How hot should a router get?

General Questions
#1

The past couple of weeks I have been losing my cable internet connection a dozen or so times a day. The fix has been to unplug my Linksys 4 port router for 30 seconds, plug it back in then do a repair network connection. I get back online with no problems till next time. The real pain since this problem started is I can’t race with my NASCAR game online, when I drop offline the car I am racing does some nasty things like crashing. This may not be a problem sometimes but this morning I caused a 6 car pileup at Talladega, putting 5 cars including mine out of the race. There were only 8 of us were racing.

I have noticed since this problem started that my router is extremely warm, sometime almost too warm to handle. Before this started I rarely touched the router so I don’t know if it was getting warm. I have unplugged it the past couple of nights to see if that helps but that just delays the problem for an hour or so. I tried taking the router out of the loop this afternoon and I stayed online no problem. Others in the house wanted to get on the internet a few hours ago so I reconnected the router and the problem has happened twice. The router is located on top of my tower which is located under my desk, not the best place for airflow. My questions is, how warm should a router get? I am guessing that it is overheating and causing my problem. I have moved the router out from under the desk to see if that helps.

I did a search of the forums and did not find this problem addressed.

#2

Was I fooled. I came in here to tell you that the duller the tool the hotter your router will get. I was thinking of the tool that gouges out a furrow in a piece of wood.

Your router instruction sheet should tell you temperature limits. If the case is smooth plastic, “almost too hot to handle” is probably around 135-140 F. I don’t thing that is very hot unless it’s a sudden change from the way it used to be.

#3

There’s a joke about a dull tool in here somewhere. I think I’ll just ignore it and keep going.

Anyway, if the router itself is getting too hot to handle, then something inside is WAY too hot. Check to see if it has a cooling fan built into it, and if it does, make sure it still works and isn’t blocked by dust or dirt, etc. Was the hot air coming out of your tower blowing onto the router?

How is the air flow for your computer? You might want to reboot the computer after you finish a race and go into the BIOS and check your CPU temp. If it’s above 50 deg C you need to worry about it.

#4

I had a customer with a similar problem except she had never thought to turn it off, just would leave it alone for a while and it went away. When we duplicated the problem I tried power cycling the router…when I plugged it back in I was greeted with a pop and a little puff of smoke from the top of the router.

Routers can go bad and or overheat. Might want to also make sure your router isn’t somewhere in direct sunlight which could contribute to its thermal problems.

#5

Gotcha. I opened the thread thinking about carbide bits and a variable speed soft start Bosch, but alas-it’s all about pockets and packets. :slight_smile:

#6

Right after I posted this thread my first thought was how many posts were going to reference a power tool router instead of my network router. I have 2 routers (the wood working kind), my only problem with them is the lack of use lately.

I moved my network router from the top of my tower to the side and noticed this morning it is significantly cooler. If I don’t have the same problems today it looks like I found the problem.

#7

I’ve had similar problems with Linksys routers.

How is the thing installed? If it’s inside of, or under, anything, get it out into some open space. These critters really don’t like being under other items, or inside little cubbyholes.

Re: turning it off now and then - mine’s on essentially 24/7. The detail is that it’s wall-mounted (Linksys sells an inexpensive, but challenging to find bracket for this) so it can breathe.