# Automatic power-cycling

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-power-cycling/264575>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 15, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-power-cycling/264575 "2004-09-15T18:31:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-power-cycling/264575/1 "2004-09-15T18:31:38Z")

</div>

I’ve got some equipment that I would like to power-cycle once a day. A router and DSL modem - they get a little cranky every few days, but a power cycle brings them back to normal. I figure that regular power cycling should keep things going well.

Is there some sort of timer that could be used to kill the power for 5-10 seconds once every 24 hours? I know I could manually reach out and do this, but, A: I forget to do this for a couple days, and the router forgets how to route, and B: when the humans are awake, the network is busy. A 10-second outage at something like 3AM would be entirely unnoticed, however.

So far, all I’ve found is lamp timers that can be set for 1/2 hour off and 23 1/2 hours on, but I’d rather it just be a quick bounce.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Joe\_Mahma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Joe\_Mahma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Mahma)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-power-cycling/264575/2 "2004-09-15T20:17:25Z")

</div>

I’ve got a digital lamp/appliance timer that will allow off (or on) cycles as short as 1 minute. The brand name is Woods, and it came from Sears. Radio Shack probably has something similar.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-power-cycling/264575/3 "2004-09-15T22:23:31Z")

</div>

Before you actually part with the cash for a timer (assuming you find one with suitably high switching resolution), do compare it with the cost of a new router - some of the new router/dsl modems are really surprisingly cheap.

It would also be worth looking on the website of the manufacturer of your current one, to see if there’s a firmware upgrade available - I’ve heard of cases where problems like yours have been solved that way.