How to Restart Router and Flush DNS: the Right Order for IPTV

When does restarting the router actually fix IPTV?

Restarting fixes IPTV when the fault lives inside the router or in its link to your internet provider. Typical signs are a TV that says it has no internet, an app that cannot find its server, or every device in the house slowing down after weeks of uptime. A restart wipes the router's memory, renews its address and drops stuck connections.

Knowing how to restart router and flush DNS caches in the right order saves a lot of guessing. The two jobs belong together. The router keeps a short list of web addresses it has looked up recently, and so does each TV, phone and computer. When one of those stored answers goes stale, an app keeps knocking on the wrong door until the list is cleared.

A restart also makes the Wi-Fi radios scan for a free channel again on many routers. In a condo tower with dozens of neighbouring networks, that alone can calm a TV that started stuttering after a new neighbour moved in. The whole job costs five minutes, so it is the right first step for any sudden, house-wide problem.

How to restart router and flush DNS in the right order

The right order is modem first, router second, TV device last. Each box hands an address to the next one in line, so powering them up out of order can leave the router or the TV holding no address, or an old one. The full sequence takes about five to eight minutes and needs no passwords or settings.

1. 1. Stop playback and close the IPTV app (30 seconds)

   Press Back until you leave the player, then close it. On a Fire TV, open Settings, Applications, Manage Installed Applications, pick the player and choose Force stop. An app that stays open keeps trying a connection that is about to disappear.

2. 2. Pull the power cords, not the reset pin (1 minute)

   Unplug the power from the modem and the router. If your ISP gave you a single box, unplug that one. Leave the coaxial, phone or fibre cable where it is. Never press the small recessed button on the back: that is the reset, covered further down.

3. 3. Wait at least 30 seconds

   Thirty seconds lets the electronics power down fully and lets the provider see that your session ended. For a fibre gateway, give it a full minute. Longer than that adds nothing.

4. 4. Power the modem first and wait for a steady light (2 to 5 minutes)

   Plug in the modem, or the single gateway, alone. Watch for the light marked Internet, Online or a globe to stop blinking and stay solid. Blinking means it is still talking to the network. Colours differ by model, so check the label or the ISP app if you are unsure.

5. 5. Power the router, then any mesh points (1 to 2 minutes)

   If you have a separate router, plug it in now. Wait until your Wi-Fi name shows up on your phone. Mesh points or extenders go last, after the main router is ready.

6. 6. Restart the TV device (1 to 2 minutes)

   Restart the Fire TV, Android TV box, Apple TV or smart TV so it asks the router for a fresh address and an empty DNS cache. The menu path for each device is in the table further down.

7. 7. Flush DNS on computers, then test two channels (2 minutes)

   If you also watch on a laptop, run the flush command shown below. Then open the IPTV app on the TV, play a channel for one minute, and switch to a second one. Both should start within a few seconds.

Most Canadian homes now have one combined gateway that acts as modem, router and Wi-Fi in a single box. In that case the sequence is shorter: unplug the gateway, wait, plug it back in, wait for the solid light, then restart the TV device. If you added your own router behind the ISP box, treat the ISP box as the modem and your router as the router.

How do you restart a Bell, Rogers, Telus or Videotron gateway?

You restart a Canadian ISP gateway the same way as any router: power cord out, 30 to 60 seconds, back in, then wait for a solid internet light. Most large providers also put a restart button in their app or online account, which helps when the box sits in a closet. Model names change often, so trust the label on your own box.

An app restart does the same job as pulling the cord. It has one bonus: the app often shows whether the gateway came back online and whether your area has an outage. If the app reports an outage, stop here. No restart at home will fix a cut cable down the street.

Your own router behind the ISP box

Many people add a mesh kit or a gaming router behind the ISP gateway. Restart the gateway first and wait for its solid light. Then restart your router, then the mesh points. Doing it the other way round leaves your router asking for an address from a box that is still asleep, and it may give up and show a warning light. Our guide to router settings that help or hurt streaming explains bridge mode and the other choices that come with a second router.

Setting up the TV side at the same time? Every IPTV Jacom plan is paid once in CAD by Interac e-Transfer, with no contract.

How do you reboot a fibre modem without breaking anything?

Reboot a fibre modem by unplugging the power of the gateway, and of the separate fibre box if you have one, never the thin fibre cable itself. The fibre cable and its small green or blue connector are fragile. Bending or pulling them is the one mistake that turns a five-minute restart into a technician visit.

Fibre homes in Canada come in two layouts. In the first, a small box on the wall, called an ONT (optical network terminal), turns light into an ordinary network signal and passes it to the gateway over an Ethernet cable. In the second, the fibre plugs straight into the gateway through a small module, so there is only one box. Look for the thin cable: whichever box it enters is the one that talks to the street.

The order for a two-box fibre setup

1. Unplug the gateway's power, then the ONT's power.
2. Wait a full minute.
3. Plug in the ONT first and wait until its light for the fibre link, often marked PON, is solid.
4. Plug in the gateway and wait two to five minutes for its internet light.
5. Restart the TV device.

Some ONTs sit beside a battery backup unit left over from home phone service. That battery may keep the ONT running when you pull its plug, which is fine for a normal restart. You do not need to open the battery case.

