The Essential Budget-Friendly Upgrade Your Router Deserves for a Smarter Home

It’s quite common to restart your modem and router from time to time, and many modern routers offer a scheduling feature for this purpose. However, if you’re dealing with consistently troublesome network devices, replacing them may be the best course of action. Alternatively, adding a smart plug to your setup can streamline the reboot process and even automate it.

Choosing the Right Smart Plug

Your Smart Home Platform Matters

Restarting a router generally involves cutting off power for about 10 seconds, then turning it back on and allowing it to reboot. While this can be done manually, remote operation adds a layer of convenience. To enable this remote functionality, a smart plug is essential. However, not just any smart plug will do. Those that rely on Wi-Fi will not function if the internet is down, so it’s wise to choose one that utilizes an alternative communication method.

The type of smart plug you should select greatly depends on your home automation system. For users of Home Assistant, the options are vast. With the right adapter—like a Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 for technologies like Thread or Zigbee, or a ZWA-2 for Z-Wave—you are essentially set for as long as your server and the plug have power. Bluetooth smart plugs are also a viable choice.

For Apple Home users, devices compatible with Matter over Thread are recommended, especially since modern Apple hubs like the HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K function as Thread border routers. Some Amazon Echo and Google Nest models support this as well. However, it is crucial to ensure compatibility with Thread protocol smart plugs.

Both Google and Amazon have not fully embraced local control for smart home devices, which leans towards considering different options.

Considerations and Limitations

Why Local Solutions Like Home Assistant Are Beneficial

One important aspect to remember is that if your router goes offline, your primary method of communicating with your smart home dashboard will also be interrupted. This applies to all smart home platforms, meaning that while you can manually turn off your smart plug, turning it back on may not be possible without additional setups.

Users of Home Assistant can create scripts to reboot their routers, linking basic on-off functionality to a Zigbee remote or using automations to detect connectivity issues and restarting the router or modem automatically.

For those not using Home Assistant, options may be limited, but there are still alternatives you can explore.

Manually Restarting Your Devices

No Need to Unplug Everything

If you choose to manually reboot your router or modem with Home Assistant, navigate to Settings > Automations & scenes, then click on “Scripts.” From there, create a new script, adding an action to turn off your plug (or both if you have separate devices). Insert a delay before turning your network equipment back on.

You can also add this script to your dashboard or execute it through the Scripts menu whenever it’s needed. Additionally, using a remote, you can create an automation that runs the script or binds buttons for controlling your smart plugs, thereby eliminating the need to access your Home Assistant dashboard, which may be down when the network fails.

Some smart devices are designed to operate independently of a hub. For instance, IKEA’s Tretakt plug can be paired with a Rodret remote easily by holding down the pairing button within range until the indicator light flashes.

Setting Up Regular Reboots

Regular Reboots Can Be Beneficial

My TP-Link Archer AX72 modem has a “Reboot schedule” feature that allows me to restart it at a designated time. Although I don’t utilize this feature, as I rely on my smart home setup to manage tasks, regularly restarting your router can be beneficial if you experience frequent crashes.

You can configure this functionality across most smart home systems. While Home Assistant simplifies this process through its extensive automation capabilities, those using systems like Apple Home can achieve a similar outcome by creating two automations (one to turn off the plug and another to turn it back on, spaced a minute apart), assuming you’re using Thread rather than Wi-Fi.

Automate Rebooting for Convenience

Effortless Automation

The ideal situation is to reboot your router only when absolutely necessary. You can set up Home Assistant to monitor your home internet connection and trigger a restart after a specified duration of lost connectivity.

Unfortunately, the automation capabilities of Amazon, Google, and Apple platforms are more restricted. While some smart plugs may have application features allowing basic programming, the extent of these functionalities will depend on the specific devices used.

If you’re considering alternative solutions, you might want to try the Keep Connect smart plug, which is engineered to cut power to your network equipment only when the internet connection is lost.

Take Time to Enhance Your Home Network

While rebooting your router can resolve various network issues temporarily, consistently unreliable equipment warrants attention and potential replacement. Exploring the best routers available can help improve your overall network performance.