-proofness). But it does require a proper setup, in my experience, first.

Apple products run best with other Apple products. In a mixed environment, they have proven to offer sub-optimal performance compared to what is offered even by stock Asus.

You can buy a new car and drive it while fully depressing the brake pedal, but that doesn't mean you should. Just because an option is available doesn't mean it should be used/tampered with, without taking the appropriate responsibility too.

 

[toaruScar]

Apple products run best with other Apple products. In a mixed environment, they have proven to offer sub-optimal performance compared to what is offered even by stock Asus.

I agree, this is why I switched besides its being discontinued, but my point is is not about performance.

Just because an option is available doesn't mean it should be used/tampered with, without taking the appropriate responsibility too.

Yeah that's the lesson I learned, but sometimes the responsbility is just too much for an average consumer. In my own experiences, enabling traffic analyzer freezed-up the file system, and enabling WPA3 crashed the router. In the beginning I thought I knew what I'm doing, but now it's becoming learned helplessness. Solving a problem is fun but being caught unexpected by it is not.

 

[L&LD]

I think many of us here on the forum are more than just average consumers. But that also means we expect more from our tech toys.

(But), sometimes, those expectations are unrealistic in today's market/environment.

 

[dosborne]

From experiencing memory leaks and otherwise poorly written operating systems, applications and a variety of hardware issues, running "extended memory ram disks" etc, back in the 1980's I got in the habit of rebooting some infrastructure on a nightly basis (and had a massive 400 line autoexec.bat to manage it).

For me, now, it comes down to the device. Sure, I reboot my main router nightly. Why not? It resets the connections and clears are potential memory issues. Even if there is nothing to fix, the boot process (for me) is minimal (absolute minimal services, no USB, etc), so is prophylactic instead of necessary. It ensure a clean, simple, working environment for the rest of the devices. My secondary router provides a security function and hasn't been rebooted since a power failure over 8 months ago.

My NAS servers, different story. I've monitored and tweaked them to run only the bare minimum of what is essential and as they are proven stable to run over a year in some cases without a reboot, I'd rather avoid the risk associated with the moving parts (i.e. HDD ) as I've also had experiences with work servers that ran fine almost indefinitely, but it was the shutdown/ startup where a drive or something else would usually happen.

Other devices, Raspberry Pi for example, I reboot on schedule weekly or monthly depending on the services it provides.

I know I talked about other things than just a router, but it really depends on what you use it for as many "overload" their routers with all sorts of apps and features that can cause memory issues, or long delays on reboots etc so each individual setup is more or less unique.

Bottom line, you should not *have* to reboot a router on a schedule if used properly and configured properly. But, if there is no downside, why not?

 

[aex.perez]

I often see, using scMerlin, that a lot of buffer and cache gets consumed over time. I have a few addons running which likely doesn't help matters either. Memory in use on the router gets up into the 90's percentile. Then all sorts of things start to go wonky as a result. What I implemented to avoid that, is to periodically clear out buffers and cache. I created a script, have it scheduled to run every Sunday at 5am, takes but a second to execute. The only command is;

sync; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

This drops me back into the 50% range and stabilizes the router. It's been working for me for a few months now through many versions of Merlin firmware and various addons. Doesn't seem to impact all the video streaming, IoT devices, NAS, Printers, iPhone/iPad/Android Tablets and computers in the house. The only time I reboot now is with a firmware upgrade. Just lucky I guess...

 

[L&LD]

I like both approaches above, at face value, but they both (still) beg the question, if the router is running normally, the reboots are not needed. And, if they do need to be rebooted, then the methods above are masking the issue (and not allowing us the chance to fix it.

With cars, the fewer times a mechanic touched them, the better (and longer) they run. With routers, the fewer times you (need, or) do 'preventative' maintenance, the better that network setup was.

 

[Yakkosmurf]

My old Linksys setup required frequent reboots to remain stable. So, when I found the auto reboot tool in the Asus stock firmware, I just setup a weekly overnight reboot. I didn't think about trying stability first. With remote work and school going on at the house each week, it wasn't worth "testing" stability and risking issues. I'm also biased about frequent reboots with my experience managing networks on spacecraft, where off the shelf network switches and routers like to be rebooted often due to the radiation environment, and hiccups in network performance are expensive to deal with.

 

[L&LD]

Valid points, when we're using our networks on the moon.

 

[BobD]

RT-AX86U - I wasn't aware of an automatic reboot capability. I might set it up. I haven't determined the frequency of reboots yet.
I have the occasional problem where the WAN (Internet) connection goes out.
Everything looks OK but no internet. An occasional reboot might fix that IF it's a router problem.

 

[L&LD]

It's not a router problem, it's a setup problem.

Read the previous posts above.

 

[dosborne]

I like both approaches above, at face value, but they both (still) beg the question, if the router is running normally, the reboots are not needed.

If it doesn't hurt the router (and it doesn't), then there is nothing wrong with doing it anyway. If it saves some random situation that happens once every 3 months or more, then it's a "win". Just because you don't feel or see a need in your environment doesn't mean (obviously) that it won't help others

There is an option to give the user a choice, to use it (whether necessary or not) or not. It makes *ME* happy for legacy reasons.

 

[L&LD]

Yes, choice is good. I have used that option when I can't get to a customer's home in a timely manner too.

But to me, it's simply a crutch. Sure, it helps with a sprain/broken leg. But fix the break and/or physiotherapy the sprain away, but the goal is - stop using the crutch.

 

[TexasFlood]

I used a RT-AC66U for years, until recently. Been running ASUSWRT-MERLIN 374 LTS for a while now. It's a good firmware. But after a few days if I'd tend to get clients that misbehaved and needed to be disconnected and reconnected. So just to simplify my life, I scheduled a daily reboot at 4am. It probably wasn't necessary to do it every day. But what did it hurt?

I recently acquired an Asus RT-AX86U. So far it hasn't needed a reboot since configuring it 10 days 15 hours ago. I'm still evaluating it as the permanent replacement for the RT-AC66U.