One more caution: if the lights flash in an unusual pattern right after power-up, the box may be installing an update. Leave it alone for ten minutes. Cutting power during a firmware update is one of the few ways a restart can actually damage a gateway.

How do you flush the DNS cache on Windows and Mac?

On Windows, open Command Prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns. On a Mac, open Terminal and type sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder, then enter your Mac password. Both commands empty the list of stored addresses so the next lookup is fresh. Neither one changes your settings, deletes files or signs you out of anything.

Windows 10 and Windows 11

1. Click Start and type cmd.
2. Open Command Prompt. Choose Run as administrator if a later command asks for it.
3. Type ipconfig /flushdns and press Enter.
4. Look for the line "Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache."

If the PC shows no internet at all after a router restart, two more commands ask the router for a new address: ipconfig /release, then ipconfig /renew. Microsoft documents every switch of the command on its ipconfig reference page. Keep netsh winsock reset as a last resort: it rebuilds the network stack and needs a reboot.

macOS

Open Applications, Utilities, Terminal. Paste the command above and press Return. Type your login password when asked; the cursor does not move while you type, which is normal. No success message appears. On recent macOS versions that silence means it worked.

Browsers keep their own list

If you watch through a web player, the browser may still hold an old address after the system flush. In Chrome, go to chrome://net-internals/#dns and click Clear host cache. Edge uses the same page at edge://net-internals/#dns. In Firefox, open about:networking#dns and choose Clear DNS Cache. Then close and reopen the tab.

iPhone and iPad

Phones have no flush command. Turn on Airplane Mode, count to ten, and turn it off. That drops the network connection and its stored lookups. A full restart of the phone does the same thing more thoroughly.

How do you clear DNS on Fire TV, Android TV and smart TVs?

TV devices have no flush command, so a full restart is how you clear their stored lookups. Use the restart in the settings menu rather than the power button, because the remote's power button often just puts the device to sleep. Smart TVs from Samsung and LG keep running in a standby mode, so pull the plug for a minute.

Clearing an app's cache is safe on most players: it removes temporary files and keeps your login. Clearing an app's data is different. It wipes the playlist, the login and your favourites, so keep the welcome email or WhatsApp message with your details nearby before you try it.

Android phones and some Android TV boxes have one more setting worth checking. Under Settings, Network and internet, Private DNS, a custom hostname typed in months ago can stop working and make every lookup fail. Set it back to Automatic while you troubleshoot. Want a public resolver for good? Our post on choosing DNS servers such as 1.1.1.1 or CIRA Canadian Shield compares the options and shows where each TV hides the field.

Should you restart or factory reset the router?

Restart almost always, factory reset almost never. A restart turns the router off and on and keeps every setting. A factory reset is done by holding the small recessed button for 10 seconds or more. It erases the Wi-Fi name, the password, any custom DNS and, on some fibre gateways, the internet login the ISP set up.

The stakes are highest on some fibre gateways, where the internet login is stored on the box. If a reset clears it, the gateway lights up but never connects, and only the ISP can put the login back. That is why support agents at the big providers ask for a restart first and a reset only while you are on the phone with them.

When will restarting the router not help IPTV?

A restart will not help when the cause sits outside your router. Common examples are an area outage, busy evenings on the ISP network, weak Wi-Fi in the TV room, an expired login, or one faulty channel. If the same problem comes back within an hour of a clean restart, stop rebooting and look at the clue that fits.

Room-by-room freezing is the most common case. If the living-room TV is fine and the basement TV is not, the fix is closer to the TV: follow our side-by-side Wi-Fi and cable test before buying anything. When the whole house slows every evening, the line itself may be the limit, and our look at how smaller ISPs compare for evening streaming explains what to ask a provider.

When every app works except one TV service, the fault is upstream of you. Our answer on telling a local fault from a service outage walks through that check in two minutes. For buffering that survives every home fix, the ten-step buffering checklist covers player settings and the steps that come after the network.

One quiet risk applies to older DSL lines. Many restarts in a row can make the line retrain and settle at a slower, more cautious speed for a day or two. On those lines, one restart is a fix and five restarts in an evening can make things worse.

How often should you restart your router?

Once a week is plenty for most homes, and once a month is fine if nothing feels slow. Pick a quiet time, such as Sunday morning, rather than ten minutes before puck drop. Many routers bought in the last few years can restart on a schedule, so nobody has to remember. ISP gateways usually manage their own updates and restarts overnight.

• Scheduled reboot. Look under Administration, System or System Tools for an option named reboot schedule or similar. Set it for about 4 a.m. on one day of the week.
• Firmware. Turn on automatic updates if the router offers them. Many restart problems are fixed by the next version.
• Air. Keep the router out of closed cabinets and off the top of a warm cable box. Heat makes routers drop connections.

If you run your own router, our guide to a safe settings checklist for streaming lists which options to leave alone and which to switch on.

With the network steady, the TV service is the last piece. If you are still choosing one, the 24-hour free trial gives you a full evening to test channels on the same connection you just restarted, with no payment and no card. Questions during setup go to Live Chat, every day, 9 a.m. until midnight ET.

All IPTV subscription plans from IPTV Jacom start at $20 CAD for one month on one screen, up to $80 for twelve months, paid once with no auto-renewal. Our IPTV Canada service works on the same Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and smart TV apps covered above, so the restart steps in this guide apply as written.